Welcome to the County Durham Approach to Wellbeing. On this page you will find information about ways of working that support the health and wellbeing of our local communities.
Below is a summary of the Approach to Wellbeing.
You can download the full version of the Wellbeing Self-Assessment Framework.pdf
What is the County Durham Approach to Wellbeing?
The County Durham Approach to Wellbeing is based on the best public health evidence for improving people’s wellbeing through implementing community centred approaches. The Approach to Wellbeing is about putting people at the heart of everything we do and underpins our work to achieve the County Durham Vision.
The County Durham Wellbeing Principles
1. Empowering communities
working with communities to support their development and empowerment
2. Being asset focused
acknowledging the different needs of communities and the potential of their assets
3. Building resilience
helping the most disadvantaged and vulnerable and building up their future resilience
4. Working better together
working together across sectors to reduce duplication and ensure greater impact
5. Sharing decision making
designing and developing services and initiatives with the people who need them
6. Doing 'with', not 'to'
making our interventions empowering and centred around you as an individual
7. A strong evidence base
everything we do is supported by evidence informed by local conversations
Tools to help you adopt the Approach to Wellbeing
The Approach to Wellbeing Framework has been developed to help reflect on the way we work and the impact this could have on community wellbeing; and to identify ways to embed the Wellbeing Principles further. It can be used for:
Project planning
Developing inclusive strategies and policies
Collaborative commissioning and delivery
Community engagement activities
Evaluation
The framework is particularly effective in a group or workshop setting where people can have conversations, challenge each other and develop a shared commitment to the approach. Please contact approachtowellbeing@durham.gov.uk if you would like any help with using it.
Have a look at our case studies page to find out about some of the practical ways others have embedded the approach in their work.
Your feedback
It is important that the Approach to Wellbeing develops over time in response to feedback from people using it. We are interested to know how helpful it has been, what has worked well for you and what hasn’t.
If you have any queries, or comments please contact us at approachtowellbeing@durham.gov.uk