Girlguiding impact report
Girlguiding generates wider social benefits
Girlguiding creates over £1 billion of social value for its young members.
‘She is developing her confidence and learning new skills but also growing into being a good citizen who cares about looking after her community and others and building her confidence when working as part of a team.’
Parent/carer of a Guide
Girlguiding girls have, on average, greater confidence and wellbeing than UK girls. By supporting and increasing Girlguiding girls’ confidence and wellbeing we also generate wider benefits to the whole of the UK.
Using the HM Treasury Green Book guidance we are able to convert the effects on wellbeing into a monetary value.12 This is referred to as social value and is calculated using the Well-being Adjusted Life Year (WELLBY) approach.13 Social value describes the positive impact an organisation has on society, focussing on the benefits to people, the environment and communities. It can be thought about as a combination of what someone would be willing to pay or how much someone might have to earn to get the equivalent boost to their wellbeing. Most importantly it provides a standard way of comparing benefits of different activities. In our analysis we have also pioneered the use of the C-WELLBY (Child Wellby) for younger girls (aged 7-10).14 15
We calculated that the improvements to Girlguiding girls’ wellbeing compared to UK girls, if sustained over a year, generates a social value of £2,300 per young member aged 7-10, and £9,900 per young member aged 11-18. To provide some comparison, participation in physical activity generates, on average, £3,100 for a 7-11-year-old and £4,300 for an 11-16-year-old.16
Every week, we work with girls to build their confidence and increase their wellbeing, with an average weekly cost of about £3 to £4. In 2025 we reached over 200,000 girls and young women aged 7-18. This equated to a social value of more than £1 billion over the year. We have broken down our calculations below.
To further test the strength of our findings we also compared Girlguiding girls with girls who attend youth clubs. This is to test whether the difference is not Girlguiding attendance but that attending any youth club is beneficial. It also helps to understand if girls who attend youth clubs have lifestyles or families that are the underlying cause of the difference in wellbeing. We found that youth club attendance does boost wellbeing overall, but Girlguiding girls report even higher wellbeing than girls attending any youth club. This suggests that Girlguiding and the space we provide has a uniquely positive impact on its members.
Girlguiding’s long term impact on members and society
An external independent study undertaken by the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow found that young people involved in Girlguiding, or similar organisations like the Scouts, had better mental health and a reduced likelihood of mood or anxiety disorders in adult life.17 The study also suggested that organisations like Girlguiding supported resilience and social mobility through self-education, collaboration and activities in natural environments.
The second phase of the study found that children who participated in Girlguiding or Scouts were approximately 53% more likely to report excellent health at age 50 compared to their peers who attended other types of clubs including youth clubs, choirs or sports clubs.18 They found that about a quarter of the difference could be explained by social mobility and the type of job the person had.
Girlguiding and Scouts members are approximately 53% more likely to report excellent health in adulthood compared to their peers who attended other clubs.
We know parents and carers are most concerned about their child’s mental health, self-esteem and confidence. Similarly we’re seeing a need to respond to girls’ concerns around the impact and experience of sexism, appearance pressures and safety. We know from girls, parents and carers and volunteers, that what sets us apart is being girl-led and our proven impact on building girls’ confidence and wellbeing. We’ll be using the findings of this study to shout more about our impactful offer, which is led and shaped by girls.
12 Wellbeing Guidance for Appraisal: Supplementary Green Book Guidance, supplementary Green Book guidance, HM Treasury, 2021
13 Questions asked to young members aged 11-18 to calculate WELLBY: Life satisfaction ONS-4: Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays, where 0 is “not at all satisfied” and 10 is “completely satisfied”? / Which best describes how you feel about your life as a whole? (scale 1 to 7)
14 Child Wellbeing-Years, (C-WELLBYs): Valuing children’s wellbeing in economic and social value analysis. Allan Little (State of Life) and Isaac Parkes (LSE), 2024
15 Question asked to young members aged 7-10 to calculate C-WELLBY: Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday? (scale 0 to 10)
16 The social value of sport and physical activity in England summary report – year two update, Sport England, 2025
17 Be(ing) prepared: Guide and Scout participation, childhood social position and mental health at age 50—a prospective birth cohort study, Dibben, C, Playford, C, Mitchell, R, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2017 ;71:275–281
18 Youth organizations, social mobility and health in middle age: evidence from a Scottish 1950s prospective cohort study, Berrie, L, Adair, L Williamson, L, Dibben, C, European Journal of Public Health, 2023 ;33,1:6-12
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