Well-Being Framework

Following its work on Ireland’s Well-being Framework: Consultation Report, NESC began a second phase of work to support the development of a comprehensive well-being framework. The first area of work in this phase is:

• Towards Transformative Outcomes: Examples of how Well-being Frameworks have been Embedded into Policy Making. This research looks at how national well-being frameworks have been incorporated into budgeting a nd policy-making processes in New Zealand, Scotland and Wales.  It also looks at the approach taken under Ireland’s Better Outcomes: Brighter Futures – The National Policy Framework for Children and Young People, 2014-2020 (BOBF).  BOBF is a sectoral policy framework, but has similar elements to those found in national well-being frameworks. Information was gathered through literature reviews and interviews with those working to design, implement and/or monitor the various well-being frameworks. The report on this work was published in June 2022.

In the second half of 2022, NESC began work on Equity and well-being frameworks:

• The Government’s First Report on a Well-being Framework for Ireland argued that ‘an important use of the Well-Being framework will be to facilitate a more systematic identification of specific groups within society that experience inequality across a number of dimensions’ (p.17).

Therefore NESC will consider how a well-being framework could support a deeper and fresh understanding of the factors that lead to inequality and disadvantage in Ireland, and how to break the pattern of continuing and inter-generational inequity. This work will also explore some of the vulnerabilities and inequalities which became more evident during the pandemic.

See the Wellbeing Portal for more about the Government initiative A Well-being Framework for Ireland.

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