Take ten minutes to tell the Government what you think on wellbeing

It's been traditional to measure how well we're doing as a country purely by the amount of money we make. This is way too narrow a measure and it's counterproductive to plan all our policy around maximising GDP.

Making lots of money is one thing, but how can we count ourselves as a success if we can't provide people with decent housing that they can afford. Generally living standards now are much better than they were half a century ago, yet we're generally unhealthier and unhappier. Surely a successful Government will tackle the causes of that poor health and unhappiness.

If it's going to do that, it has to work out measures to define wellbeing. Now, we could have a bunch of Whitehall boys sit behind a desk and decide for themselves, but that would be a bit daft. This Government is being sensible enough to ask people what they think. They have an online consultation which is open until 15th April and it will only take you 10 minutes.

Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire, is the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing.  She wrote a couple of months ago about the process which the Government is embarking on and why it's so important:

First, it will be good for policy. The IHS (intergrated household survey) already provides a large amount of objective data, which in future policy-makers will be able to analyse to identify associations between people's subjective well-being or experiences, and other, objective factors such as (amongst many others) economic activity, education, health and disability, identity, place of residence and income. This will provide information on the impact of social, economic, cultural and physical conditions, which can then be used to shape policy priorities. In the absence of this kind of measurement, policy makers have often had to make assumptions about what matters most to people, but as we all now know, it is not true that "the gentlemen in Whitehall know best". In particular the emphasis on GDP maximisation at the expense of all other goals has become an article of almost religious faith in the Whitehall-Westminster village.

Second, it will be good for democracy. Over time, the public and politicians will be able to assess the effectiveness of the government's policies in terms that really matter to people: that is the impact on their experiences. Of course, the ultimate aim of most policy is already to improve lives but, without proper measures of well-being, it can be difficult to assess them in these terms. These new measures will make this easier, not only for the government but, equally important, for the opposition and the public as well, who will be able to hold government to account in a new and more powerful way.

Finally, the measures have a symbolic value. If they capture the imagination, they may well start to shift popular ideas about what constitutes social progress - away from purely economic advance, to something more rounded - something that captures the whole range of things that matter to people. This is not just about the details of individual policies, but about the framing of the whole political debate. If we move away from pursuing economic activity for the sake of it, it will be easier to deal with climate change and other environmental challenges. Thus the framing of the debate is crucial not only to our own well-being but also to that of the planet and so to that of our children and grandchildren.

This is your chance to influence the whole future direction of Government policy - make sure you don't miss out.

UK fails in child wellbeing AGAIN

The shocking news that the UK has finished close to the bottom of a European study on child wellbeing shows that our children are being systematically failed.

There is simply no excuse for this to be the case in what is still one of the world's wealthiest countries.

Of course it's not all about money, but we can't exactly hold our heads up high and say that anything like all our children are living in decent housing - and I don't mean luxurious, just warm, dry and functional. Nor can we say that they all get a decent education when so many still leave school without basic literacy skills.

What's more worrying than anything, though, is that many children are growing up unhappy, which, even if you look at it selfishly, is going to have an impact on the next generation's ability to fulfil its potential. You can reasonably quickly and easily sort out housing and money and education, but rebuilding and restoring a shattered psyche takes a lot longer.

What are the countries at the top of the league doing that we are not? Well, let's look at them. The Netherlands, Slovenia, Iceland, all of Scandinavia, Ireland - can we identify some common factors about how they bring up their children? Well, in Scandinavia, breastfeeding is by far the norm, even at six months of age. That has to have an impact not only on psychological wellbeing, but also on long term health. Compare and contrast to some of our poorest areas in the UK, where breastfeeding rates struggle even to make double figures. This article shows how a grassroots campaign started 30 years ago ultimately changed the culture from formula friendly to breastfeeding friendly. There are lessons to be learned from that.

I think there is enough evidence of the health benefits to mother and baby, including a new study today to seriously set about bringing about that cultural change.

I also think there are elements of our culture which hinder the crucial bonding process between mother and child. We seem hooked on regime orientated parenting methods which involve separation, isolation and unnecessary stress for both mother and baby. Some of the most stressed mothers I've spoken to are those who are trying to shoehorn themselves and their babies into one of these programmes that has every minute of every day planned out, from when exactly to express milk or have a shower to when the baby should sleep. This article explains eloquently why this approach can cause long term problems. There is a very weird attitude to children in this country, too. If you don't have children with you, you get to eat in nice restaurants, if you do, you are pointed towards garish pubs with play areas.

It might be a random coincidence that in this study of mental health across Europe, the UK ends up at the top, with the highest prevalence of conditions like Depression, but I don't think so. Funnily enough, the Netherlands, which is at the top of the wellbeing study has the lowest rate of mental health problems.

Of all the things that our Government has to hang its head in shame about - the Iraq War, failure to regulate the banks contributing to economic meltdown, the way it's let down the children of this country systematically has to be the worst. It's not that it wasn't warned - this is not the first time a study has come to these conclusions. I expected more from the Labour Party.

It will take a complicated combination of economic and social measures to change things - who has the political will to take this on and bring about that change? I think that the Lib Dems have good answers on things like housing and tax and childcare, but nobody seems to want to take on the artificial baby milk industry which is still allowed to provide so much information to new mothers, in contrast to the Scandinavian countries.

All of this provides much food for thought for Jo Swinson MP's Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing.

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Jo Swinson champions Wellbeing

Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire has long argued that we should look not just at how much money our economy produces but how well and how satisfied with their lives our citizens are. She has just been elected Chair of the new All Party Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing Economics. Good luck to her in this new and important role - another area in which we desperately need to get our priorities right.

There's an interesting article in today's Guardian on the subject.

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