What consideration has the Cabinet Minister given to creating a similar marathon a month challenge for NHS Wales as established by NHS England?
Whilst the announcement made last week applies to England only, my officials and Public Health Wales are engaging in early discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to explore what opportunities there might be for Wales. In the meantime, we are focusing on our first-100 day commitments to improve population health and embed prevention across government.
The Welsh Government recognises the importance of supporting people to be more physically active and the associated health benefits, in line with the UK Chief Medical Officers’ physical activity guidelines. With the refreshed guidelines being launched today.
Our first 100-day plan and manifesto make our intentions and our level of ambition clear on increasing levels of physical activity to promote good mental and physical wellbeing across the population.
This includes establishing a dedicated workstream within government to identify opportunities for increased levels of engagement in sport and physical activity, and consult on how to strengthen partnership working between health services and sports organisations. It also includes a daily mile initiative in Welsh schools and a new national school swimming and water safety programme. An allocation of £2m has been provided in the first supplementary Budget for 2026-27 to support the roll-out of the new school swimming and water safety programme, which will ensure children in years 4 and 5 in every primary school in Wales receive 20 lessons of swimming and water safety. Further details on implementation will be announced shortly.
Further measures to support physical fitness will be developed as part of our manifesto.