No time to lose: Prioritising prevention - South Wales

08 May 2025
Jul 15 Tuesday
09:30
13:00
  • Stadiwm Dinas Caerdydd
  • Leckwith Rd
  • Caerdydd
  • CF11 8AZ

About No time to lose: Prioritising prevention - South Wales

  • We've published our report ‘No time to lose: Lessons from our work under the Well-being of Future Generations Act’.

    The importance, and challenge, of shifting towards prevention is echoed in our current work on temporary accommodation and urgent and emergency care. The event will provide an opportunity to hear more about that work. It will also provide an opportunity to hear about related findings in the Future Generations Commissioner’s Future Generations Report, also launched this week.

    The focus will be on exploring the latest thinking on prevention and looking how public bodies can make the shift from firefighting to futureproofing. Delegates will be able to share, learn and network with colleagues from across Wales.

    The event is aimed at public and third sector organisations in Wales including:  

    • Senior Leaders/ decision makers and policy leads
    • Members and Non-Executive Members
    • Public Service Boards & Regional Partnership Boards
    • Registered Social Landlords (RSLs)

Agenda

09:
00
Registration and refreshments
09:
30
Welcome and Housekeeping
09:
35
Adrian Crompton, Auditor General for Wales
09:
45
Shifting the focus towards prevention and long-term wellbeing

Marie Brousseau-Navarro, Deputy Commissioner and Director for health, Office of the Future Generations Commissioner

The Future Generations Report 2025 urges Welsh Government and public bodies to protect and increase prevention budgets each year, and move towards long-term funding arrangements. The Health and Well-being mission is to transform how public bodies in Wales keep people healthy, shifting the focus towards prevention and long-term well-being. Good health is more than hospitals and waiting times—it is shaped by our wider social and environmental factors. Public bodies must work together and with communities to tackle the root causes of ill-health and reduce health inequalities. 

10:
05
Investing in a healthier Wales: prioritising prevention

Dr Sumina Azam, Public Health Wales - Policy and International Health, WHO Collaborating Centre on Investment for Health & Well-being 

Good health is a fundamental right, but in Wales, health outcomes vary unfairly across communities. The report ‘Investing in a healthier Wales: Prioritising prevention’ emphasises the importance of investing in prevention to help everyone live longer, healthier lives. The report integrates previous findings with recent research on value-for-money public health programmes, highlighting successful interventions across three life stages: early years, healthy adults, and healthy ageing. 

10:
30
A choice of attending one of the following workshops:

Understanding investment and impact of prevention 
Zachary Scott, Policy Researcher, Prevention, CIPFA 

Following previous work on evaluating preventative investments, CIPFA is working with the Health Foundation to explore the extent to which council spending on prevention could be quantified. Working with partner councils and wider stakeholders, this work seeks to build consensus on a definition and scope for preventative action against which services and programmes could be mapped, and current levels of spending identified. The aim is to increase transparency on levels of investment in prevention and add to the evidence base for decision-making on issues such as the balance of reactive versus preventative spend and to build the case for a greater emphasis for preventative action.

Understanding levels of prevention 
Pep Malcheva and Jenny McConnell, Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales  

Learn about prevention and its different levels in the context of the Well-being of Future Generations Act. Reflect and discuss with colleagues on the different decisions and investments being made in your organisation and how these might fit within the definition and levels of prevention; and what you would like to see in 1 year, 5 years, 25 years ahead. Learn what the Commissioner's office is doing and how you can get involved.

Understanding prevention in practice 
Catryn Holzinger, Wellbeing of Future Generations Manager, Audit Wales 

In our report ‘No time to lose: Lessons from our work under the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act’ we said that accelerating progress under the Act starts with prioritising prevention. Without a more systematic shift towards prevention, budgets will be exhausted, and outcomes will likely be worse. The longer it takes the worse things are likely to get. Our recommendations call on the government to minimise funding uncertainty to help bodies plan effectively and to encourage investment in prevention. In this workshop, we will explore areas of our work covering Health and Local Government and explore the barriers and successes to prevention. 

11:
30
Tea/ Coffee
11:
45
A second chance to attend one of the above workshops
12:
45
Feedback
13:
00
Lunch and close
  • 51.4728372, -3.2030343

Speakers for the event

Dr Sumina Azam, National Director of Policy and International Health, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on ‘Investment for Health and Well-being’, Public Health Wales

Sumina leads programmes of work that support the development of, and advocate for policies to improve health and well-being and reduce inequity in Wales and globally through developing, collecting and sharing evidence on how better to invest in health, reduce inequity and build stronger and more resilient communities in Wales and worldwide.

Sumina’s areas of interest are tackling health inequity through policy levers, sustainable development, and the determinants of health such as housing and working in partnership across sectors. She is currently a Board member and Vice-President of EuroHealthNet.

Dr Sumina Azam

Marie is the Deputy Commissioner and Director for Health at the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. She has drafted and leads on the Commissioner's health and well-being mission to facilitate a transformation in the way we keep people healthy, with a greater focus on prevention and the long term. This is to help public bodies to work together to tackle the root causes of ill health and addressing health inequalities. She helped set up the office in 2016 together with the first Commissioner. As Deputy Commissioner since 2021 and former Chief Operating Officer, she makes sure the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner walks the talk and operates as efficiently and sustainably as they can. Marie is ‘adopted Welsh’ originally from France having lived in Wales for over 25 years.

Marie Brousseau-Navarro

Zachary joined CIPFA in 2023 and leads the institute's work on preventative investment in local government, supported by the Health Foundation. He was previously a Program Specialist at the Tokyo-based Health and Global Policy Institute, contributing to projects related to global health, universal health coverage and biobanking. He holds an MSc in Medical Anthropology from the University of Oxford and an LLB from Osaka University.

Zachary Scott

Jenny has been working at the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales for the last three and a half years. She works with the ‘Implementation and Impact’ mission to support bodies who come under the Act to achieve the most impact. She also works on the Health mission, which is supporting public bodies to prioritise prevention and support the building blocks of health. Prior to joining the office, she has worked as a Consultant at Miller Research, a Parliamentary Assistant in the European Parliament, and Place Programme Manager at Renaisi. 

Jenny McConnel

Pep is our office's policy lead for Health, Long-term thinking and Prevention, aiming to make Wales the most futures-literate nation in the world through the development of Hwb Dyfodol. Pep is passionate about getting people to imagine and build more hopeful and fairer futures together.

Pep Malcheva
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