Adferiad on the Deputy Minister’s Health Priorities

We welcome the Deputy Minister’s commitment to strengthening mental health services, advancing a National Care Service for Wales and placing greater emphasis on prevention and lived experience.

Reaffirming the 2025 Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy’s commitment to develop open-access, same-day mental health services is particularly encouraging. Timely support can prevent problems from escalating, reduce pressure on crisis services and ensure people receive help when they need it most. As our campaign, Towards a Fairer Future, highlights, reducing waiting times and removing barriers to access must remain a priority if we are to improve outcomes across Wales.

We also welcome the continued focus on social care reform and the recognition that services must work together to meet an individual’s needs. Lasting change will depend on sustained investment, a supported workforce and genuine partnership with the third sector, whose role is vital in delivering community-based support and reaching people who might otherwise fall through the gaps.

The Deputy Minister’s commitment to hearing directly from people with lived experience, including through the Women’s Health Summit, is another positive step. Policies are strongest when they are shaped by the people they affect, and as a member-led organisation we are delighted to see co-production at the heart of the Deputy Minister’s work.

These ambitions reflect many of the priorities Adferiad has set out for the new Welsh Government. We look forward to working collaboratively with Ministers and partners across Wales to help turn these commitments into meaningful improvements for the people and communities we support.