Building Back for the Better

– a perspective from Carnegie UK Trust –

The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every part of our society: our economy; our environment; our social connections; and the relationships we have with our governments.

As we embark on the process of recovery, the Carnegie UK Trust believes that there is a collective responsibility to use what we have learned, not just to repair the damage, but to reconsider the fundamentals of economic, social and democratic structures that are no longer delivering positive outcomes for citizens and communities.

Others have referred to this process of collaborative sense-making as “building back better”. “Building Back for the Better: a perspective from Carnegie UK Trust” is our own contribution to that debate.

We have used what we know from our long history of research and practice development to set out a series of propositions, backed up by recommendations of practical things that could be done to improve wellbeing. The propositions are:

• National wellbeing can be the goal
• The relationship between the state and the citizen can be reset
• The future can be local (as well as global)
• Our relationship with work can be remodelled
• We can build a new level of financial resilience
• Technology can be for all

These will not be the only things that require to be considered for the medium-term recovery, but we hope that by taking a wide perspective we can connect the recovery effort with the transformative change to prevailing systems that so many have identified a need for, both before and during this pandemic.

Over the coming months, we will continue to work with organisations across all our networks to understand the impact of the pandemic on the people they work for. This will include central and local government; third sector and community organisations; credit providers; good work stakeholders, and many others. Where gaps remain in the space for collective sense-making, we will explore new opportunities to stimulate the necessary discussions.

If you would like to contribute to these conversations, please email me (Sarah@CarnegieUK.org) or join the debate online by tagging @CarnegieUKTrust – we would be pleased to hear from you.

Best wishes,

Sarah

Sarah Davidson

Chief Executive, Carnegie UK Trust