Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd, and I'd like to start by thanking the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee and the Equality and Social Justice Committee for their joint work in bringing forward this debate. The essential role that this Senedd, the Welsh Parliament, has in the well-being of future generations framework is one of the key features of the Welsh approach to sustainable development, and I do welcome the focus of the debate being on scrutiny of implementation. If we look across the world, parliaments are playing a key role in scrutinising action on the sustainable development agenda, but of course, we have a unique opportunity to debate this in light of our well-being of future generations legislation, which reached its five-year milestone last year. And the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales herself has reminded us that Wales is the only country to legislate in this way, using a long-term approach to look at root causes of problems in a law that's admired globally.

So, the Act, we believe—and I think it's been expressed today in this Chamber—is permeating and driving continuous improvement in how Government and public bodies work, so that future generations can expect a better quality of life on a healthy planet. The debate gives me the opportunity to show how the key duties in the Act have been implemented and recognise the efforts by all in making it work. So, public bodies have set their well-being objectives, published well-being statements about their contribution to the goals, and they are reporting each year on what they're doing. Public services boards have been established and assessments of local well-being have been completed; local well-being plans are in place and progress on them is being reported annually.

But I would like to respond to and thank Jenny Rathbone, the Chair of the Equality and Social Justice Committee, for her particular point and question about public services boards, because they are an essential part of localising Wales's well-being goals and they bring key partners together in partnership, and they do steer places on a more sustainable path and they are approaching their work differently, as you say, Jenny. They're becoming more targeted in focusing their efforts, they're identifying areas where collective action can have the biggest impact. And there is excellent work being done by PSBs in response to the recovery, such as Monmouthshire—and I'm sure Peter Fox is aware of that, as the former leader; the PSBs' collaborative project on active citizenship; and also the Cwm Taf work on adverse childhood experiences as well. So, PSBs have an important role and they've been galvanised, in fact, in terms of responding to the recovery of communities following COVID-19. This isn't additional work for PSBs; it's actually a continuation of their core work in improving the well-being of their areas.

And I think also, I would like to thank Natasha Asghar for her contribution today as well, and just reassure her that, in terms of funding cycles, it's been our aspiration, of course, to provide longer term budgets when possible. We haven't had that time frame available to us in terms of our own budget settlements, so we now have the certainty that we have in terms of three-year spending plans as part of the UK spending review delivering those multi-year settlements. We can't rule out the risk in terms of future prospects, but it does mean that we have the chance now to ensure that there is that funding cycle surety that is going to be with us with the spending review.

Just looking at some of the ways in which, as I said, the Act is being implemented: those community and town councils caught by the Act are taking steps towards their local well-being objectives. Because implementation of the Act is now about delivery, and this means public bodies delivering their well-being objectives, public services boards delivering their well-being plans, community and town councils taking action, but is also about getting better in the way that bodies act in accordance with the sustainable development principle, and ensuring that those five ways of working are working.