Wales’ reform agenda

Michael Trickey discusses the drivers for change in the Welsh public sector with agendaNi. His Wales Public Services 2025 think tank is looking at the changes needed to improve services over the next two decades.

Austerity and under-performance in the public sector are the key reasons for a radical reform programme in Wales, according to the head of its main think tank. Michael Trickey was previously Head of Public Services Division in the Welsh Assembly Government and is now Director of Wales Public Services 2025.

The think tank is looking at how to respond to Wales’ specific economic, demographic, social and environmental pressures over the next 10 to 20 years.

With a small population, post-industrial economy and large public sector, Wales is comparable to Northern Ireland. However, it has the oldest population among the UK nations while Northern Ireland has the youngest.

Labour has governed Wales since devolution was introduced in 1999 although this has also involved coalitions with the Lib Dems (2000-2003) and Plaid Cymru (2007-2011).

The fiscal situation is the “game changer” for driving public service reform in Wales. Trickey notes that reform was on the devolved administration’s agenda in the mid-2000s but stalled as ministers focused on how to respond to the recession.

He adds: “The way that the austerity package is developing is changing that and I think, alongside that, there have been serious concerns about the performance of some of the schools in Wales and some of the social service departments.” The Welsh NHS “seems to be constantly under pressure of one kind or another.”

The think tank is calling for a radical response which would apply lean system techniques to service design, focus more strongly on outcomes, promote early intervention and increasingly involve the community (e.g. through mutual and social enterprise models).

Trickey senses a “growing appetite for change” but the real issue is whether that translates into action. “You go to any public service event and they’ll all be talking about the need for change and radical action,” he comments but it’s hard to see action in the short term.

Local government reorganisation is going to come up as a major debate. Wales’ Commission on Public Service Governance and Delivery has recommended a reduction in local authorities from 22 to 10, 11 or 12.

“The danger is that submerges the rest of the debate while that gets sorted out,” Trickey says. If the commission’s timescale is followed, the new councils will be in place by 2018 but delays on this could hold up the wider debate on reform.

This is just part of the commission’s report. Its other recommendations include:

• a register of devolved public bodies;

• a single shared services operation by 2017;

• a new public service leadership and development centre by 2015;

• integrating local government and health services in the isolated county of Powys; and

• more benchmarking with other small countries.

The UK Government set up the Silk Commission in 2011, to review the principality’s finances and constitution. Its financial report was published in November 2012 and a Bill to devolve landfill tax, stamp duty and borrowing powers is now going through Parliament.

Its constitutional report will be published in spring 2014. To date, the Welsh Assembly’s powers have been delegated from Westminster. The commission is looking at a ‘reserved powers’ system – similar to Scotland and Northern Ireland – whereby policy is devolved by default unless an exception applies.

The Wales Office has been staffed by two Conservative ministers since 2010. The working relationship between Cardiff and London quite often “comes down to personal relationships because in the end these are people who meet each other to do business on a fairly regular basis.”

He finds that relations between the Welsh Government and the Treasury are now “more productive” than when devolution first started. “There was a strong sense that the Treasury was very remote and not obstructive but not particularly sympathetic either,” he recalls. His impression is that both sides have become more interested in “problem-solving and trying to find ways through.”

Wales’ population is unevenly distributed across its territory. Sixty-one per cent of the population lives in South Wales, 22 per cent in North Wales and 17 per cent in Mid and West Wales.

North Wales has often protested about being overlooked by Cardiff. “It’s a deep consciousness so it’s partly about distance,” Trickey remarks. “North Wales tends, in terms of economic flows, to look as much to Manchester or Liverpool as it does down to Cardiff.”

The area’s politicians are “understandably concerned” about making sure that North Wales “doesn’t get marginalised” in the reform debate. He also finds that North Wales has a stronger sense of public and third sector organisations working closely together as a team.

The balance of powers

Source: Wales Office