ONS rethink on wellbeing measures

A campaign by the cultural sector to have ‘participation in arts activities’ recognised as a contributor to personal wellbeing has led to a rethink of the way that the Office for National Statistics is building its framework for measuring wellbeing. A recent Government-sponsored consultation on the way that national wellbeing should be assessed made no explicit mention of the arts or creativity, and the ONS has revealed that many respondents to the consultation were unhappy that ‘what people do at work’ was recognised as a contributor to their wellbeing while the influence of their leisure-time activities was ignored. The ONS notes that significant numbers felt that the proposed framework was inadequate for measuring the contribution to wellbeing made by the arts, culture, sport, spirituality, religion, faith and access to green spaces, and will be analysing these and other gaps in more detail and exploring ways of filling them with a view to publishing a revised framework in summer 2012.