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First Report on Well-being Framework for Ireland July 2021
In line with the Programme for Government and Economic Recovery Plan commitments, the Government today approved the First Report on a Well-being Framework for Ireland. This will, over time, provide a comprehensive set of well-being measures to create a well-rounded, holistic view of how our society is faring, as an important complement to existing economic measurement tools.
This Well-being Framework is an important cross-government initiative that, driven by a desire to do better by people, seeks to develop a multi-dimensional approach to understanding the impact of public policy. The Report reflects the first phase of this important work.
Capturing and building on considerable national work to date this first Report provides a Vision, Conceptual Framework and accompanying Dashboard for Well-being in Ireland. It also explores its integration with policy making and includes a roadmap for further stages of the work.
The overarching vision for the framework, which will guide its development over time, is enabling all our people to live fulfilled lives now and into the future. The approach is fundamentally about making people’s lives better by better understanding peoples lived experience.
Speaking today, the Taoiseach said:
“By helping to develop a shared understanding of what makes for better lives for our citizens, and providing a means to holistically examine and reflect on the progress of Irish society, this Well-being Framework will over time facilitate better policy making and in turn better outcomes for all our people. I would also like to acknowledge the considerable work of the NESC Subgroup of Stakeholders and Experts, whose consultation provided an important input to this work.”
Welcoming the publication, Minister McGrath said:
“This is an important cross-government initiative that will give policy makers a greater insight and understanding of policy outcomes for the general public. This understanding will be important in terms of informing better public policy. The wellbeing indicators set out in this report are very much aligned with the ongoing work taking place in my own Department to enhance the budgetary framework and increase the capacity of the civil service to design and implement effective public policy. Initiatives such as performance budgeting, equality budgeting, the spending review process, the Public Spending Code and the Irish Government Economic & Evaluation Service, have all contributed enormously to our understanding of how policy affects the wellbeing of our people”.
Measuring what matters most for Well-being in the Irish context allows us all to assess if things are getting better or worse, our relative performance internationally, and whether progress is sustainable into the future. Over time, it is intended that the Well-being Framework will be utilised in a systematic way across government policymaking and will work in tandem with other Government initiatives that enhance using limited public resources efficiently to deliver effective public services with equality at the core.
The next phase of this work, including a ‘Public Conversation’ on the framework, will be kick-started by the launch of the CSO’s dashboard in Autumn, which will be an interactive version based on the static dashboard contained in this first Report.
The Conceptual Framework covers 11 dimensions - Subjective Well-being; Mental and Physical Health; Income and Wealth; Knowledge and Skills; Housing and Local Area; Environment, Climate and Biodiversity; Safety and Security; Work and Job Quality; Time Use; Community, Social Connections and Cultural Participation; Civic Engagement and Cultural Expression. The dashboard provides a cohesive set of overarching indicators, linked to the greatest extent possible to the explicit aspects set out within each dimension. The development of the framework is an iterative process and will be improved over time as more data becomes available and its uses in the Irish context become clearer.
The next steps in developing the framework include:
• Further Consultation and engagement with policy makers, stakeholders, regional communities and citizens, to create awareness, generate buy-in, and to test the framework, and to get a sense of people’s priorities and related trade-offs.
• Integration with policy making and research, in particular for informing agenda setting and policy direction, with a separate dedicated workstream to inform integration of the Well-being Framework into expenditure policy, in particular with performance and equality budgeting.
• Closing data gaps working closely with the CSO.
The National Economic and Social Council (NESC) provided a valuable vehicle for consultation on the framework throughout its development through a Subgroup of Stakeholders and Experts and wider consultation. It has provided a corresponding Consultation Report.