Elite Athlete Wellbeing Programmes at the UKSI: Understanding Culture, Delivery and Change

This thesis documents a programme of research conducted within the UK Sports Institute (UKSI) between 2021 and 2025 which explored how wellbeing is understood, delivered, and experienced within an elite sport environment. The research was prompted by growing recognition that athlete welfare and sustainable performance are interdependent, and by the need to evaluate how strategic wellbeing frameworks are translated into everyday practice. The work focused on the Mental Health Awareness and Mental Health Champions programmes, together with the four wellbeing pillars of Communication, Education, Provision, and Assurance. The philosophical foundations of the study are informed by an idealist and constructivist orientation, viewing wellbeing as a socially produced and contextually embedded phenomenon. The research adopted a single-phase qualitative design using focus groups with practitioners across leadership, delivery, and commissioning roles. Thematic analysis provided the interpretive framework for examining how policy ambitions were negotiated, adapted, and enacted within the organisational culture of the UKSI. Across the focus groups, wellbeing initiatives were found to have legitimised mental health and fostered a shared language across the system. However, access across the organisation remained uneven, with variable access, limited athlete involvement, and underdeveloped feedback structures. The analysis reveals that while progress has been significant, implementation continues to rely on individual leadership, discretionary effort, and contextual commitment rather than consistent organisational reinforcement. The coherence of this research lies in its examination of how institutional ambition translates into lived practice. By situating practitioner perspectives at the centre of analysis, the study contributes to academic understanding and applied debate on the future of wellbeing in elite sport. It concludes that sustained progress requires stronger structural alignment, reflexive evaluation, and genuine inclusion of athlete voice in the design and governance of wellbeing provision