Improving wellbeing through evidence-informed policy

APPG Inquiry, Evidence session 1: Culture

11th December 2013

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Wellbeing Economics held an inquiry into how policy can increase wellbeing without increasing public expenditure. This took place over a series of meetings at which expert witnesses appeared and answered questions from members, with a public audience. The results were published in a report in 2014.

The first meeting was on wellbeing and culture and addressed the questions:

  1. Can wellbeing evidence help us set and perhaps increase the culture budget overall, thereby increasing wellbeing?
  2. Can wellbeing evidence help set priorities within this budget, thereby increasing the wellbeing it generates?

The expert witnesses were:
– Tony Butler, Museum of East Anglian Life, Happy Museum Project
– Daniel Fujiwara, LSE, Independent Academic
– Charlotte Jones, Chief Executive of Independent Theatre Council
– Moira Sinclair, Executive Director, London and South East, Arts Council for England
– Gareth Maeer, Head of Research and Evaluation, Heritage Lottery Fund
– Dave O’Brien, City University, Independent Academic

Improving wellbeing through evidence-informed policy