Where next for wellbeing in Wales?

This week Carnegie UK hosted a roundtable event in Cardiff, in partnership with the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA), bringing together senior officials and policy experts from across the nation. The purpose of the event was to share our latest Life in the UK index findings and to better understand the opportunities and challenges facing those working to put wellbeing at the heart of decision making in Wales. 

In recent years Wales has led the charge in embedding and institutionalising wellbeing approaches to decision making. In 2015, Wales became the first country in the world to pass a Well-being of Future Generations Act, mandating public bodies to think and act with a more deliberate long-term focus. The Act also led to the creation of the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner, to act as a champion for these aims and to support public bodies to deliver this transition in practice. 

Both domestically and internationally these initiatives have garnered much attention and acclaim. They have already directly informed and influenced policy making in Wales and have helped to shape international efforts from both the UN and EU to adopt similar long-term approaches to policy challenges. 

However, while this work in Wales has been the envy of many seeking to advance wellbeing policy approaches, it is definitely not a case of job done. Far from it. 

Life in the UK findings for Wales 

Our Life in the UK index provides an annual measure of the collective wellbeing of people in Wales. The story it tells is one of stagnation – across social, economic, environmental and democratic domains wellbeing in Wales did not improve between 2023 and 2024. This was driven by two main areas of concern: 

• Deep inequalities: Our index data tells us that people on lower incomes, disabled people and people in urban areas have the lowest levels of wellbeing in Wales. 
• Democratic crisis: Trust in government and politics has reached a record low, with almost three quarters of people in Wales feeling they have no influence over decisions that impact the UK while 66% disagree that they can influence decisions affecting Wales. Carnegie UK believe addressing this problem is the UK Government’s ‘missing mission’ and must also be prioritised by Ministers in Wales. 

Where next? 

In discussing our findings with stakeholders in Cardiff – and in particular the question of where we go from here – there were four recurring themes that stood out to me from what we heard: coherence, capability, capacity and commitment. 

On coherence, capability and capacity the message was clear. There is strong support for the ambition and principle to think and act with a longer-term focus, but in an age of growing demand and diminishing resources across so much of the public sector, finding the time and space to do this, and matching it with the skills and capabilities to do it well, is a real challenge. 

Several attendees highlighted the sheer number of competing priorities, strategies and initiatives facing those working to improve the lives of people in Wales and the sense of duplication this creates alongside the lack of joined-up thinking. This is an issue that we at Carnegie UK come across regularly in our conversations with partners and policy makers across the nations and jurisdictions of the UK.  

The commitment point emerged in discussion about how to overcome the inertia that can arise from a lack of coherence and capacity for longer-term policy making. I was left with a strong sense from attendees that there was both a desire and need to re-commit to the ambitious agenda Wales has established on wellbeing. The feeling was that this is needed to help cut through the many competing demands and to re-focus policy making on shared longer-term outcomes that benefit people across Wales. 

These themes align with our recommendations in this year’s Life in the UK report for Wales. We believe that by focussing on repairing trust in democracy, empowering public bodies and raising public awareness about the what the Future Generations legislation means for people in Wales, then this can all contribute to putting wellbeing at the heart of decision making. 

Inspiration for the rest of the UK 

We know that lifting these ideas off the page and making them real is no easy or quick task. But over the last decade Wales has shown that size should be no barrier to aspiration when thinking about radical ideas to improve the lives of its citizens. 

It is always inspiring to spend time with partners and stakeholders who understand the real-world challenges and opportunities of working to put wellbeing at the heart of decision making. There are lessons and inspiration to be taken from what’s going on in Wales that are relevant to all parts of the UK, one of the most important of which is that the work to improve our collective wellbeing requires constant attention, care and collaboration.