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Programme for Government Wellbeing Framework Development Team, NISRA

Case study details

Metadata item Details
Owner:Analysis Function Central Team
Who this is for:All government analysts
Contact:Matthew McFarland, Principal Statistician, Executive Office, NISRA (Matthew.McFarland@executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk)

Team name and Department

Programme for Government (PfG) Wellbeing Framework Development Team, Northern Ireland Executive Office (TEO) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).

 Situation and Action

Historically, Northern Ireland’s Programme for Government (PfG) relied on performance indicators tied to specific policies or actions, which changed with each administration.

This led to inconsistent reporting, a lack of continuity, and limited public engagement. Analysts in the Executive Office (TEO) proposed a strategic shift: to develop a Wellbeing Framework that would describe the state of NI society using consistent, long-term population-level outcomes.

To achieve this, the team:

  • Formed a cross-departmental working group of statisticians and policy experts
  • Developed 49 official statistical indicators across 10 domains (social, environmental, economic, and democratic). The number of indicators has since risen to 52, following stakeholder engagement
  • Ensured each indicator met the Code of Practice for Statistics and was assessed by a Technical Assessment Panel
  • Collaborated with the NISRA Tech Lab to build a dynamic, user-friendly dashboard
  • Designed the dashboard to serve both casual users and expert analysts, with features like sub-population breakdowns and automated updates via the NISRA Data Portal

Outcome / Impact / Results

The Wellbeing Framework was published in September 2024 as part of the draft PfG consultation. It:

  • Provided a transparent, consistent, and strategic view of societal wellbeing in NI
  • Enabled users to assess performance over time and across sub-populations
  • Was praised for its clarity, impartiality, and accessibility—especially the dashboard’s ability to communicate complex data simply
  • Received written commendation from the Head of the NI Civil Service, on behalf of the NICS Board
  • Achieved unanimous political support across the Executive—an exceptional outcome in a power-sharing context
  • Elevated the role of official statistics and the analytical community in strategic government decision-making

 Without this work, NI would likely have continued with fragmented, policy-specific indicators that lacked public resonance and strategic coherence.

 Feedback and endorsement

  • Written praise from the Head of the NI Civil Service & NICS Board
  • Positive feedback from stakeholders representing interest groups, particularly on the inclusion of sub-population data and clarity of performance reporting
  • Broad political consensus and Executive approval to publish the dashboard as part of the PfG consultation
  • Winners of the 5th Analysis in Government awards – Communication Award (joint winner) and overall Peoples’ Choice Award winner in the same year. Judges commented, “This felt like a game-changing approach, where the team had to convince seniors and ministers of a fundamentally new approach and then delivered it. Achieved across-the-board positive endorsement of the final product.”

Further reading

How this work supports the Analysis Function strategy

NISRA’s work demonstrated behaviours which support the Analysis Function strategy by developing a strategic wellbeing framework aligned with government priorities and built a cross-departmental, interoperable data dashboard.

Find out more: a strategy for analysis in government 2025 to 2028

 

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