There is still a long way to go, but ‘the Welsh way’ of doing things now means better involving people in decisions that impact them, taking preventative action instead of using short term plaster solutions, and collaborating to act on multiple issues at once.
Brodawel Care Home in Caerphilly is reducing isolation and improving well-being through intergenerational music and art sessions
It has embedded long-term thinking into Welsh Government and public services.
Created new tools and accountability mechanisms (e.g., Ways of Working Progress Checker).
Section 20 Reviews led by the Commissioner have identified areas for improvement and produced a Continuous Learning & Improvement Plan.
We have a new progressive school curriculum with an emphasis on developing well-rounded, ethically-informed citizens of Wales who are resilient and ready for the future.
Our primary school children are also receiving universal free school meals to reduce poverty and ensure that no child goes hungry in school.
The Well-being of Future Generations Act was used in 2019 to overturn the plan to spend £1.4bn on a 14-mile, additional stretch of motorway bypassing Newport. A nationwide campaign by climate voices, and an intervention by the commissioner, saved wetlands housing rare birds, plants and insects and changed the way we think about transport in Wales.
Our national plan for transport, Llwybr Newydd, is prioritising active travel that improves our health and environment, rejects building new roads as standard and pledges to increase public transport, walking, and cycling to 45% by 2045.
To keep communities safe, in September 2023, Wales introduced widespread 20mph speed limits across the country. In the first 18 months, 25% fewer people were hurt in road crashes and lives were saved, insurance premiums reduced, and the NHS saved millions of pounds.
“Probably the first really big decision that I had to make when I became First Minister was a decision on whether or not to give the go ahead to a new six lane M4 relief road around the city of Newport in South East Wales….
And the Well-being of Future Generations Act was very influential in that decision… So there is an example of where the WFG Act made a very practical and actually very high-profile difference in policy.”
Mark Drakeford MS, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language and former First Minister
Universal free school meals in Welsh primary schools
Radnor Primary School was awarded Sustrans Cymru Gold Active Travel School Award
Ali Arshad, Project Officer at Ffair Jobs Community Jobs Compact is tackling job inequalities by bringing employers and communities together to secure fair work
Wales has committed to becoming the world’s first ‘Marmot nation’ to tackle health inequalities
By law, government and public bodies must deliver fair work and a low carbon society.
Sixteen public bodies and 582 employers in Wales are paying a Real Living Wage to its employees, uplifting thousands of people to a higher wage and creating £140m in additional income for Welsh households.
With government support, organisations across Wales are putting the well-being economy into action.
Since 2020, Benthyg Cymru, which develops Libraries of Things across the country, has supported 15,000 ‘borrows’, saving households £400k and reducing carbon emissions by 180,000 kg.
Repair Café Wales supports a network of more than 140 repair cafes across Wales and has fixed almost 20,000 items, saving 637,503.3 kg of carbon emissions.
Through committing to the eight Marmot principles around eliminating unfair and avoidable differences in health, Wales is shifting focus towards prevention and long-term well-being to save our NHS, improve health, reduce inequalities and bring communities back to life.
We’re helping to put the future on the map, influencing the UN and countries across the globe to adopt long-term approaches that focus on future generations.
Read more about our international impact and how we’re sharing learning with other countries across the world.
In Torfaen, 14 schools have installed solar photovoltaic panels, saving them an estimated 2,459 tonnes of CO2 and £240,000 in annual energy costs. They are also using the panels as an educational tool and equipping their students with eco-literacy skills needed for the future.
Awel Aman Tawe has established two of the largest renewable energy co-operatives in the UK, Awel (a wind energy co-op ) and Egni Co (a rooftop solar co-op) which have helped generate cheaper, greener electricity for thousands of homes and local buildings and helped fund education and art programmes for the local communities.
Ynni Ogwen, a community benefit society in Dyffryn Ogwen, own a micro-hydro turbine on the local river which generates energy that is sold back to the grid, with profits reinvested back into the community for further renewable projects.
Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Arts Development team is strengthening community connections by integrating arts projects into public life. Through intergenerational storytelling, skill sharing and music sessions in care homes and apprenticeship schemes for local freelancers, their team is showing the impact of embedding culture and the arts in our lives.
Velindre University NHS Trust’s Arts in Health programme is working with health boards to support patients and staff though providing regular art provision including hospital concerts from BBC National Orchestra of Wales for chemotherapy patients, artist residencies, well-being workshops in St Fagans and creative writing projects for palliative patients to give opportunities for self-expression.
Garnteg Primary is one of 14 schools in Torfaen to install solar panels, saving CO2 emissions and money and teaching pupils eco-literacy skills needed for the future
Brodawel Care Home in Caerphilly reducing isolation and improving well-being through intergenerational music and art sessions
Ysgol Bro Banw in Ammanford is tackling food poverty as part of the ‘Big Bocs Bwyd’ scheme inspired by the WFG Act
Bannau Brycheiniog has harnessed futures storytelling to better involve communities and think long-term when developing their strategy, Dyfodol y Bannau
Ali Abdi, community organiser, Citizens Cymru Wales
Food Sense Wales are working with local authorities and farmers across Wales to get more fresh, locally grown vegetables in our primary schools. Their Welsh Veg in Schools project has now grown from a Courgette Pilot in 2022, to providing 1 million portions of organic veg from 15 growers to more than 200 schools in 2025.
In collaboration with Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Cardiff Council and Vale of Glamorgan Council have committed to banning the advertising of Ultra-Processed and high in fat, salt and sugar foods from all publicly owned advertising and marketing spaces to reduce the negative impacts of these foods on our health, environment and communities.
Food Cardiff is working with farmers and communities to increase the amount of organically grown food we eat through their Cardiff Planet Card pilot scheme. Through a card with a value of up to £11 per week, local people were able to purchase organic alternatives without being left out of pocket, supporting organic growers across Wales while also promoting healthy, environmentally sustainable and ethical food across the city.
Bannau Brycheiniog has harnessed futures storytelling to better involve communities and think long-term when developing their strategy, Dyfodol y Bannau. Bannau Brycheiniog is using futures tools to bring communities and policy-makers together to create a shared vision for the future including an immersive time travel machine where school children envisioned the past, present and future of food, created a plan of action and presented their findings to local decision-makers.
Newport Council is leading the way in Wales in using a Participatory Budgeting approach where local people decide how public money is spent. In June 2024, the Council completed their sixth participatory budgeting process; £900k was allocated to over 180 community and voluntary sector projects with more than 850 people having taken part in voting.
Football Association of Wales is working to become the most sustainable football association in the world with their sustainability and well-being plan, and Bluestone National Park Resort has aligned its business with the WFG Act’s well-being goals, reducing emissions and moving to a circular economy model.
Câr-y-Môr, Wales’ first community-owned, regenerative seaweed and shellfish farm used the WFG Act to challenge a short-term marine license and now have a 20-year license to produce sustainable Welsh seaweed and farm native oysters and mussels off the coast at Ramsey Sound, where they are monitoring the impact of the farm on the marine environment and biodiversity along with benefits for the climate.
Wales’ act is unique internationally as a statutory duty to consider future generations in public decision-making.
It has directly inspired long-term policy work in places like Scotland, Ireland, and Japan, and influenced UN discussions on futures representation.
We continue to be a strong voice for future generations.
The commissioner and the team use their influence to involve diverse voices and advocate for more action on our climate and nature, health, cultural and economic well-being on behalf of those yet-to-be-born.
Our Future Generations Leadership Academy is developing leaders who care about creating a better Wales and the world.
Explore the movement for change across Wales where people are using the Well-being of Future Generations Act to improve lives for now and the future.
