Foundational economy (FE)
The foundational economy is the part of our economy that creates and distributes goods and service that we rely on for everyday life.
Examples of the foundational economy are:
- care and health services
- food
- housing
- energy
- construction
- tourism
- high street retailers
Foundational economy in health and social services
The FE programme considers how we spend money in Wales and how we can make better decisions on how to spend it. More than half of the Welsh Government’s budget is spent on health and social services. We want to ensure that we spend this money in a way that will benefit our people and our economy.
The Foundation Economy programme focuses on:
- the direct goods or services we buy (e.g. food for hospitals)
- the workforce we directly employ
- how the location and co-location of our services affects communities and how they can access services
It looks at how and where we can procure goods and services that can help the Welsh economy and support our population. By spending our budgets in Wales, we will support Welsh companies that provide jobs and training in a local supply chain. Local supply chains are also better for our environment and more resilient to global changes.
As an employer we want to ensure that local people have opportunities to train and find work in NHS Wales and social care at all levels. This will benefit our communities further.
When considering the value that our spending can add to communities, we can also affect where services are located and how different services can be placed together to make them more accessible.
We are working with stakeholders and suppliers to achieve the ambition of the foundational economy programme to prioritise spending our budgets in Wales.