The report highlights:
- Universal Primary Free School Meal programme: Expanded to nearly 174,000 additional pupils, with almost 55 million meals served since September 2022.
- Baby Bundles: £2.5 million funding for essential items for new and expectant families in deprived areas. Registration opens November 2025 and deliveries start February 2026. Work continues on a new Breastfeeding Action Plan.
- Healthy Start Scheme: Provides prepaid cards for healthy food, milk, and vitamins to eligible families. The scheme is currently being evaluated, and this includes considering new ways to improve uptake amongst eligible families.
- Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales: This is a 10-year strategy focusing on prevention and early intervention. The 2025-2027 plan was published in September 2025 with £4 million funding, including PIPYN family weight management pilots.
- Healthy Child Wales Programme: Launched 2016, offers universal health contacts from birth to age 7 (screening, immunisation and development). Review is underway, due spring 2026.
In response to the report, RCPCH Deputy Officer for Wales, Dr Dana Beasley, said:
We welcome the Welsh Government’s ongoing work to address child poverty and the overarching acknowledgement that poverty is a political choice. This a crucial point that must continue to drive the Government’s commitment to ending child poverty.
From a health perspective, it's very clear to paediatricians that more needs to be done. Child poverty remains stubbornly high and the impact is being felt by the most vulnerable families, particular for our youngest children.
As a children’s doctor, I had hoped to see a clearer focus on the rampant health inequalities children in Wales face, particularly in areas such as obesity, oral health and chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes. These are all areas in which our most vulnerable children are being impacted. The health of children living in poverty must be fully prioritised and more done to mitigate the impact of poverty.