The First Minister said:
“We do not know precisely what our budget settlements will be in the coming years, but we do know that we are facing tough times and will need to make difficult decisions. We are committed to maximising investment in front line services and in those services that matter most to the people of Wales.
“We will continue to pursue the recommendations of the Holtham Commission, which made a persuasive case for reviewing the Barnett formula. The question of how the devolved regions are funded is a very important one, particularly in the difficult financial circumstances we are currently facing.
“We are of course committed to moving towards a referendum on enhanced law making powers for the Assembly. Since February we have been working closely with the Wales Office and substantial work is already underway on the referendum order. All options for the timing of a referendum remain open. In the meantime we will continue to use our current legislative powers to deliver on our One Wales commitments.”
The Deputy First Minister said:
“The Welsh Assembly Government will continue to work tirelessly to support the Welsh economy – and importantly, make sure we are best placed for the recovery.
“One example of the action we are taking is the successful ProAct scheme, which the last figures revealed had helped keep 9,000 staff in their jobs with more than 200 companies receiving help. While ProAct has been recognised as a success, we have also been working on what comes next. We have listened to the needs of business and some are now in a position to grow.
“That is why we have developed our Skills Growth Wales programme in which we invest in new training that will directly help to bring about growth – in turnover, profit and employment. This is designed to build on the success of ProAct and help reinvigorate the economy.”
PDF version Value Wales acts as a catalyst for change, providing leadership, strategic direction, procurement training and best practice guidance to help organisations achieve real and sustainable improvements.
We promote collaboration in the purchasing of supplies and in the delivery of services. Value for money goes beyond lowest price and, within public purchasing guidelines; we seek to achieve wider sustainable benefits for the environment, economy and communities.
Our target is to work with the public sector to achieve savings of £600m across public services in Wales by 2010.
We aim to achieve this through:
- improving public buildings
- smarter purchasing
- developing better value policies; and
- efficiency and improvement gains.
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/improvingservices/bettervfm/?lang=en
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).
http://wales.gov.uk/news/latest/100429invest/;jsessionid=NcCTLZxXWNXkyc7yqJ06YYjkG9z32t5bkSG44QxbyQnB5hLZQ0x1!-225497037?lang=en
Public services face an unprecedented challenge over the next few years. At the core of that challenge is the need to deliver improved services and better outcomes for the people of Wales with the same or less.
There are seven areas for action set out in the paper:
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