Our Future Focus

We are involving people in a number of ways to gather their views including via an online survey to gather feedback and ideas to inform Our Future Focus over the next seven years. 

Share your views through our survey here.

This work will establish priorities for our team in terms of areas of focus, and how we work in the future. It will help us take decisions on how we can most effectively allocate our time and resources to have the biggest impact for the wellbeing of current and future generations. 

Our Future Focus survey will be live until the 3^rd July 2023.

This will be the beginning of an ongoing process of involvement leading up to the next Future Generations Report (2025) and beyond, and will enable us to share our priorities later this year.

If you have access to reports or information you think we should consider in our initial analysis, or you are organising events with groups you’d like us to speak with between now and the end of June, please get in touch via contactus@futuregenerations.wales. 

Who can fill out the survey?

The survey questions are tailored to be specific to you and the ‘hat you’re wearing’.

Whether you’re a public body representative, a business interested in the Act, or an individual who’s campaigning for a better future for those not yet born, we want to hear from you.

You can also fill it out on behalf of your organisation, as an individual, or both – the questions will rout you to the appropriate part of the survey.

How can I send feedback on behalf of a group?

To aid those sending us feedback and ideas on behalf of their organisation or group (and who may therefore like to confer with colleagues first), you can access word copies of the survey here if you are from a public body or here if you are from the voluntary sector.

Please do not send us your answers via any word documents – you will need to transfer them to the online survey.

Since I began on March 1, my team have been reviewing the process of setting work priorities which happened seven years ago when the Office was first established. We’ve also been undertaking desk research and collaborating with others to collate everything we have learned since then. 

We have been using futures methodologies to embed long-term thinking into how we analyse the data we already have and involving stakeholders via an initial workshop to shape this work via the Three Horizons method.  

Last time we set our areas of focus we used a range of involvement methods including desk research, panels of experts, consultations with stakeholders and the public via SenseMaker, and round table events. This helped us choose areas of focus identified as having the greatest potential to improve all four dimensions of well-being (environmental, cultural, social and economic).  

These areas have informed our work over the last seven years and helped form a basis for deciding what to get involved with. For example, we worked with Welsh Government to ensure the Act is reflected in their key planning guidance, Planning Policy Wales, and our work to influence the new Curriculum for Wales and ensure our children and grandchildren are well-equipped for the future.  

Much more is known now about the status of the seven well-being goals in Wales, how the Act is being implemented by public bodies and what the barriers to implementation are.  

The office has undertaken a wide range of research and involvement, including the Future Generations 2020 Report and two Section 20 Reviews (procurement and Welsh Government’s implementation of the Act). The movement behind the Act has also grown with many other organisations undertaking reviews and publishing thinking on the Act and its implementation. Welsh Government has published annual Well-being of Wales Reports and well as two Future Trends reports. 

We will build on all of this knowledge, as well as the foundations we built the first time, to enable us to establish areas of focus within six months.

While much has happened and changed over the last seven years, the major long-term trends affecting Wales (and the rest of the world) as identified in the previous priorities setting activity remain largely unchanged. These include the climate and nature emergencies, economic prosperity, the technological revolution, demographic change, social change and rapid urbanisation. 

So what’s next?   

To ensure we are improving all four dimensions of well-being across all seven well-being goals, in every community in Wales, we will be focusing on the ‘how’ and where our role as an Office would be most impactful.  

To help us do this we’ve outlined several ‘Camau’, (‘Steps’ in Welsh). These camau include: 

Cam 1:  

• Desk research, collating information from partners, and analysing information we already have (e.g conversations with public bodies and Public Services Boards, public correspondence, Commissioner’s events and more) 
• Futures sessions with stakeholders to review our work so far and our proposed approach to next steps 
• Forming a Steering Group to help inform this process  

Cam 2 

• Involving and collaborating with a variety of stakeholders and partners via meetings, events and existing networks 
• Gathering feedback via an online survey to be launched towards the end of April 

Cam 3 

• Analysing what we’ve gathered through the above camau and using Futures methodology to help us determine our own role and strategic steps going forward 

Cam 4 

• Testing our analysis results and sharing outcomes