Improving lives in Wales means thinking 50 years ahead - Future Generations Commissioner

Derek Walker - Future Generations Commissioner for Wales

Wales was bold enough to legislate for the needs of the future, but when it comes to how we spend public money, we’re still stuck in the past.

As the Future Generations Commissioner, it’s my job to remind those in power of their duty to those not born yet.

If you're a family living through the cost-of-living crisis, you want to be able to put food on the table tonight; you also want a good life for your children in 10, 20, 30 years. It's my job to challenge the Welsh Government and other public bodies to act on both.

But we can’t protect our communities living today, let alone those who’ll live here in 50 years, if we don’t get out of the short-term spending rut still gripping modern economics and failing populations.

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Demand

Our health service receives half the annual Welsh budget, at around £12bn a year, but it isn’t enough to meet the increasing demand yet alone stop us getting more and more unhealthy.

At a time when our population is ageing, obesity and mental health needs are rising dramatically, we have to invest more in the things that keep us well, but this type of spending is often cut to plug the gaps in front-line services.

Without action, spending on prevention will continue to be a casualty of intense pressures on day-to-day budgets and our well-being a victim of short-term thinking.

I’ve written this week, in collaboration with the Health Foundation and the Welsh NHS Confederation, to the finance minister Mark Drakeford, to ask that all areas of devolved responsibility, including health, have an allocation specifically for preventative action.

Health prevention services, nature, the arts and sports all took a big hit in recent years. Yet organisations like Valleys Kids, who work in some of our most disadvantaged communities, say that for many young people and older adults, involvement in the arts is a lifeline.

Perhaps this latest budget can help to rebuild them, but they will take time to recover from the damage already done.

A recent report by the Senedd has called on Welsh Government to introduce a 'preventative' category of spending in future budgets to recognise and properly fund the value of culture and sport in improving physical and mental well-being.

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Nature

When it comes to protecting our natural world, essential for keeping us healthy, we’re short by around £5bn over the next 10 years, according to the Green Finance Institute’s estimate on halting nature decline in Wales.

As we approach 10 years of the Well-being of Future Generations Act in Wales, we have to move to spending better for tomorrow.

For example, to stop Welsh homes suffering flood damage in five years’ time, when we know extreme weather is likely to get worse, we need to act now to build long-lasting resilience, working with nature - not against it.

We need to stop short-term funding limiting ambition in our public sector. At the moment, we’re not providing the conditions for clever, strategic thinking. Short-term funding means short-term job contracts and quick fixes.

We have capital investment plans that span 10 years, but we’re not applying the same longer term thinking to our resource funding. We need to build people’s skills and work better with communities on things which might not see results this year, but that the next baby born to our family will gain the benefits of by the time they start school.

The Future Generations Act’s well-being goals are designed to improve our social, cultural, environmental and economic well-being, and they should shape the national budget.

This law also frames the approach to budget setting, so we’re not spending in one area and undoing good work in another.

Long term

While we still aren’t seeing enough long-term and preventative decisions coming through the process, an approach to prevention is now being trialed to help the Welsh Treasury understand how it can work more in this way. But we are far behind where we need to be.

Alongside other nations such as New Zealand, Australia and Ireland, Wales is leading the way on gender budgeting, assessing the impact of budget proposals on women and girls, and we’re seeing better involvement of the people who use public services, engaging with young people in Wales on the Young People’s Budget.

These are all helping to make progress on improving lives in Wales, but they are not enough.

The Welsh Spending Review announced by the Minister for Finance and Local Government in 2024 could be just the opportunity to shift the mindset.

In April, I’ll be making recommendations to the Welsh Government, in line with my challenge, Cymru Can, that everyone needs to play a part in making sure this world-leading legislation works harder to improve people’s lives every day.

The biggest challenges facing this generation cannot be fixed if we’re stuck in the short term. The climate and nature emergency and our health crisis need more than a quick fix.