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 3:41 pm on 14 December 2021.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 3:41, 14 December 2021

Thank you very much, Jenny Rathbone. Yes, 2050 feels a long way off, but it's actually what we're doing year on year, and how we are held to account and how we can use the national milestones and national indicators to track progress that is so important. That's why we've got a statutory basis for this. I would urge colleagues and Members to look at the 'Future Trends' report, because that is, again, a statutory duty, published today, and it's actually helping and supporting decision makers in Wales, as it says, to look to the longer term. It is the first statutory—well, the first due under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, the first 'Future Trends' report, was published back in May 2017, but it does actually give us a clear indication of the way forward in terms of the future trends that we need to link to in terms of making that important progress. It also highlights what we should be looking at, in terms of those future trends, to enable us to get a grip on progress. And I think you are focusing, absolutely rightly, on our young people and that generation, that we move forward. I've responded to the issues relating to the healthy behaviours of our young people, and we need to engage our young people and our schools, and the new curriculum will, of course, help us move forward on that front.

But I think, in terms of the percentage of working-age adults qualified to level 3 or higher by 2050, this is very much going to be guided by our new employability strategy, and to be looking at the opportunities that our young people have for skills in a changing world. That's actually stepping up our support for basic skills, foundation and digital skills, and helping individuals have the skills for the changing world that we're in, increasing the adaptability of the workforce, but then our young learners, to develop the skills and acquire the new ones. But it is, clearly—. In terms of the responses that we've had to the consultation, this is seen as a strong guide not just for Government, but for our public bodies to find the way forward.

And I've also mentioned the fact that we've changed our milestones, particularly in relation to healthy behaviours, to reflect a more positive approach. And I think the participation of young people is crucially important. It's a focus on developing targets and interventions for the key behaviours in a young person's life, improvements at a behavioural level, but also showing that, in our most deprived areas, we have to ensure that we focus on inequities, and those that have particularly been deepened by the pandemic. But can I say that we are exploring options for research to better understand the drivers that will ensure we can help our young people in being able to adopt those healthy behaviours that will have made such a difference to their lives, but it will have to be the result of intervention to tackle poverty? And, as you say, providing early years intervention in terms of childcare and free school meals are probably two of the key most important decisions that we know and we hope are coming through in terms of our budget and our co-operation agreement.