All systems go, by Sue Essex

20 Jul 06
Sir Jeremy Beecham's review shows that reform of public services in Wales is on the right track but needs to progress further and faster. The Welsh Assembly Government welcomes the challenge

21 July 2006

Sir Jeremy Beecham's review shows that reform of public services in Wales is on the right track but needs to progress further and faster. The Welsh Assembly Government welcomes the challenge

I was very pleased to receive the report of the Beecham review of local service delivery in Wales last week.

The report, Beyond boundaries, is an inclusive examination of the issues with no constraints, aimed at ensuring that all people across Wales receive high-quality, local services. It was commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government following discussions with the Welsh Local Government Association.

The result is a landmark report that will undoubtedly be a major influence on how we think about public services in Wales for years to come. I am pleased to say that the report was welcomed by all parties last week and I have accepted its thrust.

Sir Jeremy Beecham appreciated our radical, citizen-centred approach to public services, as set out in Making the connections, our vision for public services in Wales. Our approach is about building on the strengths, and reflecting the demographics, of our small country. The ethos is to support public service deliverers to work together across organisational boundaries to provide efficient and effective services that meet the needs of individuals and communities.

Beecham praised this citizen model and was struck by the extent of support for it, across sectors and across political parties. The report recognises that we are on the right track – but that we need to progress further and faster if we are to provide efficient services that meet the changing demands and expectations of the citizen.

I welcome this message. The other big message in the report is that major structural reorganisation would be a distraction from the real business of improving services.

Collaboration is not a soft, cosy option – it is the opposite. It requires a fundamental change of attitude to service delivery. To deliver the Beecham vision of excellence in small country governance will require real, engaged leadership from the Assembly Government and other public service organisations; and from the voluntary and private sectors.

It will mean a cultural change in how we deliver services to our communities. It means challenging more, being more ambitious and innovative. Our focus needs to shift towards outcomes rather than inputs and process. We also need to overcome the issues of capacity, culture and complexity identified as obstacles to improved service delivery in the report.

I will be looking very carefully at how to make progress with the review's recommendation for local Partnership Action Contracts as a means of redefining central-local relationships in Wales. Local bodies in an area would come together to agree a set of outcomes with the Assembly Government, perhaps supported by pooled budgets. This would mean the Welsh Assembly Government engaging with, but not micro-managing, the delivery process.

Another key message is the urgency to make the Welsh pound go further. Efficiency is a moral imperative for the whole public service, and finance professionals have a key role to play. This must not degenerate into a cost-cutting exercise and will require strategic financial management and challenge skills of the highest order.

Much has already been achieved but again we must take the efficiency agenda much further and faster. People want personal service delivery tailored to their needs – the pooling of budgets is one way we can drive forward the vision of a seamless public sector.

Efficiency must be seen to link with the service improvement agenda and the redesign of frontline services to better meet the needs of citizens. We all face difficult choices about the future shape of services. Beecham reminds us that bringing about real change depends on engaging with citizens more effectively and continuously.

Beecham makes a number of recommendations for strengthening accountability, scrutiny and public engagement – I shall be looking to see how we can take these forward.

We have made a start in addressing the Beecham agenda, with the new services we have set up to support change: Value Wales and Public Service Management Wales, which held the first public services summer school in Wales last month.

I have been delighted with the imaginative proposals for regional collaboration that have emerged through the WLGA's new regional partnerships and from the NHS in response to our Making the Connections improvement fund – sharing support services, procurement, joint commissioning in social care and education and waste management. But delivering the Beecham agenda requires much more action – more rapidly.

I would like to thank the review team – Sir Jeremy Beecham, Dame Gillian Morgan, Sir Adrian Webb and their academic adviser Professor Steve Martin – for delivering a robust and challenging report. I am sure that Wales is up to the challenge.

Sue Essex is minister for finance, local government and public services in the Welsh Assembly Government

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