The Welsh Parliament's Finance Committee asked organisations to provide information to inform their scrutiny of the Welsh Government’s 2026-27 Draft Budget proposals.
The Finance Committee looks at the Welsh Government’s budget from a strategic, overarching perspective. It also works with the other Senedd Committees to ensure that proposals for specific departments, or cabinet portfolios are considered in detail.
Our response
Our response focussed on:
- The opportunity for the Welsh Government to use the UK Spending Review to set out strategic, long-term funding priorities, particularly around prevention and early intervention programmes.
- The importance of early intervention and prevention funding and the need to protect it in future budget rounds to prevent funding for longer-term outcomes being sacrificed to fix short-term funding pressures. Investing in preventative programmes - particularly in relation to Early Years services - serves the longer-term interests of NHS Wales, the Welsh Government and the public more generally as it reduces future pressure on public services and ultimately saves money in the longer-term.
- The urgent need to address health inequalities which have resulted in Wales having some of the worst child health outcomes in Europe. Babies, children and young people in Wales will only get the world-class services they deserve when the child health workforce is valued, receives investment and is truly supported.
- The urgent need to address significant funding pressures within the Welsh NHS which has impacted on the ability of the child health workforce to provide quality and timely services.
- Investment in NHS IT systems and digitalisation to be prioritised in areas where digital infrastructure is significantly outdated, or in some cases non-existent.
Our recommendations
Budget decisions can easily overlook the needs of children, especially when allocations are made without a dedicated lens on their rights and wellbeing. The Welsh Government’s intention to introduce a statutory duty on public bodies, including health boards, to carry out Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) as part of decision-making and planning processes is therefore a welcome move. However, it is unlikely that HIAs will be in place in time to inform the 2026–27 budget cycle so we strongly urge the Welsh Government to commit to carrying out and publishing a Children’s Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) to set out the impact of spending decisions on children and young people in Wales.
Other recommendations for the Welsh Government include:
- Ringfencing prevention funding in future budgets and consider introducing a Preventative Departmental Expenditure Limit (PDEL) to inject long-termism into public spending.
- Using the upcoming publication of a UK-wide child poverty strategy by the UK Government to build on its own child poverty strategy to ensure it includes measurable national milestones, supported by transparent monitoring arrangements and ringfenced, multi-year funding. The Welsh Government should also continue to lobby the UK Government to end the two-child limit to benefit payments to provide further financial support to children and their families.
- Addressing stubbornly long paediatric waiting times by investing in multidisciplinary child health teams and community-based services to reduce demand. Child health services should also be explicitly considered and included in all strategic workforce planning and waiting list recovery programmes.
- Investing in modern NHS IT infrastructure and the digitalisation of child health records to ensure data is accessible, shareable and usable.
We respond to a wide range of consultations to ensure that the College’s position, and ultimately children’s health, is represented. Members can get involved in current consultations in Wales by contacting enquiries-wales@rcpch.ac.uk.