Written - Wales Efficiency and Innovation Board

I want to follow up my Written Statement of 18th March 2010 and update Assembly Members on progress with the Efficiency & Innovation Board, which I chair.  The Board has its second meeting today.

We have received a very positive response from public services and the Efficiency and Innovation Programme is moving fast. The Board has already agreed actions to secure £200 million efficiencies by 2013 through collaborative procurement & commissioning, saving money and improving public services throughout Wales.

The Programme is also driving the agenda to secure better value from the £10 billion public estate by establishing innovative and more efficient ways of working through a Wales Public Services ICT strategy and developing a more flexible and collaborative approach to the deployment of staff across public services through an all-Wales Career Transition & Support Unit. 

The Board is also working on actions in two further areas: transforming the way organisations manage their business and new models of service delivery.

High quality innovation will be central to the Programme and I am delighted that  Value Wales’ ground-breaking ICT-based xchangewales programme, which helps public service organisations optimise their procurement spend, has just won a prestigious Government Computing award in the category of ‘Delivering efficiencies’. I look forward to seeing the continued adoption of xchangewales throughout public services in Wales so that its benefits are fully realised.

To meet the challenge of change which this agenda represents, we have to mobilise resources around the Efficiency & Innovation Programme, including aligning the Welsh Assembly Government’s Invest-to-Save fund.

I am today announcing £11 million investment for projects, under the latest round of the fund, that will deliver more efficient and effective public services in Wales through new ways of working.  Projects being supported include six from across the NHS, together with initiatives in the South Wales Fire & Rescue Service and Bridgend County Council which are applicable across Wales. A bid to accelerate the financial and service benefits of our unique Public Services Broadband Network by assisting up to 1,000 new public sector connections has also been supported. These projects have the potential to generate in excess of £10 million of cash savings annually. 

This mix of all-Wales action and trialling new approaches will be a feature of our approach to the Efficiency & Innovation Programme. I will provide further updates to Assembly Members as the Programme progresses.