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To understand how people actually experience the quality of their lives, we need better measures of well-being. In particular, the Local Government Act 2000 gave local authorities the power to promote social, economic and environmental well-being in their areas. A good way of using this power is to use well-being indicators to measure the ultimate impacts of policymaking.
nef's framework for understanding well-being proposes that local authorities need to consider how economic, social and environmental well-being links with, and is influenced by, people's personal well-being. Indeed we propose that these areas are important precisely because of their effect on people's personal well-being. By placing people's well-being at the core of policy formation, councils can be more innovative and potentially more efficient and effective too.
nef worked with Nottingham City Council to measure the well-being of young people in the city. The use of the well-being indicators provided valuable new information to policymakers in a range of areas including education, crime and sport.
Overall, the pilot study shows that measuring well-being is a powerful way in which local government can use its 'well-being powers' to join up different local services and gain important insights into the ultimate impacts of policy. nef recommends that government puts together a larger pilot which uses well-being measurement over five regions for several years and further explores the implications of well-being for a range of policy agendas including education and preventative health measures.
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