A range of health and care organisations have written to all Welsh Government cabinet secretaries and ministers, requesting information on how they are working to reduce the impact of poverty and inequalities in each of their remits.
Previously, many of the same organisations wrote to the Welsh government in April 2023, but since then little progress has been made. Families continuing to face inequalities and share the devastating impact poverty is having on their lives.
These organisations are once again calling for a joined-up delivery plan that sets out milestones, timelines and clear targets detailing what every Welsh government department is doing to tackle inequalities within their remit, and how cabinet secretaries and ministers are working together to reduce the impact of poverty and deprivation on the people of Wales.
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Wales Officer, Dr Nick Wilkinson says:
Across the child health workforce we see the harsh impact of child poverty and inequalities in our clinical interactions every day. It’s in the impact of poor-quality housing, limited access to nutritious food, low school attendance, rising mental health concerns and social isolation.
Yet, the impact of poverty and inequalities on children’s health is not inevitable. This is why RCPCH Wales brought together charities, representative bodies and professionals across the sector, so we can call on the government with one united voice to act.
For change to happen, we need to see a cross-governmental national delivery plan that will reverse the accelerating impact of poverty and inequalities on health outcomes, for the good of all our children in Wales, and our future society.
Welsh NHS Confederation Assistant Director, Nesta Lloyd-Jones says:
The wider determinants of health - fair work, housing, transport, access to green spaces, leisure and the arts - are all essential to our health and wellbeing. In such economically challenging times, budgets impacting the wider determinants of health become more squeezed.
Improving population health and wellbeing requires an integrated approach across all public services, all sectors and therefore all government departments. Unless we move away from siloes and short-termism and move towards a collaborative, long-term planning approach, the impact of poverty and inequalities will continue to be felt on our over-stretched services.
NHS leaders are committed to working with the government and partners across public, private and third sector to collectively tackle these challenges.
Royal College of General Practitioners Cymru Wales Vice Chair, Dr Claire Campbell says:
A patient often is impacted by inequality across a whole range of aspects of their life by the time they see their GP. Every government department has its part to play in delivering better health outcomes. We are all in this together.
The full list of organisations backing the calls are:
- ABPI Cymru Wales
- Asthma + Lung UK Cymru
- BMA Cymru
- British Psychological Society
- British Society for Heart Failure
- Cancer Research UK
- Care and Repair Cymru
- Carers Trust Wales
- Carers Wales
- Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
- Children in Wales
- Children’s Commissioner for Wales
- Citizens Advice Cymru
- Coeliac UK
- Community Leisure UK
- Crohn’s & Colitis UK
- Cymru Versus Arthritis
- Diabetes UK Cymru
- Fair Treatment for the Women of Wales
- Future Generations Commissioner for Wales
- Home-Start Cymru
- Learning Disability Wales
- Marie Curie Cymru
- Mencap Cymru
- MS Society Cymru
- NYAS National Youth Advisory Service Cymru
- Parkinson's UK Cymru
- Prostate Cancer UK
- RNIB Cymru
- Royal College of General Practitioners
- Royal College of Nursing Wales
- Royal College of Occupational Therapists
- Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
- Royal College of Pathologists
- Royal College of Physicians
- Royal College of Podiatry
- Royal College of Psychiatrists
- Royal College of Speech and Language
- Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
- Royal College of Surgeons of England
- Royal Pharmaceutical Society
- Samaritans Cymru
- Stroke Association Cymru
- Tai Pawb
- Tenovus Cancer Care
- Wales Council for Voluntary Action
- Welsh NHS Confederation
About our work
The Welsh NHS Confederation Health and Wellbeing Alliance subgroup on health inequalities is convened by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and Royal College of General Practitioners. The subgroup has published Mind the gap: what’s stopping change?, which was endorsed by 50 organisations in July 2022. Later the same year we published Everything affects health, which describes how organisations from across Wales are working collaboratively across health, social services, housing, the arts, benefits and welfare advice, transport, loneliness and isolation, climate change, air pollution and much more.