News Community Wellbeing Loneliness, older adults and technology During #LonelinessWeek, Wales Centre for Public Policy will issue a series of publications covering different aspects of research around this important topic. Loneliness is a ‘feeling experienced when there is a gap between desired and actual social contact’ (Age Cymru 2021) Loneliness is distinct from social isolation, which refers to a lack in the quantity […] Read more Topics: Local government Loneliness June 12, 2023
Report Community Wellbeing Older adults and the pandemic: tackling loneliness through technology Loneliness and social isolation have significant impacts on older people’s health and wellbeing. This has been a priority issue for the Welsh Government since before the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, social distancing measures increased the risk of loneliness and social isolation and accelerated the use of technology to facilitate social contact and connection. WCPP […] Read more Topics: Community collaboration Local government Loneliness June 12, 2023
Report Community Wellbeing What can Public Service Boards do to improve well-being from a community perspective? Public Services Boards (PSBs) are required by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 to produce local well-being plans every five years, on the basis of an assessment of well-being needs in their local areas, setting out well-being objectives and proposed steps to meet them. Following from our previous work in 2021 providing briefings […] Read more Topics: Local government February 23, 2023
Blog Post Community Wellbeing The state of democracy in Wales: What is it and how can we measure it? Concerns over democratic health are a global phenomenon, often triggered by crises or events that result in public pressure for reform. Iceland’s near-economic destruction after the Global Financial Crisis, for instance, instigated wide-ranging reforms to their democratic system. In Wales (and the wider UK) discussions around the health of our democracy have traditionally focussed narrowly […] Read more Topics: Local government November 17, 2022
Blog Post Community Wellbeing What does 'blended' digital and face-to-face provision mean for access to services during the cost-of-living crisis? The cost-of-living crisis is making access to community-based wellbeing services ever more important for an increasing number of people. These services – from advice, advocacy and support services to leisure and cultural organisations – are critical in supporting our immediate and long-term wellbeing. As highlighted during the pandemic, they save lives in times of crisis. […] Read more Topics: Local government Poverty and social exclusion November 8, 2022
Blog Post Tackling Inequalities Are the Welsh Government’s plans for the Welsh NHS Executive a missed opportunity? With so much of the focus on the NHS being given to waiting times, it was easy to miss the Welsh Government’s update on the NHS Executive for Wales. This may seem like a bureaucratic distraction from more important issues, but establishing an NHS Executive has long been seen as an essential reform to the […] Read more Topics: Health inequalities Local government October 12, 2022
Report Tackling Inequalities International review of effective anti-poverty policies and programmes As part of the Wales Centre for Public Policy’s (WCPP) review of poverty and social exclusion, the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the LSE was commissioned to conduct a review of the international evidence on promising policies and programmes designed to reduce poverty and social exclusion across twelve key policy areas. The […] Read more Topics: Local government Poverty and social exclusion September 26, 2022
Blog Post Uncategorized Impact Has devolution delivered? The last 25 years have seen a significant and sustained increase in public support for devolution in Wales. The 1997 referendum produced only a wafer thin majority in favour of creating a Welsh Assembly. Now fewer than 1 in 5 of the adult population say that they would vote to reverse that decision, whilst a […] Read more Topics: Local government September 23, 2022
Blog Post Community Wellbeing ‘Blending’ online and offline provision in community wellbeing services: what does it mean and why does it matter? Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, public and third sector organisations supporting community wellbeing have relied on a mixture of remote and face-to-face methods for delivering services and engaging with the people they support. These have been delivered in different combinations at different times, in response to a rapidly shifting landscape of restrictions on physical contact and […] Read more Topics: Community collaboration Local government August 30, 2022
Report Community Wellbeing What is the role of evidence in shaping suicide prevention policy in Wales? Suicide is one of the leading causes of death worldwide.¹ Across the globe, 800,000 people die by suicide every year, translating to approximately one suicide death every 40 seconds (WHO, 2021). When considering the number of bereaved family, friends, and communities behind every single one of these deaths, the impact of suicide on our world […] Read more Topics: Health inequalities Local government July 8, 2022
