Putting the ‘Five Ways of Working’ to work

The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act was a groundbreaking piece of legislation designed to systematically improve the lives of people in Wales now and in the future.

In recent research at Carnegie UK, we’ve looked at how these laws are delivering change. Representatives from the Welsh Government and the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales have been successful contributors to our wellbeing frameworks community of practice.

In this new blog, Jenny McConnel, Sustainable Development Advisory in the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales’s Office and Mike Corcoran, Consultant at the Co-production Network for Wales outline the work they’ve been doing to examine how the Welsh legislation’s ‘Five Ways of Working’ are working on the ground.

Who are you?

Jenny: I work for the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. We support public bodies to implement the Well-Being of Future Generations Act, through advice and assistance, such as by training and publishing guidance and resources.

Mike: I’m a consultant at the Co-Production Network for Wales.  

Jenny: The Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales often works closely with the Co-production Network for Wales, a community of practice that brings together people who believe in the value of co-production and citizen involvement in public services across Wales. Their work focuses on creating spaces for shared learning, offering training and support, and helping organisations strengthen the way they involve citizens in decision-making.

Together, our work is about making sure people are not treated as passive recipients of services, but as equal partners in shaping them. That matters especially in Wales, where the ambition of the Well-being of Future Generations Act is not just to change policies on paper, but to change how public bodies work with people and communities in practice.

Can you tell us more about what the Welsh “Ways of Working” are and why they are important?

The Five Ways of Working are the means by which public bodies in Wales are expected to pursue sustainable development under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act: long-term, prevention, integration, collaboration, and involvement.

They matter because they turn the Act from a high-level ambition into a practical test for decision-making. Rather than asking only what solves today’s problems, they ask public bodies to think about future impact, joined-up outcomes, partnership, and the voices of the people affected.

That is important because the challenges Wales faces – whether poverty, health inequalities, pressure on public services, or climate and nature risks – cannot be addressed through short-term, siloed thinking.

The Ways of Working aim to create a shared discipline: they encourage organisations to prevent problems rather than simply react to them, to work across boundaries, and to involve communities in shaping solutions. In other words, they are important not only because they describe what good public services look like, but because they help organisations ask how they should work to achieve better outcomes.

The Co-production Network for Wales has been doing some interesting work to put these Ways of Working in practice. What have you learned through the process of this work, and what would be your advice to others trying to implement wellbeing governance models across the UK?

The Co-production Network for Wales recently brought people from across North Wales together to ask a simple question: “How are we doing?” when it comes to using the Five Ways of Working. We focused on what implementation looks like on the ground rather than in theory.

Across the discussion, several themes stood out. One was the need to lose the fear of failure: risk aversion can block the experimentation and culture change needed for real transformation.

Another was the importance of looking beyond the “usual suspects” so that involvement is genuinely broad and meaningful. We also heard how important it is to listen well, ask better questions, and build stronger relationships if organisations want to design services that reflect people’s realities.

Finally, there was a recurring point about the “sticky middle” of organisations—where change can stall unless leadership, frontline practice, systems and funding all align around the same long-term intent.

For others across the UK trying to implement wellbeing models, our advice would be practical.

• Start by building confidence in different ways of working: people need to understand not just the language of long-term thinking, prevention, collaboration, integration and involvement, but why those ideas matter in day-to-day decisions.

• Invest in learning cultures that support responsible risk-taking rather than punishing every setback. Work is needed to combat the fear of failure in those places where it can stifle innovation and inhibit change. People with the potential to lead transformational change exist at all levels within our public bodies, but they won’t become change makers by accident.

• Match ambition with resources: short-term funding cycles will always make long-term and preventative work harder. Above all, remember that strong relationships are the foundation. If we want people to do new and different things, they need support: our public services benefit when specialist expertise, targeted resources and seed funding are put in place to get the ball rolling.

• And finally, strong relationships underpin everything: we need to ensure that everyone who delivers or uses services has regular, meaningful opportunities to build understanding, listen, and be heard. This creates a continuous cycle of trust and improvement. Change happens at the speed of trust.

Future Generations Cymru and the Co-production Network for Wales are committed to doing all we can to make this a reality, and we hope that you will join us!