Well‐being: the next revolution in children's services?

Abstract

The concept of ‘well‐being’ is entering into the policy debate on the back of recent research on ‘happiness’ ‐ self‐assessed evaluations of quality of life. It stands for a reassertion of relationships and feelings as central to positive evaluations and against the competitive and consumerist ethos of market individualism. Although the findings of research on well‐being among adults need to be adapted to suit children's situations and perceptions, work on this is in progress. This article presents some of the issues for measuring children's well‐being and for comparing measurements between countries. It also considers the implications for children's services of an approach that re‐values the relational elements in human service work, and argues that coherence between services is as important as the outcomes of interventions with individuals and families.