Resources

17 March 2026

A place to thrive: Creating healthier homes for children and families in poverty across Wales

Healthy homes are a fundamental building block for wellbeing, opportunity, and a fair start in life. Yet across Wales, too many families continue to live in housing that is cold, damp, insecure, overcrowded, or unaffordable. These conditions can have profound and lasting impacts on children’s physical and mental health, educational outcomes, and long term life chances.
This publication brings together the voices of families living in unhealthy homes with evidence and insights from stakeholders to inform policy, build a shared and holistic understanding of “healthy homes,” and highlight practical examples and solutions that demonstrate how housing can promote health and wellbeing for all people in Wales.

5 August 2025

Shaping the future of healthy housing for children and families in Wales: A summary of stakeholder engagement

Our homes can significantly shape our physical and mental health and well-being.
This paper sets out the work that Public Health Wales has conducted alongside other housing stakeholders to envision a future of healthier of homes, especially for those living in poverty. It summarises insights drawn from stakeholder conversations and a futures-focused workshop, held in November 2024.
This work builds on two previous reports from Public Health Wales – an overarching report, homes for health and well-being, and a second on affordability. Here we go further and shine a light on housing quality, affordability, and security, and the impact this has particularly on the well-being of children and families.

23 July 2024

No one left behind

This piece of work focuses on the potential impacts of future trends on our social connectedness and community networks (our ‘social capital’) over the next fifty years. It aims to explore some of the factors which may support and strengthen social participation and networks in Welsh communities, as a central feature of a healthy and flourishing society, and those which may risk alienating, polarising and isolating individuals and groups. This report does not aim to predict the future but rather to prompt people to think about the longterm challenges, opportunities, and possibilities that future trends can present.

7 June 2023

Building the social relationships of older people in Wales: challenges and opportunities

Social capital is a protective factor for health and well-being, and differences contribute significantly to health inequalities in Wales. This paper provides a rapid review of older people’s social relationships and networks and how this has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and more recent cost of living crisis. The report identifies policy and practice examples that can promote, sustain and strengthen older people’s social relationships and networks as a means of overcoming challenges and building the social capital of current and future older generations.