Jenny Rathbone AM: One hundred and ninety-two million pounds
sounds a lot of money, but the size of the problem is enormous. We
have nearly 7,000 people under the age of 25 with type 2 diabetes
and 1,500 of them are under the age of 19. That is a very, very
serious statistic. So, it seems to me that we are going to need to
roll out across Wales, proper weaning advice for all new
parents, as well as cookery classes...Request free trial
: One hundred and
ninety-two million pounds sounds a lot of money, but the
size of the problem is enormous. We have nearly 7,000
people under the age of 25 with type 2 diabetes and 1,500
of them are under the age of 19. That is a very, very
serious statistic. So, it seems to me that we are going to
need to roll out across Wales, proper weaning advice
for all new parents, as well as cookery classes in all
our schools to ensure that people aren't eating things that
are literally killing them. So, I appreciate that the
consultation hasn't yet closed, but presumably—is there any
possibility that, were the health Minister to identify
additional needs over and above that £192 million, that
that might be a conversation you'd be prepared to
contemplate?
(Minister for Finance and
Trefnydd): Thank you for raising
the consultation. As you say, it hasn't yet closed,
but I know that your views will be very keenly
received by that consultation. There have been some
immediate measures that have been agreed by Cabinet,
because, like you, we recognise that this is one of
the issues that can't wait. So, proposed initial
actions that we would take would be, for example, to
increase daily activities through schools'
environments. So, we currently have 303 schools now
signed up to undertake the Daily Mile across Wales, and
if we see this is effective, and I understand that it
is, then we will be looking to double the number of
participating schools by 2021.
We also, as you know, want to support more active
travel and remove the barriers to walking and cycling.
We've also committed to reviewing the delivery of the
national exercise referral scheme and to work with
partners to expand opportunities for social prescribing
and delivery of initiatives to engage with people who
currently have multiple barriers to engaging in
activity. Another one of the initial, immediate actions
that we wanted to take forward was to create new loans
and grants for small physical activity-related
businesses and clubs, and Business Wales and the
Development Bank of Wales are exploring this at the
moment. Another area that we want to take forward is
for Sport Wales to provide more proactive planning
advice. So, we want to strengthen and enhance their
capacity to engage proactively with developers and
local authorities on their local development plans, and
also with developers, universities, schools and
colleges in order to plan in physical activity at the
start of that planning process in a much more strategic
way. So, although the consultation is ongoing at the
moment, there are some initial plans that we have put
in train.
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