Welcome to the Relationships Foundation newsletter November 2010
Wellbeing in the Mirror
The government is, according to a Guardian report, “poised to start measuring people’s psychological and environmental wellbeing, bidding to be among the first countries to officially monitor happiness”.
The Relationships Foundation has long argued that there’s more to life than GDP. Just before the recent general election our pamphlet A Relationships State of the Nation made the case for assessing the relationships that are important for wellbeing.
This would hold up a mirror to our society and ask: do we like what we see, do we like the direction in which we are travelling?
We believe that it is essential to track such indicators as the loneliness and isolation of older people, the quality of couple relationships, how well public services relate to those who use them, or impact of workplace relationships on both economic growth and wellbeing.
Reporting on the subjective experience of ‘happiness’ can be useful, but linking this back to the experienced reality of relationships, and the impact of policy decisions on those relationships, will add much more value to and debate about national progress. RF will therefore be making recommendations about how the state of relationships could best be captured within national statistics and hopes that such data will be an invaluable resource in coming years.
The Cost of Family Failure
A flurry of interest in the Relationships Foundation’s annual Cost of Family Failure index followed a speech by Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to the recent Relate annual conference. RF’s 2010 update put the costs of relationships failure at £41 billion. Mr Duncan Smith thought that the figure could be considerably higher.
In either case it is a very large amount of money, and only when this cost is taken seriously will people recognise how important relationships are to wellbeing and happiness.
RF’s view is that policymakers and implementers can, and should, make informed choices in terms of public motivation, opportunity and support which will lead to more stable relationships, thriving lives and thereby reduce the costs of relationships failure.
Mr Duncan Smith also added: “This is not some abstract debate. Family life affects all of us – what happens on our streets, in our communities and in our economy. What you learn from a very early age has a great deal to say about the person you will eventually become and the life you lead. We would be foolish to ignore the weight of evidence that shows just how influential family can be to life outcomes.”
Summing up his speech, the minister said the Government would support committed, stable relationships with two parents, recognise that marriage provided a sound basis for the majority of long-term relationships and would give “proper” support for families under stress to minimise the risk of family breakdown.
Launch of the Relational Business Charter
The Relational Business Charter was publicly launched at a seminar on November 10th at the UCL Centre for Commercial Law, London, addressed by the Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Dr Arad Reisberg, the Director of the UCL Centre for Commercial Law, Dr Michael Schluter CBE and Jonathan Rushworth.
Stephen Timms MP introduced the meeting. He stressed the importance of relationships, not least, for example, in building a powerful cross-party consensus within the coalition government. He also emphasised the need for socially responsible investment with the application of a different set of values and the formulation of fresh responses. He warmly congratulated Dr Schluter, Jonathan Rushworth and their collaborators for their pioneering work on the Charter.
Michael Schluter and Jonathan Rushworth then outlined the proposal for a Relational Business Charter and Relational Ratings Agency, explaining how their work on this innovative approach to addressing current concerns about company structure and behaviour had followed consultation with leading corporate lawyers, fund managers, accountants and economists.
Dr Arad Reisberg, the Director of the UCL Centre for Commercial Law chaired the meeting. In light of Business Secretary Vince Cable’s current consultation on ‘A long term focus for corporate Britain’, Dr Reisberg drew attention to the relevance of the Relational Business Charter as a means to promote long-term growth. He also highlighted how along the years the relational model underpinning the Charter had accurately identified the flaws of corporate structure and behaviour, making Michael Schluter way ahead of the game.
Stephen Green: Good Value – Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World
We noticed the following important passage in Stephen Green’s recent book. Stephen Green is Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc and has been appointed UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment from January 2011.
“It is clear, in short, that capitalism for the twenty-first century needs to rediscover a fundamentally renewed morality to underpin it. It needs to start with a question: What is progress? Is it the accumulation of wealth, or should it involve a broader definition of the quality of life which takes into account a more integrated understanding of well-being?
Surveys consistently show that economic progress has not been accompanied by the expected improved level of happiness, and that the price paid for it by many has been in the quality of human relationships. On average, people do not think of themselves as happier or better off than their parents were – even though their material standard of living is, in so many societies, unquestionably higher. And there has in particular been a marked decline in the sense of trust. The collapse in perceived trustworthiness is obvious with respect to the banking sector, but also applies to business more broadly – as well as in family life and in social relationships generally.”
Stephen Green: Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World, Penguin, 2010