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In our occasional series looking at how government policy has a habit of repeating itself, Norman Perry looks at previous attempts to measure wellbeing and happiness. The prime minister believes our nation's wellbeing should not be thought of only in economic and monetary terms. Last November, he asked the Office for National Statistics to devise some measures of ‘happiness', to set alongside conventional indices (see box). As with so many areas of public policy, we have been somewhere like this before – and, what is more, during the premiership of Edward Heath (1970-1974), who was unlikely to rival David Cameron in a competition for the most sunny disposition. In the early 1970s, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) commissioned a programme of original research on ‘quality of life indicators'. The work was carried out in the SSRC's survey unit, under the direction of Mark Abrams, the legendary founding father of British social market research. A range of questionnaire techniques adapted from psychology, sociology and marketing was used to develop measures of societal wellbeing which could withstand scientific testing. The Conservative Government of the day became interested in this work. In particular, Lord David Eccles, at the education department, was keen to test whether leisure activities, especially those with a community dimension, could lead to measurable improvements in the way people felt about themselves and their localities. Lord Eccles used his charm and ministerial clout to persuade the-then environment department and the Scottish and Welsh Offices to set up, together with education, an ‘action research programme' – known colloquially as The quality of life experiments. Four test areas were selected – Sunderland, Stoke-on-Trent, Dunbarton and Clwyd. Each area was given a specially-recruited project team and a cash endowment, and the exercise was overseen by a formidable pair of Department of Environment civil servants – Susan Fox and Dorothy Dent. A parallel national research programme was organised by myself, on secondment from the SSRC, having previously worked on leisure research methodology at the Greater London Council. At the end of the two-year programme, it was written up and published in two volumes by HMSO with the title Leisure and the quality of life. As with so many programmes started with enthusiasm under one government and reporting to one of another colour – in this case the Callaghan Government – the quality of life report sank like a stone. But the work was carried out, written up, and might still have relevance to the coalition government's intentions. Four lessons can be drawn for today's circumstances. First, non-economic measures of wellbeing are not a fad. There is a respectable academic pedigree. Second, Big Society-type innovation often needs some modest pump-priming, or may struggle for years to establish critical mass. Third, local authorities tend to have a negative attitude to community initiatives – this may now have to change under the weight of circumstances, but council members and officers are often hardwired with a ‘not invented here' attitude. And fourth, previous ‘wellbeing' experiments centred on ‘optional' activities. We can't yet be sure that the new emphasis on mainline public services will produce a similar positive effect. Norman Perry is chairman of public services group, HBJ Gateley Wareing, and former head of the Housing Corporation.

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WHITEHALL

Measuring happiness? It's been done before

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