What We Do

The economy touches every aspect of everyone’s life. From education and work, to health and communities – it needs to work for everyone.

North of Tyne is the first combined authority in England to adopt a wellbeing framework to drive a better economy – one focused on growing everyone’s wellbeing. One that makes sure all residents have a stake in the region’s future. A future where local people and our planet can really thrive.

To help shape this vision, we asked over 2000 people in our area what makes a good life. People told us it’s about being healthy, being heard and fairness. And we need to balance these priorities so that everybody can live well. Our wellbeing framework helps us do just that. And it helps us to shift spending to the communities that need it most. The framework provides us with tools to take collective action towards a fairer, greener, and more inclusive future. One that benefits everyone.

The Framework was developed with expert guidance from our partners Carnegie UK and the Centre for Thriving Places alongside a Roundtable of cross sector representatives. In January 2022 Cabinet formally adopted the Wellbeing Framework on behalf of the Combined Authority. Alongside the Wellbeing Framework itself, we will soon be publishing a dashboard and dataset, to help guide decision making across the region. This dashboard has been developed in partnership with the National Innovation Centre for Data to track some of the key wellbeing indicators identified during our initial citizen engagement.

We invite you to get in touch to explore how your organisation might be able to use the framework and dashboard to place wellbeing at the heart of your decision-making.

Please do get in touch – robin.fry@northoftyne-ca.gov.uk

Further information

The North of Tyne Wellbeing Framework is available here, the executive summary is available here, and the shorter read report is available here.

Read the blog by Roundtable Co-chairs Sarah McMillan, Assistant Director of Policy, Northumberland County Council and Professor Mark Shucksmith OBE, Carnegie UK Trustee/Newcastle University to find out what the Roundtable for Wellbeing in the North of Tyne heard and what it means.

This evaluation report argues that ‘wellbeing roundtables’ can be an effective way to gather evidence and engage diverse communities in the creation of a shared vision. It also draws out nine learning points that will be useful for governments at all levels that are interested in developing a wellbeing approach.

Ben Thurman, Senior Policy Officer at Carnegie UK, reflects on key learnings emerging from a recent discussion about our Wellbeing Framework hosted by the Inclusive Growth Network