What is sustainable wellbeing?
Sustainable wellbeing is a new way of measuring the progress of a society. In the past, countries have focused on measuring Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Value Added (GVA) to monitor how well their country is performing.
Sustainable wellbeing is a more holistic concept and uses different tools to measure how well society is doing across the key areas that are contributing to human wellbeing. It focuses on long-term progress rather than short-term intervention, and measures:
- Community wellbeing - the quality of people’s lives
- Environmental wellbeing – the quality of the natural world around us
- Economic wellbeing – how well the economy is performing
The Government of Jersey has made a strong commitment to sustainable wellbeing. The Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2019 requires the Council of Ministers to take into account the sustainable wellbeing of current and future generations when they develop the Government Plan. This change means that sustainable wellbeing is now central to the way Government makes decisions and designs public services.
Jersey Performance Framework
The Performance Framework is where we measure the progress that Jersey makes towards achieving sustainable wellbeing. We use objective measures (those that include data and figures) and subjective measures (those that include what people think and feel).
It includes different aspects of sustainable wellbeing, such as:
Community wellbeing - the quality of people’s lives
Environmental wellbeing – the quality of the natural world around us
Economic wellbeing – how well the economy is performing
The Performance Framework is for all of Jersey. It measures the progress Jersey makes against the various aspects of sustainable wellbeing.
Government will use the Performance Framework to inform its decisions.
The outcomes in Jersey’s Performance Framework have been chosen because they:
help to achieve the community vision for the next 30 years, known as Future Jersey
focus on the things that Islanders think are important (as captured in ‘Future Jersey’)
reflect internationally best practice, such as the OECD Better Life Index
Measuring progress: see how well Jersey is doing
The Performance Framework allows us to see how Jersey is progressing. It is made up of different ‘storyboards’ which bring together data from a range of sources. Each storyboard focuses on a specific topic that tells us about the quality of life in Jersey and is structured in the following way.
Island Outcome
A condition of wellbeing for Jersey, all Islanders or target groups
eg: We will feel safe and secure at home, work and in public.
Indicators
These quantify Jersey's progress towards an outcome. eg: crime rate, road traffic collision (RTC) rates.
You can access the Jersey’s Performance Framework and see all the data for how Jersey is doing by clicking on any of the individual storyboards in the table below. This will allow you to explore all of the data in more detail.
How it works: working together to achieve sustainable wellbeing for everyone
Sustainable wellbeing is complex and as the Performance Framework shows, it covers many aspects of life. It cannot be delivered by one person or one organisation, it is a shared responsibility and requires all of us to work together. Healthy lifestyles are also personal choices.
Government has an important role to play in setting the policy direction and delivering services that are contributing to creating the conditions for positive progress. In addition, working with the community, the charitable sector and the private sector has made a big difference for many.
Jersey’s Performance Framework is there for all to make us see where we can contribute to continue to make Jersey a good place to live and to create the conditions for a positive future for the next generations.
Resources: further links and information
Statistics Jersey – about the Statistics Jersey team and access to detailed information on a variety of statistical releases.
OECD Better Life Index – background and official webpage.
Jersey Better Life Index – see how Jersey is doing across the OECD Better Life Index metrics.