The future of Wales’ public services was the focus of debate as 300 delegates gathered at the WLGA’s Annual Conference in Llandudno today.
Outlining the challenges ahead, WLGA Leader Cllr John Davies (Pembrokeshire) said Welsh councils are already working as a ‘close knit community’ but public services must start to ‘think bigger’ in order to meet the tough financial challenges still ahead.
Addressing attendees in what he described as a ‘new political and economic reality’ post General Election, Cllr. Davies commended public services for rising to the challenges set by Assembly Government Ministers but urged that much more must still be done.
Cllr John Davies said:
“Whilst the Welsh budget of £15.7 billion is significant, this figure pales in comparison with some of the big Westminster departments. With limited room for manoeuvre, the debate on the Welsh budget must be full and frank and widen into the areas under the control of the Assembly and non devolved bodies; health, police, fire, national parks and the third sector.”
“I applaud the First Minister for establishing the Public Services Summit and the presence of Minister Jane Hutt AM leading the Efficiency and Innovation Board. All public services are rising to the Ministerial challenge around accelerating the pace of change. Yet I think we have got to do more, indeed I think we have got to do much more.”
“We must not rule anything in or out. We need overall coherence in the design and implementation of a Welsh fiscal cuts programme. This means creating a sense of common sacrifice across all public bodies with no participants feeling that they are being asked to bear a disproportionate share or that incongruous standards apply. This was a key lesson from the experiences from Sweden’s public services reform programme.”
“Common messages on job losses for example are not possible at the moment with a no redundancy policy in health and redeployment pools in the Assembly.”
“Wouldn’t the money spent on the Communities First programme be better spent directly on education? If we want to break the cycle of poverty and eliminate child poverty in Wales then we must focus on increasing education spending.”
“The recent PwC review of the cost of education shows that local government has a good story to tell and although there may be imperfections, local government is leaner than FE, HE and other sectors within education.”
“Is the Wales Spatial Plan adding value? What about local government’s own regional economic and waste forums? Can’t we coalesce both delivery and policy around the WLGA regional boards? Huge activity on regional working is already taking place.”
“I want to put on record my thanks to the Education Minister Leighton Andrews this week for his bold statement about speeding up, streamlining and simplifying the decisions process on school reorganisation proposals. This signals a clear change of direction towards more local responsibility and accountability.”
Cllr Davies called for further streamlining and simplification in public administration:
“We already operate in a much clearer and understandable policy environment in Wales compared to England, but this does not mean that much more could not be done. As well as external inspections, audits and formal targets, there are also numerous soft controls, including grant conditions, competitive pots of money and guidance from various WAG departments which act to micro-manage local affairs. The Wales Audit Office needs to dramatically reduce their fees and focus on auditing expenditure and the unit cost of service delivery as opposed to specifying how local public services should be delivered.”
“Across the wider public sector we see Housing Benefit, Job Seekers Allowance and Childcare Tax Credits all managed and paid by separate organisations. The result is repeated collection of data and disconnected benefits assessment and service provision. Can Wales be an experiment in terms of joining this lot up?”
“We need to keep things as simple and as small as they can afford to be and we must focus on what adds real value to the lives of the people and communities we serve.”
