The Well-being of Future Generations Act

Page updated on: 24/11/2023

The Well-being of Future Generations Act (2015) is a law which is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales. 

It means that we must do our work in a sustainable way, and think about the impact our work can have for people living in Wales, now and in the future. We must work with other public bodies in Wales to:

  • work together better
  • involve people reflecting the diversity of our communities
  • look to the long term as well as focusing on now
  • take action to try to stop problems getting worse - or even stop them happening in the first place.

To help understand the Act we have taken an ABC approach:

A. The Sustainable Development Principle

Like all of the individual public bodies named in the Act, we must follow the Sustainable Development principle - meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

For Wales to be sustainable it is important that we improve all four aspects of our well-being (economic, social, environmental and cultural) - each is as important as the others.

B. What are the 5 Ways of Working?

The Act requires public bodies to implement five key ways of working in its future decision making: looking to the long-term; taking an integrated approach; involving a diversity of the population; working with others in a collaborative way; and understanding the root causes of issues to prevent them from occurring.

Public bodies need to make sure that when they make decisions they think about how it will affect people living in Wales in the future. This means they need to think about being sustainable. Being sustainable means using the things we need to live our lives but making sure that there are still enough left for future generations.  To be sustainable, they have to think about:

  • The long term
  • What impact do decisions have on each other?
  • How they involve people in making decisions
  • How they work together with others
  • How to stop problems happening in the first place

 

C. What are the 7 Well-being National Goals?

This means that as a group we must improve the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of our area by working to achieve the 7 Well-being Goals. We will assess the state of economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being and publish a well-being plan setting out our local objectives and the steps we will take to meet them.

The seven well-being goals (‘the goals’) show the kind of Wales we want to see. Together they provide a shared vision for the public bodies listed in the Act to work towards. They are a set of goals; the Act makes it clear the listed public bodies must work to achieve all of the goals, not just one or two.

This will help create a Wales that we all want to live in, now and in the future.

What are Public Service Boards?

These boards have been set up as part of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, and they replace the Local Service Board (LSB) which were in place previously. Their purpose is to improve the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being in their area by working together to achieve the well-being goals.

There are 19 Local Public Service boards and there will be 20 Local Well-being Assessment drafts produced ready for public consultation. The Statutory Members of each Public Services Board are the local authority, the Local Health Board, the Fire and Rescue Authority and Natural Resources Wales.

In addition to the statutory members each Public Service Board will invite the following people to participate Welsh Ministers, Chief Constables, The police and crime commissioner, certain Probation Services and at least one body representing relevant voluntary organisations. PSBs will also be able to invite other public service organisations to participate.

Within Carmarthenshire our four statutory members are:

Our other partners are:

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