Written - Efficiency and Innovation Board

I wish to report on the establishment of the Wales Efficiency & Innovation Board which has its first meeting today.

 The establishment of the Board was foreshadowed in the policy statement Better outcomes for tougher times which the Assembly Government issued last December, and is a key part of our response to the financial and service challenges which public services face. We have to accelerate the pace of change across public services to secure the better outcomes for our citizens and communities which we all want to see. 

The Board, which I chair, brings together leaders from our social partners, local government, the NHS and the Assembly Government civil service to oversee a national Efficiency & Innovation Programme for public services.

The purpose of the Programme is to transform operational efficiency, catalyse innovation in the way that public services are designed and delivered and promote collaboration. It will concentrate on action where a cross-public service approach is needed. It will build on improvements which have already been achieved and complement change which my Ministerial colleagues are leading within their service areas.

Strands of the Programme include procurement & commissioning, asset management, ICT, business transformation, new models of service delivery, workforce development and leadership.  We will extend the Programme as needed.

It will be fundamental to our approach that change has to be rooted in the needs of the citizen and engage the workforce. Efficiency and service quality must be mutually re-enforcing.    

The Programme will be jointly owned by public services across Wales and was positively welcomed at the Public Services Summit which the First Minister convened last month. The Programme will mobilise expertise and capacity from across public services and I am grateful to all those taking part now and in the future.

I am aligning the Invest-to-Save Fund with the Programme, and announced at the Board £2.2 million investment for four projects under Round ll of the Fund that will deliver better public services and release cash efficiency savings. The total number of projects receiving support from the Fund now stands at 29.