By Paul Dicken in Cardiff
The public sector in Wales is embracing a more collaborative approach to service provision and facing the challenge of constrained spending, the finance minister has said.
Andrew Davies told Public Finance that the future reductions in public spending had ‘sharpened minds’.
‘I’m confident now that people are very conscious that the challenge of a much more constrained financial position is an opportunity for us to continue to deliver better services but more efficiently,’ he said.
Davies was discussing the Assembly Government’s £60m Invest-to-Save fund set up to support efforts across the public sector to develop innovative and cost-effective ways to provide services.
He said the response to the fund, which is open to organisations providing public services, had been ‘extremely positive’.
‘Last week, officers from the Heads of the Valleys authorities were talking about ways they can deliver services much more efficiently off the back of two or three authorities collaborating,’ he said.
Davies noted that Wales would be £216m worse off in the next financial year as a result of the Treasury’s £5bn efficiency savings, while brought forward capital expenditure would mean less available funding in the future.
‘I have been saying for some time that the very significant amounts of public expenditure we had over the past two years was not likely to happen again and we needed to change the way we cut our cloth – be much more mindful in terms of outcomes rather than amount of spending.’
The Welsh Local Government Association warned that councils could face tens of millions of pounds of cuts over the next few years.
It said all councils were ‘carefully considering their spending plans in view of the bleak funding outlook’.
WLGA chief executive Steve Thomas said: ‘Every public body will need to plan and work together. However, greater efficiency alone will not be enough to deliver the levels of savings that are needed. Other radical choices will be required.’
Thomas said 700 local government jobs had already been lost in Wales in 2009 by the end of May, with up to 2,000 predicted job losses by 2011.
‘With the outlook for councils looking so bleak over the next three years, every council is already planning ahead and reviewing their medium-term financial plans,’ he added. ‘Making savings without affecting services is going to be extremely difficult for councils and tough choices over potential service cuts are inevitable.’
The public sector in Wales is embracing a more collaborative approach to service provision and facing the challenge of constrained spending, the finance minister has said.
Andrew Davies told Public Finance that the future reductions in public spending had ‘sharpened minds’.
‘I’m confident now that people are very conscious that the challenge of a much more constrained financial position is an opportunity for us to continue to deliver better services but more efficiently,’ he said.
Davies was discussing the Assembly Government’s £60m Invest-to-Save fund set up to support efforts across the public sector to develop innovative and cost-effective ways to provide services.
He said the response to the fund, which is open to organisations providing public services, had been ‘extremely positive’.
‘Last week, officers from the Heads of the Valleys authorities were talking about ways they can deliver services much more efficiently off the back of two or three authorities collaborating,’ he said.
Davies noted that Wales would be £216m worse off in the next financial year as a result of the Treasury’s £5bn efficiency savings, while brought forward capital expenditure would mean less available funding in the future.
‘I have been saying for some time that the very significant amounts of public expenditure we had over the past two years was not likely to happen again and we needed to change the way we cut our cloth – be much more mindful in terms of outcomes rather than amount of spending.’
The Welsh Local Government Association warned that councils could face tens of millions of pounds of cuts over the next few years.
It said all councils were ‘carefully considering their spending plans in view of the bleak funding outlook’.
WLGA chief executive Steve Thomas said: ‘Every public body will need to plan and work together. However, greater efficiency alone will not be enough to deliver the levels of savings that are needed. Other radical choices will be required.’
Thomas said 700 local government jobs had already been lost in Wales in 2009 by the end of May, with up to 2,000 predicted job losses by 2011.
‘With the outlook for councils looking so bleak over the next three years, every council is already planning ahead and reviewing their medium-term financial plans,’ he added. ‘Making savings without affecting services is going to be extremely difficult for councils and tough choices over potential service cuts are inevitable.’
