The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015 requires Welsh Government Ministers to set National Indicators to measure progress towards the seven national well-being goals, shown in the figure below. On March 16th, 2016, a set of 46 National Indicators were laid.
The Act also requires Ministers to lay National Milestones for 2050 which ‘set out expectations of progress, including the scale and pace of change required’. A “first wave” of eight Milestones was ratified in the Senedd in December 2021. The Welsh Government is in the process of developing the “second wave” of Milestones by the end of 2022.
WCPP was commissioned by the Welsh Government to bring together existing research evidence to inform the development of three National Milestones for the following National Indicators:
- National Indicator 2: Healthy life expectancy at birth including the gap between the least and most deprived
- National Indicator 3: Percentage of adults with two or more healthy lifestyle behaviours
- National Indicator 5: Percentage of children with two or more healthy lifestyle behaviours*
WCPP produced three policy briefings, fed this evidence into round tables with Welsh Government officials and policy leads, drawing in academic experts. The final policy briefings can be accessed below.
*Since we finalised our briefing on Children’s Healthy Lifestyle Behaviours, National Indicator 5 was changed from ‘percentage of children with fewer than two healthy lifestyle behaviours’ to ‘percentage of children with two or more healthy lifestyle behaviours’.
The seven well-being goals for Wales Source: Welsh Government, 2020