The four principles of a wellbeing economy

In 2019 I was at an event called Millennifest where I had the pleasure of hearing WEAll Scotland Trustee, Jane Morrison, passionately explaining why she wants to see a wellbeing economy in Scotland and beyond. This was a new concept to me, but I knew straight away that this was something I wanted to play a part in making reality in Scotland, and beyond.

For the first time, I felt like my views and contributions were valued in conversations about our economy. As someone who spent much of my childhood growing up in poverty and then in the care system, I think it is so vitally important that people with experience of adversity play an active role in shaping our economy.

Fast forward a few years and I am now the Director at WEAll Scotland, a small but mighty charity seeking to build a wellbeing economy by working with our valued Allies and partners. But what exactly is a wellbeing economy? In a sentence, it is one that is designed to work for people and planet, and not the other way around.

The four Ps start with Purpose

There are four principles that explain how we can make this a reality, which conveniently all start with the letter P. First of all is purpose, which is ensuring our collective wellbeing is the guiding principle for government, businesses, and other institutions, and that is reflected in the way we measure progress.

A wellbeing economy would address the root causes of social and environmental damages by thinking upstream and long-term.

Prevention

The second P is prevention. A wellbeing economy would address the root causes of social and environmental damages by thinking upstream and long-term. As a by-product, this would reduce the vast amount of resources we are spending on ‘failure demands’: trying to patch up the avoidable damage our current economy is causing. One example of this is how the UK and Scottish governments spend millions of pounds each year in Scotland on housing people who are homeless or treating illnesses caused by air pollution.

Pre-distribution

A wellbeing economy would tackle the current economic inequality at its source, using methodologies such as community wealth building that ensure money is retained locally, or alternative business models that inherently generate fairer distribution of incomes and wealth. Roles that do not currently pay a wage, such as unpaid care work, would be valued and supported appropriately as the foundation of our economy.

People-powered

The last P is people-powered. A wellbeing economy can only be built on meaningful participation and democratic decision-making, across our governments, communities and workplaces, ensuring that that power over decision-making is held by the people and communities who are affected by them.

I’m grateful to Kaleidoscope for the opportunity to share more about this at their Fresh Conversation on 30 June, especially in relation to what it means for health and social care (where I spent a few years of my career).

I look forward to seeing you there, and if you want to know more about our work, check out our website. If you aren’t based in Scotland, check out the website of WEAll Global and consider joining as members.

Sign up to be part of the Fresh Conversation ‘What is a wellbeing economy?’ on 30 June.