Strategies

Background

The Welsh Government sets out the strategic framework and formulates the health and social care policy which is to be implemented by NHS Wales and its partners when planning and delivering services for the people of Wales.

 

Major Strategies

A new five year vision for the NHS, based around community services and placing prevention, quality and transparency at the heart of healthcare has been published by the Health Minister.
 
Together for Health outlines the challenges facing the health service and the actions necessary to ensure it is capable of world-class performance.
Working differently – working together is the first document to be published supporting Together For Health, the 5 year vision for the NHS. It focuses on the vital role that all staff play in delivering safe and effective care for the people of Wales.

Together for Health: Public information delivery plan will be aiming to make substantial improvements in the way you can access health information over the coming months and years.

The aim of the Five Year Service, Workforce and Financial Strategic Framework for NHS Wales is to improve health; raise system and service performance and quality; and transform health services, to create a health system that is fit for purpose.

  
'Designed for Life' - A World Class Health Service for Wales (May 2005) describes the Welsh Assembly Government's vision for the kind of health and social care services the people of Wales can expect by 2015 and how these can be developed. Its focus is on health services and health improvement and so it is the principal strategy which guides NHS Wales in planning and delivering healthcare services for the people of Wales. 

The Social Services Strategy for Wales, Fulfilled Lives, Supportive Communities, was launched on 28 February 2007. Implementation of this Strategy will be a major programme of change and will take several years. It will require concerted collaborative action by the Assembly Government, local government and the NHS together with service users, the professions, the workforce, providers and the wider community working in developed partnerships.

Other Strategies.

Designed to Tackle Cancer in Wales sets out specific policy aims and strategic direction to tackle cancer. The policy aims are structured around the themes set out in Designed for Life of more prevention, early detection, improved access and better services.
 
Our Healthy Future is the Strategic Framework for Public Health in Wales. It sets the overall context and direction for action to protect and improve health in Wales by 2020.

The Community Services Framework March 2007 is a document about people and their local community services. In this context, the community is the place where people normally live their daily lives. Community services then are services in the community that enable people to live healthy, fulfilled and independent lives, and it specifically refers to those services such as primary health care services, including the general practitioner, dental, pharmacy and optometry services.

 

Achieving Excellence details how our new quality assurance and improvement arrangements will operate.

Last year’s Annual Quality Framework is a step change towards measuring an outcome, quality driven service that captures what is important to both the public and clinicians. It moves the focus away from targets, and allows greater flexibility for the NHS to innovate and improve services.

Additional Resources

Other key Health policy documents include:

The Wanless report ‘Review of Health and Social Care in Wales’, (2003) provided the backdrop to the first Health, Social Care and Well Being Strategy, supplying a framework for refocusing health and social care services.

Health Social Care and Wellbeing Strategies (2003) - local authorities and local health boards are required to formulate and implement a Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Strategy for their local area.

 

 

National Strategies for Health and Social Care 1999-2012

The Welsh Government's website contains an archive of its National Strategies for Health and Social Care since devolution.