6. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the promotion of physical health among young people? OAQ52589

We deliver a number of approaches to support physical health. We have targeted programmes such as the daily mile, legislation through delivery of an obesity strategy and minimum unit pricing, service provision such as smoking cessation and weight management, guidelines through nutritional standards in schools and planning through health impact assessments. 

Thank you for that response, this was a case of having to word a question very carefully, because if I had asked the question that I wanted to ask on physical activity rather than physical health, the question would have gone to another Minister, but it was directed at you because of course promoting physical activity and exercise is crucial in promoting physical health. As we await the hopefully innovative report from the health committee here at the Assembly, does the Cabinet Secretary agree with me on a matter of principle, namely that we need to look at how we use health budgets to invest in physical activity? Because if we are talking about preventing ill health and making the NHS a health service rather than an illness service, we must ensure that all funding sources are available to create plans and programmes in the long term to promote health and to provide the infrastructure for health that we require in order to make us a healthier nation. Because making the nation healthier will ultimately save money as well.

I recognise the broad points you make and I don't think we'll find ourselves with any disagreement on the principles. I look forward to the committee's report, and you'll hear more from the Government over the course of this autumn. You know that we're committed, not just by legislation, but we've made public commitments about our new healthy weight strategy, available for consultation this autumn as well. The health budget of course has a role to play in the way we deploy resources in promoting physical activity and we are, after all, the largest employer in the country with over 90,000 directly employed staff within the service. So, we should be an exemplar ourselves about the opportunities that we provide and the messages we provide for our staff in their roles as employees, as well as their interaction with the population.

This is partly going back, if you like, to the important point about the broader cultural changes we need to see take place, and to renormalise areas of physical activity. And that does mean that we have to work across the Government with different portfolios, but actually to work with people in communities as well, and actually understand how we make physical activity easier for them to undertake, rather than saying, 'You should do this; it's a good thing for you to do'. We actually need to make it easier for them to do that as well. So, you'll hear more from the Government over the course of the autumn about what we propose to do, and I look forward to scrutiny and suggestions, indeed, about how we might choose to do that and, hopefully, achieve that in the most positive manner. 

Outdoor education can play an important role in encouraging our young people to get active and also give them the skills and confidence to do so. I know that you spoke just now about some of the cross-Government work that you are doing, but particularly with your colleague Kirsty, what are you doing there in order to try and promote the benefits of outdoor education?

I know that your previous profession was in the secondary education tier, but actually, when you look at what we, in particular, are trying to do, patterns for life are often set in early years and in primary school, and there's lots of outdoor education in almost all the primary schools that I have seen and visited. It's a consistent part of what they look to achieve. And not only that, but with the daily mile, we have 303 schools at the start of this school year signed up to do the daily mile, and there's something about shifting habits so that it's normal to do those things as opposed to making a special effort to do it. We're seeing more of that coming through, not just with curriculum reform, but the measures that I think we'll see coming through from the Government in what I think we'll be able to agree and then get on with from the autumn onwards. So, I'm optimistic about what we'll do, but the challenge is whether we can persuade the public to make different and continuing choices.

Question 7 [OAQ52570] is withdrawn. Question 8—David Melding.