An unprecedented study into the wellbeing of British children is to be conducted across Manchester’s schools, as new research suggests two-thirds of parents believe it should be prioritised over academic attainment.

The Greater Manchester young people’s wellbeing programme will gather data from tens of thousands of young people across 250 secondary schools in the city in an attempt to change their perception as “people who get GCSE results”, according to the programme’s creator.

The first study of its kind in the country, the wellbeing programme will begin this autumn and will seek to ascertain young people’s feelings and concerns as well as their levels of physical activity. The information gathered will be used to help better target resources as children try to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Research is to be conducted by the University of Manchester in association with the Anna Freud Centre, the Youth Sports Trust and the Greater Manchester combined authority. It is an idea conceived by the philanthropist David Gregson, who argues that the UK has neglected the wellbeing and physical health of children in favour of academic attainment, to the detriment of their development.

A new YouGov survey commissioned by the Youth Sports Trust suggested parents across the country would be sympathetic to such arguments. The survey found that 65% of parents believed wellbeing was a key factor in choosing a child’s secondary school, while only 48% said the same of exam results. Meanwhile, 70% of parents with children between the ages of 11 and 16 said their children’s wellbeing had suffered during the pandemic.

“I first took this idea to Greater Manchester in 2019 and all Covid has done, as the tide has gone out, is expose the pebbles we knew existed,” Gregson said. “For me, our education system has become too focused on attainment. A necessary but insufficient assessment.

“We’ve got ourselves into the position where we think that attainment is the be-all and end-all and I don’t agree with that. I want to change that dialogue and I want to improve the wellbeing of young people in Greater Manchester to prove that point.”

Gregson says information collated by the programme will quickly be shared with local authorities in order to recognise areas of need, specifically with regards to physical activity, which is proven to improve wellbeing. “My 10-year plan is to add a second leg to the assessment of young people in Britain that we don’t just think of them as people who get GCSE results,” Gregson said. “That we think about another equally important part of their makeup, which is their wellbeing, their sense of self-esteem, their sense of optimism. We’ll need all of that. We needed it pre-Covid and we’ll certainly need it after Covid.”