Jane Hutt, Minister for Business and Budget, yesterday announced an £11 million investment for projects that will deliver more efficient and effective public services in Wales.
The Minister made the announcement at the second meeting of the Efficiency and Innovation Board, which she chairs.
The Minister said:
“I am pleased to be able to announce today the latest tranche of successful projects to benefit from investment from the Invest-to-Save fund, which provides interest free loans to public service providers to help them make their services more efficient through new ways of working. Projects being supported include six from the NHS, as well as a scheme to increase public sector connections to broadband and a project to deliver improvements to the monitoring and management of fire and intruder alarm systems at Bridgend CBC.
These projects will deliver efficiency savings and give people improved services. A number are being taken forward on an “All-Wales” basis and others will trial new approaches that have the potential for wider application in Wales, which I will encourage to happen. The public sector faces huge challenges in the current climate and it is only through increased collaboration that we will be able to meet these challenges and provide high quality, citizen-centred services.”
The latest projects to be approved include:
- Accelerating the benefits of the Public Sector Broadband Aggregation initiative by assisting up to 1,000 new public sector connections to the network and providing access to broadband, voice, video and data services at a reduced cost – typically a reduction of around 20% in revenue costs;
- Bridgend’s CBC’s Critical Alarm Monitoring project that will see the introduction of a new approach to the monitoring and management of the authority’s fire and intruder alarm systems that will release cost savings of £166,000 annually and improve communications and link technologies;
- The introduction by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service of an alternative crewing system at selected South Wales stations that will maintain existing response times and levels of service to the public, but generate net efficiency savings of £2.3million during its first 4 years of introduction and then £1.6 million per annum thereafter; and,
- Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s introduction of new way of working for community based staff, specifically District Nurses and Health Visitors. An investment will be made in mobile technology solutions (Note Book Devices etc) that will support the delivery of safe, effective and efficient services. Benefits in patient care in terms of safety, responsiveness and improving efficiency (expected to be a minimum of 15% real terms increase in direct patient care).
