Policy and strategy, Document

2024 plan for health and social care

Following support by Cabinet in the summer 2024 a set of refreshed actions have been agreed to support the delivery of a healthier Wales.

First published: 9 December 2024

Last updated: 9 December 2024

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Promote a collective responsibility to maintain good health for individuals, communities and the health and social care system with a focus on preventing the onset of poor health and disease and on identifying and intervening early where disease occurs.
Through primary, community and social care services, help people stay well at or closer to home, through an integrated approach to improving the nation’s health and wellness; with a focus on rehabilitation, reablement and recovery, provide active support to keep people healthy and maintain independence.
Prevent and detect disease and illness earlier to improve individual and population health outcomes through targeted health screening, delivery of the national immunisation framework for Wales and delivering against the World Health Organisation targets for disease elimination.
Build and strengthen the health protection system to prevent, prepare and respond to existing and future health protection threats, including pandemics, on an ‘all hazards’ basis.

Ensure that all citizens can receive timely health and care services equitably, regardless of the language or communication format they need.
Establish and deliver against clear visions and plans for women’s health and children’s health from pre-birth to end of life.
Continue to implement an integrated community care system for Wales that delivers seamless place-based care planned and delivered around the needs of individuals and groups of people.
Create an age friendly Wales that supports people of all ages to live, age and die well.

Embed action on the climate emergency in decision-making and plans across the health and social care system.
Through the national direction of the Value and Sustainability Board embed a value-based health care approach across the system to focus on how we use our resources wisely to get the best possible evidenced based outcomes for patients.
Embed a healthier Wales into a national plan, which can then be translated for the NHS through the planning framework cascading into planning at the national, regional and local level.
Recover, reset and transform planned care services by focusing on clearing the backlog of those waiting for treatment, resetting the service with a focus on a value-led and efficient service model and driving transformation by embedding sustainable services.
Ensure that NHS Wales provides the very best care for patients at all times through the performance, oversight and escalation framework.
Ensure partnership arrangements at national, regional and local levels drive system change, efficiency and sustainability through collaboration and a ‘one Welsh public service’ approach.

Reduce health inequalities by ensuring equality of access to the health and social care system to achieve equity of outcomes.
Ensure Health and Social Care in Wales achieves its vision to provide an equitable whole system person centred approach, delivering more equal health and wellbeing outcomes for the population of Wales.

Standardise and reduce variation in pathways, service models and processes, through implementing standardised models and maximising the use of technology on a once for Wales basis.
Drive the containment, control and mitigation of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Wales, the UK, and beyond.
Maximise the use of the NHS Executive to drive improvements in the quality and safety of care.
Towards a national care and support service for Wales.

Deploy with industry partners, proven clinical systems, electronic care records and medical technologies to deliver greater standardisation of care pathways, improved productivity and support clinicians and professionals in decision making and enable wider population health planning.
Through a strengthened digital and data profession boost significantly the digital and data maturity required to meet international best practice and standards in cyber, infrastructure, user design, data sharing and recording, workforce development, electronic health and wellbeing records, agile procurement and clinical safety.
Establish a clear and agreed-upon national enterprise architecture built around core standards and with clear understanding of how data, applications and technology underpins national health and care transformation and policy priorities.
Ensure the complete deployment of key national digital capabilities, such as diagnostic and specialist systems, the Wales NHS app and electronic prescribing to support patients and public in accessing their own data and managing their care, while ensuring that no one is left behind by digital exclusion.
Put the use of data, insight and analytics, used safely and securely, at the core of the health and care system to deliver improved health and wellbeing outcomes.

Deliver an inclusive, flexible, multi-professional workforce able to work across sectors and traditional boundaries by ensuring the workforce strategy is implemented and underpinned by excellent workforce data and planning to attract, recruit and retain talented people to train, work and live in Wales.
Embed compassionate leadership and building a positive culture across the NHS and social care system in Wales to become exemplar employers for health, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion at work with the intent to share this approach across the wider economy.
Deliver effective and efficient deployment of the workforce to make the most of our investment in the skills of the workforce and technology to deliver safe patient outcomes.

Strengthen research capacity and capability, and raise awareness of research across the health and social care sectors by developing targeted improvement plans and strategic funding partnerships, and promoting the effective use of research to inform policy and service improvement.
Develop and deliver a comprehensive vision for life sciences and innovation that serves as a catalyst for enhancing the health and wealth of the Welsh population and its economy.
Use modern and emerging technologies, innovations and biosciences including genomics and personalised treatments to deliver greater value and sustainability across all national improvement and transformation programmes and initiatives.

Ensure the people of Wales have a strong voice to inform the ongoing development of an effective, joined up health and social care system.
Ensure individuals and their carers are enabled to work as key partners in co-producing and owning their own health and care plans.

Develop and scale up models of integrated community based services in line with population health and wellbeing needs to achieve a consistent model of integrated community care across Wales.
Build on regional and local partnership arrangements to ensure closer alignment in the planning, commissioning and delivery of health and care services to maximise assets and resources.

This file may not be fully accessible.