The Children’s Commissioner for Wales has welcomed the Welsh Government’s continued investment in children and families through the Supplementary Budget 2026-27, while calling for future budgets to demonstrate more clearly how children’s rights have informed spending decisions and how children themselves have influenced budget priorities.
The supplementary budget includes several welcome investments that are likely to improve outcomes for children and young people across Wales. These include additional funding to expand funded childcare, continue extending free school meals to eligible secondary school learners, pilot £1 bus fares for young people, invest in social housing, improve school buildings, reduce NHS waiting times and introduce the Cynnal pilot payment for children living in poverty. However, our assessment highlights that, while the supplementary budget includes targeted measures to support children living in poverty, it does not identify additional investment to respond to current system pressures affecting children’s mental health, Additional Learning Needs (ALN), children’s social care and support for care-experienced children.
The published budget documentation provides limited evidence of how children’s rights informed the allocation of additional resources. It is unclear how the Welsh Government has demonstrated due regard to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, as required by the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011, when determining these spending proposals. There is also limited information about how children and young people were involved in developing the proposals and how the impact of the additional investment on children’s rights will be monitored.
Future budgets should strengthen the application of a children’s rights approach by demonstrating how due regard to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has informed spending decisions, how children and young people have influenced budget priorities, and how investment will improve outcomes for children whose rights are least likely to be realised. Public budgets are one of the most significant ways in which children’s rights are realised in practice. Greater transparency, meaningful participation and a stronger focus on equity will help ensure that future budget decisions deliver the greatest benefit for all children in Wales, particularly those facing the greatest disadvantage.
You can read a Children’s Rights Impact Assessment here