Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:46 pm on 19 September 2018.
Diolch, Llywydd, and good afternoon, Cabinet Secretary. I wanted to ask you some questions today about social prescribing. As you know, social prescribing—sometimes referred to as community referral—is a means of enabling GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local and non-clinical services. So, it does promote a more holistic approach to health matters and, as such, I think it is a welcome development.
Now, it's widely acknowledged that Wales does have a major problem with obesity, with 59 per cent of adults in Wales classified as being obese and, more worryingly still, the figures for children also show that almost a quarter of children are obese. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to encourage the use of social prescribing to tackle the obesity problem?