What’s a ‘wellbeing framework’ and how can it create local change?

Wellbeing frameworks can help local governments develop a clearer vision of their role and hold productive conversations with communities about what matters, says Pippa Coutts

Wellbeing is about far more than the health of individuals or how satisfied individuals are with their lives. Societal wellbeing describes progress in terms of improvements in quality of life, material conditions and sustainability.

These three components form the basis of the basket of measures of societal progress in the OECD’s Better Life initiative, which has been broken down for local use in How’s Life in Your Region?

Local governments that have used the tool have found several advantages.

Firstly, wellbeing is a shared narrative that governments, elected leaders and communities can coalesce around. This is important at a time of diminishing resources when we are looking for shared and creative solutions to meeting the needs of communities. Through the prism of wellbeing, councils, community groups and individuals can find mutual priorities to develop a shared mission statement.

Wellbeing frameworks can help local governments look to the future, laying out their vision of what they want to achieve and can be used to monitor progress: as is increasingly required of local authorities by central government.

An international example is in Melbourne, Australia, where a council, Ballarat (population 93,500), has used a wellbeing profile in health, community safety, early years, youth and older people’s service design. It provides them with a robust planning and monitoring framework, which is independent of any one political party. Donors who are making funding decisions for social sector organisations also use the framework.

Wellbeing is an outcome-focused lens: it is looking at the difference to be made, e.g. the Scottish Government’s strategic objectives that describe the Scotland it wants: a smarter, wealthier and fairer, healthier, safer and greener Scotland. So wellbeing frameworks can help local governments shift the focus from measuring inputs to impact.

Wellbeing frameworks provide a way of engaging with citizens. Some areas that have developed wellbeing frameworks for government have begun the process by asking local people what the wellbeing of their community and region means to them.

My recent review of wellbeing frameworks at regional and city level for Carnegie UK Trust and OECD revealed that many initiatives have undergone common processes and faced similar challenges in their development. Sharpening Our Focus: Guidance on Wellbeing Frameworks for Cities and Regions has highlighted the common steps in developing wellbeing frameworks and measures.

Government analysts, academics, elected representatives or the social sector can all start wellbeing frameworks, but for them to progress they need to be supported by a local leader. The frameworks often begin with a review of initiatives elsewhere and then use that as a base for local development, including defining what wellbeing means to local communities. So, if you are interested in developing a wellbeing framework, I hope that you initially will refer to the Sharpening Our Focus report to read about the experiences of local governments in the UK and beyond.

The time is right now for local authorities in the UK and more widely as they focus on their role versus that of national government and communities to consider developing wellbeing frameworks. There is the potential for defining, measuring and refining wellbeing matrices to support local authorities to define their purpose and outcomes.

Carnegie UK Trust is seeking to develop a bank of good practice, so if you know about any wellbeing initiatives please can you let us know by filling in the short form on the Carnegie website.