3. Statement by the Minister for Social Justice: Shaping Wales Future — Laying national milestones, revised national indicators and publishing a Future Trends report

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:35 pm on 14 December 2021.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 3:35, 14 December 2021

Thank you very much, Vikki Howells. Yes, there are really important opportunities, in terms of these national milestones, to ensure that we do have a much more level playing field in terms of access to qualifications and employment. Seventy-five per cent of working-age adults will be qualified to level 3 or higher by 2050, because we know that with higher-level qualifications you're much more likely to be in sustained employment, with larger earnings and wage gains as well. But we know that we've got to reach out to those who are furthest from the opportunity for those skills and qualifications and gateways into higher-skilled jobs.

And I think, if you look at just some of the qualifications levels, going back to the previous questions about making sure that there's more consistency, that we can focus and target not just geographically but also on those who need perhaps the bigger boost and input, and particularly relating to the points that you made—. Because we do have to make sure that this is every local authority—percentage of working-age adults with no qualifications 5 per cent or below; this is a real focus on the local authorities. There is a considerable variation. The highest proportions in terms of those with no qualifications are often in the south Wales Valleys. And in terms of national averages, that's what we need to seek, in terms of moving forward. And we will see the proportion with no qualifications—nearly five times higher for adults living in the 10 per cent most deprived neighbourhoods. So, the employability strategy that we're publishing in the spring of this year is going to be much more focused on tackling inequalities, providing support through personal learning accounts and, I think, our young person's guarantee, which is going to be crucial for the under-25s, as you know, and you have expressed support in terms of those issues.

I think it is also very important that you raise the increase of the percentage of children with two or more healthy behaviours to 94 per cent. And this is interesting, because I've mentioned there was a children's rights panel—Young Wales brought young people together. And as a result of the consultation, the national indicator has been reframed positively to allow focus on the young people who don't undertake any or only one healthy behaviour. It's actually also really important to see that there are actions that can be taken to reach out to those young people, particularly young women. So, it's issues around actions we already have under way, in terms of 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales', for example, putting a much greater range of issues to help shift population dietary behaviours. Physical activity, of course, is crucially important to that. But it's about ensuring that we're having investment into our school holiday enrichment programme, into the street games that we've invested in, the community sport fund, and also looking at this from the young person's perspective, and that's why the Young Wales panel was so important. Thank you.