Wellbeing home

The Local Wellbeing Project brings together the Young Foundation with the UK’s foremost expert on practical ways to increase happiness, Professor Lord Richard Layard from the LSE and the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), leaders in local government innovation. Hertfordshire, Manchester and South Tyneside local authorities have signed up as project partners

A growing body of research has explored what causes, promotes and hampers happiness and wellbeing. There is increasing awareness that one of the challenges of our time is facing up to the problem that, while economic output has nearly doubled in the last 30 years, there has been no corresponding increase in happiness, and there is some evidence that levels of unhappiness may be increasing.

Most of the factors that affect happiness manifest at a local level, in relationships within the family, with people in the neighbourhood, at schools and at work, and in people's feelings about their immediate environment. This means that the interventions that could increase happiness can be delivered at the same very local level and are under the direct or strategic control of local government and other local agencies.

The project
The three-year project is composed of five strands and two underpinning themes, which involve practical action with specific population groups within each of our partner local authorities.

The project will explore how local government action, in collaboration with national agencies and local communities can contribute to a growth in happiness and wellbeing, both by enhancing services and providing or planning new services. The impact of both new initiatives and existing ongoing work will be captured and evaluated.

The projects aims are:

• To explore how local government intervention in key areas can contribute to greater wellbeing
• To explore the value to local government of prioritising wellbeing in service delivery and strategic planning
• To develop replicable practise to maximise wellbeing in the delivery of services under five themes
• To establish robust and cost effective ways of measuring wellbeing at local level.

Click here to view current vacancies, inculding those for the Local Wellbeing Project

For more information on the Wellbeing Project please contact Marcia Brophy, Wellbeing Programme Leader.