The elections for the Welsh Senedd (devolved parliament) are being held on 7 May this year. We’ve gone through the manifestos of the main parties that are fielding candidates, and investigated what they are saying about key policy areas related to our work.
Most policy areas where Christian Concern is involved are reserved to Westminster under the Wales Act 2017 passed under the UK Conservatives. However, Wales does have powers over policies that work in relation to these policy areas in relevant ways, so scrutinising the details of the manifestos is important.
Below is a basic analysis of what each has to say, along with links to each manifesto. We hope this guide will be useful for voters in Wales, in working out which party you might vote for, and for engaging with candidates whether in hustings or meeting them more informally as they continue their campaigning up to polling day. We shall be monitoring how each party communicates about these policy areas up to and of course after the Senedd elections.
Welsh Labour commits to ‘fair funding for hospices’
As Welsh Labour has governed Wales for the last 26 years, its manifesto sets out detailed contrasts between what it says it has achieved and what it hopes to deliver in the future. Noteworthy is its commitment to ‘fair funding of hospices’, though it does not say how this is to be achieved.
“Develop a long-term plan to drive improvements to end-of-life care and ensure high-quality services are available to all. We are committed to fair funding for hospices.”
Sustainable funding for hospices and palliative care is critical to care of people at the end of their lives. In a society where many are pushing for assisted suicide laws it is particularly important to make sure people are able to receive real compassionate support and healthcare.
Plaid Cymru is strong on palliative care
Plaid Cymru, the left-wing Welsh nationalist party, has been projected to win the Welsh elections for some time now (though its projected majority has been narrowing with Reform UK’s rise). Its strongest policy is support for palliative care. Here is what it says:
“Palliative and end of life care are a critical part of our health and care system, and we will work to address the key challenges facing these services, including through:
Working with health boards, care providers and other relevant stakeholders to develop a new, sustainable funding model.
Requiring health boards to assess palliative and end of life care needs within their catchments and use this to inform planning and delivery of services – publishing local delivery plans for palliative care.
Ensuring that every Regional Partnership Board (RPB) includes a palliative and end of life care lead…
Develop tailored training for unpaid carers looking after someone at the end of their life, and ensure they have access to key healthcare contacts including 24/7 palliative and end of life care and support.”
Welsh Conservatives silent on hospices and palliative care
The Welsh Conservatives do not mention hospices or palliative care explicitly. This is what they say that’s relevant:
“We have a plan to fix our NHS and fix social care, delivering dignity for older people and ensuring they can retain their independence for as long as possible.”
This is in contrast to their statement of 30 March this year, that criticised Labour levels of funding for hospices, promising that they would spend significantly more on them.
Wales Green Party wants earlier palliative care
By contrast the Wales Green Party is interestingly vocal on these policies. This is what it says:
“We will protect funding for Welsh hospices, recognising the vital role they play in delivering compassionate, person centred care…Care should focus on comfort, communication, identity, safety and connection. We will replace fragmented, disease-led models with personalised care plans based on what matters to each person. This will include earlier palliative care, appropriate deprescribing and better shared decision-making.”
should be careful about playing off ‘disease-led models’ against personalised care plans. However, the commitment to earlier palliative care isn’t explained. In fact leading charities such as Marie Curie have been calling for an increase all around in palliative care, due to increasing demands.
Sharp divide between parties on gender ideology
The parties differ considerably on issues of gender ideology.
Plaid Cymru has for some time now simply been blind to the problems, pretending they don’t exist. Whilst its manifesto speaks of gender equality and the promotion of women’s rights, it makes no mention of single-sex spaces or definition of sex in law.
“Support the development of the Welsh Gender Service in line with best international practice, ensuring that people – including young people – can access appropriate and timely care in Wales without needing to travel to England.”
The age of these ‘young people’ is suspiciously left blank, which means we need to ask whether this really means under-16s.
The Wales Green Party wants a Youth Gender Service for Wales, in other words, another Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), similar to the now-closed and discredited clinic at the Tavistock. This is hardly going to be a vote-winner, but if the Greens get to be popular as they might be, this could be sneaked in through the back door.
“We will support NHS Wales to publish its own guidance independent from NHS England which protects the health of trans people on the basis of the internationally recognised best practice. We will establish a dedicated gender service for young people under 17 to access support and therapy, provide resources such as voice training, and offer advice to parents, alongside dedicated routes to healthcare provision (both mental health and physical). The service will also provide support for accessing adult youth services to avoid facing gaps in support. Talking therapies, HRT, and puberty blockers should all be accessible. While HRT may need to be delayed for younger people due to Westminster rules, puberty blockers have been shown to be safe and effective as a treatment method.”
This is simply untrue. Puberty blockers have not been proven to be safe, hence why the clinical trial was paused in February.
Single-sex spaces and gender self-ID
Plaid Cymru also wants gender self-ID:
“Work towards a simpler and non-medicalised process for gender recognition, including by pursuing the devolution of relevant powers.”
Westminster is not going to allow these powers anytime soon, so this proposal is either going to run into the sand or face legal action. This is not a great prospect for a party currently projected to be in government. Ed Balls challenged Rhun ap Iorwerth over this on Good Morning Britain, and was told the issue wasn’t that important for the elections. So why put it in the manifesto and complain about culture wars then?
The Liberal Democrats also gender recognition law reform across the UK, but say nothing about single-sex spaces. They mention the need for “life-saving medical care” for people of all genders, which sounds suspiciously like more gender reassignment procedures. It would be more appropriate to propose setting up specialist services to help detransitioners with the medical problems many of them have encountered through undergoing such procedures.
Reform UK provide a more reality-based policy, but fall short of protecting single-sex sports:
“Reform UK will reverse the ideological capture of the Welsh NHS by ensuring that women are not erased through the use of terminology such as ‘birthing persons’ and ending the use of self-ID for access to single-sex wards.”
The Welsh Conservatives by contrast have clear policy proposals across the board:
“Uphold the rights and protect the safety of women and girls by requiring female-only toilets and changing rooms in all public buildings, female-only wards in Welsh hospitals and protecting female-only sports.”
Welsh Conservatives and Reform UK advocate for parents
Ironically for supporters of gender self-ID, Plaid Cymru promises to ‘end violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence’, promising guidance for ‘parents, educators and community leaders to support early intervention’. They also promise anti-bullying measures as part of Relationships and Sexuality Education.
By contrast, both the Welsh Conservatives and Reform UK advocate for parental rights in relation to schools. The Welsh Conservatives make the following promises:
“Re-establish the right for parents to withdraw their children from sex education and religious education lessons
Restore discipline and respect, and improve school attendance, through School Covenants between parents, teachers and pupils.”
Christian Concern opposed the ending of the opt-out from Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in 2020. No draft examples have been given of these proposed School Covenants.
Reform UK advocates more widely in this area, as follows:
“Remove ideological and political bias from classrooms, including when it has come in under the banner of well-being
Curriculum materials will be accessible to parents as a matter of course”
Whilst these are broad promises, they would include RSE material including but not limited to gender ideology, be it from the Welsh Government or external providers getting into schools. As for promising access to curriculum materials, this is good but if there is to be meaningful moral change, the RSE Code and Guidance need to be changed quite considerably. A first step would be to be able to see how classroom materials reflect the Code and Guidance.
Plaid Cymru wants full ‘conversion therapy’ ban
In line with its blindness to gender ideology, Plaid Cymru supports a full ‘conversion therapy’ ban. Christian Concern published an explainer back in 2022 setting out why the Welsh Government does not have the powers to ban so-called conversion therapy. Again, any such policy will therefore face a legal challenge. Christian Concern has consistently opposed conversion therapy bans as unnecessary and harmful to religious freedom and free speech, and has a dedicated website with advice on pastoral care.
It’s significant that Plaid Cymru also wants Wales to host EuroPride in 2029, as Malta did so in 2023 whilst its government was persecuting Matthew Grech on a false retrospective charge of ‘advertising conversion therapy’. Presumably a conversion therapy ban is deemed necessary to attract EuroPride in the first place.
Who addresses the challenge of Islam?
One issue that Christian Concern works on remains under the surface in Welsh politics, and that is the challenge of Islam. The main reason for this is the much smaller Muslim population in Wales and the much smaller-scale spread of Islam across Wales than England.
Labour appears to be addressing this in the way it has done for some time; namely promising to safeguard funding for community cohesion workers in local authorities. As Labour may be called upon to prop up a minority Plaid Cymru government, proposals to continue this policy should be watched closely.
The Welsh Conservatives continue to call for a Wales-specific grooming gangs inquiry; a policy spearheaded by their leader Darren Millar in early 2025 and supported by a Welsh survivor. Reform UK supports this policy. Given that the London inquiry is already underway, this looks like a signal to voters that they will keep the pressure on local authorities and police and crime commissioners on this issue.
Reform UK also wants to ‘end publication of election materials’ in languages other than English and Welsh. This is likely to be due to wanting to stop the trend for providing Arabic translations, which arguably act as a disincentive for integration. Reform UK also has an explicit commitment to defending free speech, but it does not provide much by the way of detail.
Plaid Cymru has not published similar proposals touching on Islamic issues. Probably this is due to never having run a city council in Wales, where there would be significant Muslim populations and Islamic activism.
Funding of biased journalism in the balance?
Perhaps the most interesting of Reform UK’s proposals here is its promise to ‘end public funding for politically biased journalism’. It’s hardly a mystery what is being referred to here – the news site Nation.Cymru, which started out as an independent outfit but now receives Welsh Government sponsorship. It has a concerning track record in relation to Islamic policy issues.
In May 2024, during the run-up to the UK general election, it published a wholly uncritical piece on The Muslim Vote’s activity in Wales. Later that month Christian Concern warned about The Muslim Vote’s backdoor campaigning for Islamic supremacism. No such warning was published in Welsh media.
In January 2025 it offered an uncritical platform to the Muslim Council of Wales to be wholly defensive about the call for a grooming gangs inquiry. This was completely inappropriate and woefully inadequate as journalism.
Its coverage of debates around the Islamophobia definition has been biased and inadequate. Christian Concern has consistently warned about the definition’s threat to free speech.
Since 2025 the outlet has published a large number of biased articles on the topic of the proscription of Palestine Action. In June 2025 Christian Concern warned that Palestine Action is aligned with Islamic goals for the Holy Land. No such warning was published in the Welsh media.
Whilst Reform UK probably has other content in mind as well, these issues are highly relevant to Wales, and it won’t do for news outlets to brush them under the carpet or produce ideologically slanted content.
The importance of political engagement
We hope this short guide has helped Christian Concern supporters identify how the Senedd elections touch upon some of our key policy areas. As always, parties may modify their policies once in power, or change tactics in opposition.