14 July 2006
Local services in Wales need a fundamental overhaul, with a tougher focus on poor performance and an end to the public sector's 'silo mentality', a wide-ranging review has concluded.
Sir Jeremy Beecham, who conducted the year-long inquiry for the Welsh Assembly Government, is calling for concerted action to tackle the 'patchy' performance of public services in the principality and to step up the reform programme introduced by the government two years ago.
Beecham's report, Beyond boundaries, published on July 11, is recommending the introduction of Partnership Action Contracts, based on the English Local Area Agreement model, to foster joint working.
These would be negotiated between Welsh ministers and public service providers in a particular area, and would require them to pool budgets and agree service outcomes.
Beecham, who is also vice-chair of the Local Government Association, told Public Finance that the Assembly needed to put in place the necessary structures and incentives to encourage, or if necessary force, joint working.
'The [Assembly] has not quite broken free from the style of the pre-devolution era where things were run, in silos, from the Welsh Office,' he said. 'There are signs they are beginning to address this but they have to go much further.'
He explicitly rejected structural reorganisation, concluding that it would be a 'distraction', but said it should be revisited in five years' time in a review of progress.
Sue Essex, Welsh minister for public services, said: 'We accept the thrust of the report and its big message that our approach to public service reform is on the right track but needs to go further.'
PFjul2006
