5. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the delivery of the wellbeing goals through public services? OAQ52138

Public bodies are currently preparing their first annual reports under the Act. These reports will set out how public bodies are meeting the objectives they have set, and I look forward to working with them to make further progress towards our shared well-being goals.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that answer, because delivering well-being in all our policies is clearly a major challenge that's going to be facing our public services. It's going to require a set of outcome measures for our public services that, in turn, will help to provide them with a clear focus on community well-being.

Public services, as you will appreciate, have a huge collective responsibility in terms of providing homes, in promoting mental health and well-being and in ensuring that the NHS continues to transform into a well-being service and not just an ill-health service. Do you agree, therefore, particularly in these times of austerity, that personal and community well-being has to be supported not just as an abstract notion, but as a key economic driver in our communities and that we should place much more emphasis on delivering a set of outcome measures for public services that provide them with a clear focus on community well-being that will improve people's lives now and into the future?

Presiding Officer, can I say how much I agree with the premise of the question and the principles underpinning that question? I think, in many ways, public services are the bedrock of our civilisation. How we deal with people and how we provide services for, sometimes, the most vulnerable people in our communities speaks to us of who we are as a country and who we are as a people.

I absolutely agree and I agree with the imperatives underpinning the well-being of future generations Act to deliver a more holistic approach to understanding how we deliver improvements in our communities. I would like to see how we do bring together economic, social and environmental indicators to deliver a far richer view of how we understand our communities in the future, and I'm looking forward to seeing and reading the well-being goals and the well-being policies that are being developed at the moment, and how far local authorities and others are able to come in delivering on that vision and that ambition.

One of the well-being goals is to create a healthier Wales. According to Diabetes UK Cymru, Wales faces a diabetes epidemic whilst the latest National Child Measurement Programme's annual report shows that more than a quarter of children in Wales are overweight or obese. Will the Cabinet Secretary comment on the role of public services in tackling obesity and diabetes, thereby helping to achieve the goal of a healthier Wales in the future? Thank you.

I do believe that we have a collective responsibility to improve the health of our communities. Members will, I hope, be delighted to hear that I've just signed up to a daily mile in a school in my own community, addressing some of these issues—it might take me more than a day to complete it, but it's certainly my ambition. I believe that we do have a collective responsibility to address these issues.

And, let me say this: speaking, perhaps, as a Member for Blaenau Gwent, when I first stood for election in the constituency, I felt that the economy was the beginning and the end of the issues facing us as a community. If I was standing for the first time again, I would focus on public health and focus on some of the real public health challenges that we have in the community that I represent and in many communities across Wales. I think addressing those fundamental issues of public health is a key determinant of whether the national well-being goals, indicators and milestones are a success in reality for our communities.

You yourself are a public body under the well-being of future generations Act, and, under the duties of this Act, in order to achieve the well-being goals, you have to deal with your functions in a way that promotes sustainable development in all aspects. That’s incorporated into the Act and also in the Wales Act, as amended by the former Act. Now, we may not agree on the impact of the European Union withdrawal Bill and the inter-governmental agreement, but, under that particular agreement, you have to come to an agreement on frameworks across the UK—I’m sure we can agree on that. Therefore, can you explain how you will ensure that sustainable development is retained in any frameworks across the UK, as that is now part of the work that you agree to do with the Westminster Government? Specifically, will we as an Assembly have the right to vote on the content of these frameworks as you proceed to negotiate them in respect of the well-being goals?

The contributions of Welsh Ministers to each one of the discussions that we have with the United Kingdom Ministers are always based on the policy approach of this Government. That in itself is rooted in the principles of the Act that you have described. And so, every part of our policies and the various approaches through which we will realise our ambitions for our country will be part of, and derived from, the same commitment to the Act and the principles underpinning that. So, Welsh Ministers in every case, not solely when dealing with the United Kingdom, but at every opportunity, will realise our vision and ensure that that is an integral part of it.