Think-tank petitions for a Wellbeing Centre for Wales

This blog, written by Lles Cymru Wellbeing Wales’ Executive Director Dafydd Thomas, contributes to the Wikiprogress Series on Networks. It explains the need for a new Wellbeing Centre for Wales and proposes that those who support the cause sign this petition.

To coincide with National Feel Good Day, an organization that aims to influence and inform the debate about wellbeing in Wales launched an ambitious Wellbeing Manifesto that calls on the Welsh Government to establish a new Wellbeing Centre for Wales, aimed at making increased wellbeing the number-one goal of public policy in Wales.

The Centre, which is the brainchild of not-for-profit think-tank Lles Cymru Wellbeing Wales and has the support of other charities across Wales, such as the Women’s Institute, would be a world-class centre aimed at putting individual and community wellbeing at the heart of Welsh politics. Drawing inspiration from prestigious policy institutes like the award-winning Centre for Social Justice, it would combine the expertise of those with a track record of effective political engagement and policy-making; those with experience of delivering grassroots wellbeing initiatives, including the voluntary sector; as well as academics and academic networks.

Lles Cymru Wellbeing Wales’s Executive Director, Dafydd Thomas, outlines the background to the proposal: “Since 1998, when government first set out its aims to improve wellbeing in Wales in Better Health Better Wales, we have seen big strides forward in wellbeing policy, such as the draft Social Services and Wellbeing Bill, which prioritizes wellbeing outcomes. 

But there are still issues that need addressing. Wellbeing policy often works on a ‘one-size-fits-all’ basis, even though evidence shows that local contexts need to be taken into account.  A concerted effort is required by multiple agencies, working together, to realize the wellbeing ambitions in the legislative programme - as no one agency has a monopoly on wellbeing. A Wellbeing Centre for Wales would be a vehicle to focus everyone’s efforts and drive change.”

  

Lles Cymru Wellbeing Wales has also a petition to the National Assembly for Wales to call on the Welsh Government to establish the Centre. Additionally, it is calling on other organisations and individuals to sign the petition in support.

The National Federation of Women’s Institute - Wales is amongst the charities supporting the call. “The National Federation of Women’s Institute - Wales is all about wellbeing; the wellbeing of our members; wellbeing for the recipients of our services.  A Wellbeing Centre would bring clarity and focus to the debate, so that we can be sure of exactly what we need to do to play our part in taking this agenda forward.”

Copies of the Wellbeing Manifesto for Wales are available at:

http://www.wellbeingwales.org/resources/wellbeing-manifesto

To sign the petition visit for a Wellbeing Centre for Wales please visit:

https://www.assemblywales.org/epetition-list-of-signatories.htm?pet_id=907

Dafydd Thomas

Great strides made on well-being in Wales

I’m possibly being a bit premature, but still, the festive period is just around the corner and it’s traditional to look back at the achievements of the last year.  And since I’m in a thoughtful mood, why not celebrate how the well-being agenda in Wales has come on a great deal in the four and a half years since I started leading this particular project.

When I began as the coordinator for the Wellbeing Wales Network, I spent my time working with a small group of interested individuals and organisations from the voluntary sector.  We wanted to capture and understand the ‘unintended consequences’ of the sector’s work, which was delivering countless benefits to their client group, but was invariably being measured on just a small part of their overall efforts.  A lot of our collective activity was being assessed in terms of process, with aims and targets being the language of success.  

I’ve lost count of the number of times that I was on the end of polite yet blank looks when I tried to discuss with people how wellbeing could complement such activity.

But things have moved on.  I’m now in the fantastic position where I can see support for wellbeing in every sector in Wales; where talking about wellbeing doesn’t generate the puzzled looks of the past and early adopters are putting wellbeing at the heart of their organisation’s activities.

It’s more of the same message for the last twelve months.  The Welsh Government has started to operationalize the commitments of 1998 green paper, Better Health, Better Wales.  Recent examples include wellbeing very much at the heart of a proposed Sustainable Development Bill, the draft Social Services and Wellbeing Bill and most recently in the development of a national outcomes framework for Social Services in Wales.

The last eighteen months has also seen a shift within the public sector and partners to move away from processes to outcomes. The adoption by many of Results Based Accountability complements the interest in promoting wellbeing by providing the right tool for the job. 

For a start, plain language discussions become easier where different organisations with different ways of working recognize that increased population wellbeing could be the über-outcome they could all sign up to.  The RBA approach also helps identify what’s missing, including the right data and the right partners to get the job done.

And here comes the cautionary sting in the tail.  In the future, more emphasis is going to have to be placed on the authenticity behind organisations and activities that claim to promote wellbeing.  Wellbeing shouldn’t be another bandwagon that others rush to jump on without making any significant changes to how they work.  These are challenging times with many problems facing society, with fewer and fewer resources available at national and local government level to tackle them. This means less money and fewer people available to do the job.  So the right decisions need to be taken on how these resources can be used to best effect.  

That means the lessons learned from the Office of National Statistics, Lles Cymru Wellbeing Wales and others need to be somehow focused at the core of organisational planning, so that everyone understands wellbeing and even the laggards sign up.

Dafydd Thomas

(Wellbeing Wales)

Wellbeing Wales: Bridgend Community Weight Management Programme.

Weight loss can be difficult at the best of times. Temptation and easy options lurk round every corner and keeping up an active lifestyle can be difficult when attempting to juggle the many demands of day-to-day life.

In the battle against obesity, Over half of Welsh adults are currently ranked as overweight or obese. 

Gastric bands, pills and restricted diets may provide a solution to the weight issue but the causes of over eating are often rooted in more than just diet. Many factors contribute to people’s behavioral patterns and eating habits are no different. Social, material, economic and environmental  factors all have a bearing on people’s ability to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle.

The Garw valley in Bridgend, Wales is one area where service providers have really adopted the whole person approach to weight management. Their Weight Management Programme arose from one local GP’s frustration at the lack of local options to support obese patients and their desire to offer patients access to the established ‘slimming on referral’ schemes offered by the commercial weight management organisations.

From this the Weight Management Programme was born. The programme aimed to work to integrate health and leisure services as a non-clinical intervention for weight management. The programme involved shaping behaviour through group activities that maintained peer support, motivation and other social aspects.  The programme involved referral and support from primary care, the Weight Watchers scheme, the exercise referral scheme and signposting to community activities to aid sustainable health promoting behavior change.

Dafydd Thomas, Executive Director at Lles Cymru Wellbeing Wales was commissioned to pilot a wellbeing assessment process to explore the range of factors affecting the participants, their wellbeing and in turn their ability or motivation to manage their weight. 

The assessment explored the Weight Management Programme participant’s own subjective assessments of their wellbeing, grounded in the specific context of their community and experience using indicators that they themselves developed.

To read the report summery then please click here. We'd love to hear your thoughts on it so why not drop us an e-mail at admin@wellbeingwales.org 

Wellbeing Wales