Wales will become a Marmot Nation as part of the Welsh Government’s ongoing work to tackle health inequalities - this involves adopting eight principles by public health expert Sir Michael Marmot.

Sir Michael Marmot’s eight principles aim to eliminate unfair and avoidable differences in health which can be caused by where people live, what kind of job they do and how they are treated in society.

The move follows the success in Torfaen, which was an early adopter of the Marmot principles.

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Jeremy Miles has agreed the Welsh Government will work with the Institute of Health Equity (IHE), which is led by Professor Sir Michael Marmot, and put health equity at the heart of policy and decision-making across the Welsh Government.

This will mean working with a number of communities across Wales to reduce health inequalities using the Marmot principles, in the same way as Torfaen has done.

The work will focus on adopting the eight Marmot Principles to:

  1. Give every child the best start in life.
  2. Enable all children, young people, and adults to maximise their capabilities and have control over their lives.
  3. Create fair employment and good work for all.
  4. Ensure a healthy standard of living for all.
  5. Create and develop healthy and sustainable places and communities.
  6. Strengthen the role and impact of ill health prevention.
  7. Tackle racism, discrimination, and their outcomes.
  8. Pursue environmental sustainability and health equity together.

The Welsh Government says this commitment builds on Wales’ Well-being of Future Generations Act, which places a legal duty on public bodies to improve social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being and consider the long-term impact of their decisions.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot said:

“A society that meets the needs of its members will have good health and relatively small inequalities in health.

“Healthcare is, of course, important for health. More important are social circumstances, as summarised in the eight Marmot Principles. The policy implications are clear. Health policy is for the whole of government, not just for the health department or the NHS.”

However, Welsh Conservatives have labelled this pursuit a “divisive distraction for the NHS” and an “excuse” for Welsh Labour’s poor health record over 26 years in control of the Welsh Government.

Commenting, James Evans MS, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care said:

“Talk of ‘tackling racism’, ‘pursuing environmental sustainability’ and ‘health equity’ are divisive distractions for the NHS. The priority should be tackling Labour’s long waits for treatment.

“The Welsh Conservatives are more interested in tackling the ultimate inequality, which is the poorest health record in the UK, as a result of 26 years of Welsh Labour failure, from which Ministers are clearly trying to excuse by blaming ‘social determinants’.

“Under Labour in Wales, you are five hundred times more likely to be waiting over two years for treatment than in England. That is unacceptable and must be addressed through the declaration of a health emergency to direct the full apparatus of Government at the problem.”