\u201cManchester City Council and the Manchester Partnership welcome the
development o\ue001 a wellbeing measurement. Our Community Strategy
aims to increase material prosperity and wellbeing so that Manchester\u2019s
residents become wealthier, live longer, and have happier and healthier lives.
It is recognised that public services cannot achieve these things on their
own, raising expectations and a sense o\ue001 wellbeing will be \ue001undamental to
achieving this. Currently we use two Local Public Service Agreement targets
to measure our progress in this area and welcome any \ue001urther mechanisms to
chart our progress.\u201d

\u201cHert\ue001ordshire is generally a prosperous county and our residents enjoy
some o\ue001 the highest standards o\ue001 living in the country. However this headline
masks pockets o\ue001 relative deprivation and we do not wish to be complacent
about our \ue001uture \u2013 \ue001or that reason Hert\ue001ordshire Forward (the countywide
LSP) has identi\ue000ed \u2018health and wellbeing\u2019 as a key challenge which needs
to be addressed between now and 2021. As we understand it however the
wellbeing o\ue001 our residents does not just depend upon promoting healthier
li\ue001estyles, but by ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to share in our
prosperity through improving access to education and employment.\u201d

\u201cIn South Tyneside we recognise the impact that promoting culture and wellbeing can have on people\u2019s lives, whether it\u2019s to improve health, help people into jobs or help them achieve their \ue001ull potential. Spirit o\ue000 South

Renewal Strategy and Community Strategy. It sets out how we will
tackle our communities\u2019 priorities and regeneration o\ue001 our most deprived
neighbourhoods. Our plans \ue001or wellbeing are integral to the continuing
trans\ue001ormation o\ue001 our borough, economically, environmentally and socially.
We have ambitious plans to improve all aspects o\ue001 li\ue001e in the borough. Whilst
all our priorities contribute to improving wellbeing, we have identi\ue000ed a
need to do more to drive our wellbeing agenda, to make a greater impact
on people\u2019s happiness. We have examples o\ue001 well-grounded and embedded
interventions that promote wellbeing, \ue001rom positive parenting \ue001rom be\ue001ore
birth, right through to tackling the isolation o\ue001 older people.

We strongly believe in partnership working and were recently awarded
\u2018Beacon Council\u2019 status \ue001or our multi-agency work towards promoting
\ue000nancial inclusion and tackling over indebtedness, as well as Community
Leadership - major issues in terms o\ue001 community and individual wellbeing.

We have a wealth o\ue001 experience in managing per\ue001ormance measurement
o\ue001 our work. However, we are passionate about working toward developing
measures o\ue001 the actual di\ue001\ue001erence a local authority can make to the wellbeing
o\ue001 individuals and communities. We particularly support the approach to
measuring wellbeing within a personal-social-place \ue001ramework outlined in the
report.\u201d

The Local Wellbeing Project is a partnership between the Young Foundation,
Pro\ue001essor Richard Layard at the Centre \ue001or Economic Per\ue001ormance at the
London School o\ue001 Economics, the Improvement and Development Agency
(IDeA) and three local authorities: Hert\ue001ordshire County Council, Manchester
City Council and South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council. The aim
o\ue001 the Local Wellbeing Project is to pioneer new approaches in the design
and delivery o\ue001 policies and services to contribute to public happiness and
wellbeing, which could be replicated more widely.

The report has been written by Nicola Steuer and Nic Marks at the centre \ue001or
wellbeing at\ue007\ue003\ue004 (the new economics \ue001oundation), with contributions \ue001rom
Nicola Bacon, Marcia Brophy and Mandeep Hothi at the Young Foundation.
It has been prepared on behal\ue001 o\ue001 the Local Wellbeing Project and with the
support o\ue001 the Audit Commission. This report was published in September
2008 and presents a summary o\ue001 a more detailed research report prepared by
ne\ue001 and the Young Foundation in August 2007.