Welsh law requiring listed public bodies to pursue seven well-being goals under a sustainable development principle, with an independent Future Generations Commissioner for Wales to advise, review and recommend.
The Act (Royal Assent 29 April 2015) requires listed public bodies, including the Welsh Ministers, local authorities and health boards, to carry out sustainable development: to set and publish well-being objectives that maximise their contribution to seven goals and to take reasonable steps to meet them. Bodies must consider five ways of working: long-term, integration, involvement, collaboration and prevention. The goals are a prosperous, resilient, healthier and more equal Wales, cohesive communities, a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language, and a globally responsible Wales. The Commissioner, a guardian of future generations' ability to meet their needs, can review bodies and make recommendations; bodies must follow them or explain. Duties took effect on 1 April 2016.
Audit Wales's 2020 review of 44 public bodies found many examples of long-term thinking but more thinking than planning, and warned of box-ticking alignment. Wider effects on well-being outcomes are not established by that review.
Section 4 lists seven well-being goals: a prosperous, resilient, healthier and more equal Wales, a Wales of cohesive communities, of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language, and a globally responsible Wales.[1]
The Commissioner's general duty is to act as a guardian of future generations' ability to meet their needs; a public body must take all reasonable steps to follow a recommendation unless it has good reason, and must publish its response.[1]
Audit Wales's 2020 review of 44 public bodies found more evidence of long-term thinking than long-term planning and warned that integration risked becoming a bureaucratic exercise.[1]