New report on measuring wellbeing in Northern Ireland

The Carnegie UK Trust has launched a new report in collaboration with The School of Law at Queen’s. Measuring Wellbeing in Northern Ireland: A new conversation for new times, looks at how a focus on wellbeing could drive social change, improve public services and improve outcomes for citizens and communities. The report heralds the launch of a high-level Roundtable on Measuring Wellbeing in Northern Ireland.

The report argues that wellbeing could be embedded in policy design and the Programme for Government for the benefit of Northern Ireland’s citizens. Northern Ireland has already begun this process with reform of local government including a new wellbeing mandate and a commitment to review how wellbeing is measured and used to influence policy development.

The report highlights that current focus on GDP as the sole measure of social progress ignores the failure of GDP as a measure of what really matters to the population.  Wellbeing, on the other hand, includes a wide range of issues that affect people’s everyday lives including health, housing, education, employment, environment, safety, leisure, social relationships and democratic participation as well as income.

John Woods, Queens University Belfast and co-author of the report said:  “Moreover, the report notes that many of the outstanding post-conflict challenges are, at heart, questions of wellbeing. These range from the equalities challenge, mental and physical health, community safety and resilience, inter-generational educational under-achievement and failures in environmental governance.”

Martyn Evans, Chief Executive of the Carnegie UK Trust, said: “GDP is a good tool to see how healthy an economy may be but it is not very good when it comes to measuring the wellbeing of citizens. It takes no account of inequalities or social mobility issues or even the hopes of people living in different areas.

“We have seen a wellbeing approach work well in governments in the USA and closer to home in Scotland where it has had a transformational effect on the ability of governments to deliver for citizens.  A wellbeing approach to government leads to greater integration of public services and a higher priority given to preventative action.  We believe that Northern Ireland is currently in a strong position to embed this approach in its framework for public services.”

Throughout 2014, the Carnegie UK Trust, in partnership with The School of Law at Queen’s University, will be convening a Roundtable on Measuring Wellbeing in Northern Ireland to explore how the region can put wellbeing at the heart of government.

In a joint foreword to the report Simon Hamilton MLA Minister for Finance and Personnel and Daithi McKay MLA Chair of the Finance and Personnel Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly said:

“We trust that the Roundtable will be an ideal platform for an inclusive and creative dialogue that will also feed into a number of related developments here in Northern Ireland, notably on-going work on public sector reform, the reform of local government and community planning, and the Executive’s commitment to Delivering Social Change.  It is time to place the wellbeing of our citizens at the heart  of what government is about, at the heart of a shared narrative.”

A full copy of the report can be downloaded here:  www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/publications