Welsh Government | More than £6 million invested to save

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More than £6 million invested to save

A pot worth £6.03 million has been shared between a number of organisations to help them deliver top class public services while running as efficiently as possible.

Wednesday 22 June 2011

The Welsh Government’s Invest-to-Save Fund supports public service bodies in transforming the way they work so they become more efficient and continue to provide quality services for the people of Wales.

The Minister for Finance and Leader of the House has agreed to allocate funds in 2011-12 to support proposals submitted under the fourth round of the Fund.

The Finance Minister, Jane Hutt, said:

“I am delighted to be able to offer support to these organisations who provide vital public services, to make sure they are given the opportunity to work as cost effectively as possible.

“We are facing tough financial times in Wales. As such, it is essential that those that deliver public services continue to explore different ways to deliver them, ensuring more cost effective approaches that do not compromise on quality. Our unique approach - particularly through Invest-to-Save investment, provides public bodies with the support they need to help them develop and take forward their improvement projects for the benefit of the public.”

The latest funding will see, for example, £3million invested to enable six North Wales organisations from local government, the emergency services and the local health board to join the Public Sector Broadband Aggregation Network (PBSA). This secure network is unique to Wales in the UK and can deliver voice, video and data communications between organisations, typically for around 20% less.

A total of £500,000 has been earmarked for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to pilot digital speech recognition software that will deliver a 30% reduction in costs, speed up communications between hospital doctors and GPs and lead to improved patient services.

A further round of Invest-to-Save funding is due to be announced later in the summer.