Probably bored of trying to count people correctly, given the myriad problems with the Census calculation, the ONS have moved into new territory – that of assessing ‘happiness’. Their new and fascinating “First ONS Annual Experimental Subjective Well-being Results” report shows how happy, unhappy, anxious and fulfilled we feel. The headline results are clear, three quarters of people are satisfied with their lives and 80% think that they lead worthwhile lives. Around one in twenty reports been in a state of apparently permanent unhappiness. Londoners are the most anxious, with 44% reporting that they felt anxious yesterday. It’s also worth noting that while the Welsh are apparently marginally more satisfied than the rest of the British Isles, there is really very little difference across the UK in satisfaction, happiness or anxiety scores.But an analysis of the full results does reflect issues that we know are central to the business of local government. The survey reports that Black respondents to the survey reported lower life satisfaction. It says that health and disability reduce satisfaction and that life events such as divorce and unemployment all reduce people’s satisfaction.The fact that middle aged men appear to be the least satisfied with their lives, compared to the higher satisfaction of the young and of pensioners under 80 years old, might ring true when we consider the sense of apathy demonstrated by some middle-aged middle tier council managers. This is the first such survey though, but it would be interesting to consider how the numbers would have changed since ten years previously. We might consider that the benign early post-millennium years would have produced more positive results which could be compared with the 2011 figures. This data should remind local authorities to consider these well being issues when they are developing policies and designing services. We need to be aware that people are anxious, that many of the people we serve do not work in the relatively comfortable environment of a council, nor have the sort of professional and managerial roles that provide greater personal satisfaction. Their insecurities and fears about the future need to be addressed by local government working to reassure them. We need to show that we are focused on getting the basics of service provision right on a daily basis, working hard to bring jobs and investment to our areas and avoid the convoluted and confusing language to ‘engagement’, of strategies and ‘commissioning’ in public conversation.And data like this allows us to put people, and their concerns at the centre of our policy formulation rather than government guidance.
