Well, local government feels it is making some progress and we share that view overall. But, what we are looking at is whether that progress is adequate, quick enough and of the right quality. I think it is a non-contentious thing to say that the whole public sector acknowledges that it could do better. Of course, some may have more improvements to make than others. But, even the best can improve. There’s no room for complacency.

What the Wales Audit Office seeks to establish is HOW public services are meeting the requirements set out in Making the Connections, because they operate at various speeds. And we want to share that learning across Wales, so that well performing public bodies can share their experiences with those who are under performing, in order to accelerate learning.

I mentioned earlier that our work will cover all public sector bodies in Wales. That is crucial because we cannot work in isolation. Our study will examine the key strands of Making the Connections which are value for money; putting the citizen at the centre and joint working. But, we will also look at workforce issues. It wasn’t particularly highlighted in Making the Connections but it is an important part of our study. Because, unless we address the workforce issues I don’t think we will optimise the opportunities to help public bodies deliver those improvements.

Delivering the project

In terms of practising what we preach, the Wales Audit Office is committed to working with public bodies throughout this study. In fact, a short while ago, our local government group formed a steering committee, inviting key Chief Executives, senior officials from the Welsh Local Government Association and Welsh Assembly Government, as well as Partners from other public audit firms. Chaired by ourselves, it was designed to shape what we do in local government. And it did shape it - the initial pilots significantly shifted focus as a result of that group.

We now plan to extend these steering committees across all the major sectors, namely health, the National Assembly and Assembly Sponsored Public Bodies; Fire, Police, Probation and National Parks. It will follow the same model as the local government pilot. But, each group will decide for themselves what issues our Making the Connections study should focus on for their specific sector.

I am not suggesting that public bodies were sitting waiting for this work on Making the Connections. There have already been lots of developments in each sector relating to issues like value for money and having a citizen-centred focus. But, what our study seeks to do is to build on what has already been delivered and look at other sectors to learn even more.

The objectives are about identifying the barriers to progress as well as looking at the solutions. I realise that it’s easier said than done, as some barriers have been there for 20 or 30 years. But looking at things more collaboratively, will give us a better chance now than back then.

Spreading good practice

It became clear in our early work on spreading good practice, that no-one wants to hear what they already know, or to be hit over the head by us if they have failed. And, we won’t just be looking at what’s going wrong or what appears to be working well, we’ll be examining WHY. We will also examine whether good practice is transferable across sectors. That way, we will help organisations deliver the key Making the Connections goals.

Our study also places a big emphasis on self assessment, as local authorities are already familiar with through the Wales Programme for Improvement. Each organisation will be given the opportunity to assess, where we will ask them what they believe they are doing well and what they need to work on. We have already piloted this and it is really useful to get that sort of information from the very bodies responsible for service delivery. For, they are more likely to be best placed to identify what improvements can actually take place.

Lessons learned

One of the most frustrating things in our work is that you can see something working well in one organisation, which could work elsewhere, but for political or practical reasons it doesn’t. Political and managerial issues can override what’s best for customers.

Another emerging issue we have found so far is around joint working. This became clear at our recent stakeholder conference, where around 150 people attended a partnership workshop. An interactive voting session revealed quite a few barriers which are preventing effective collaboration, including the absence of common objectives and conflicting targets; lack of incentives; loss of influence and power and being too internally focused. Partnerships work well where there is a customer-centred vision and visible leadership, even when there is more than one person in charge.

Turning to another emerging issue now - efficiency gains. Making the Connections has a target of several hundred million pounds in efficiency gains. And what we’ve noticed in this area is that some organisations are further ahead than others. Not surprisingly, we need to learn from those that have accelerated achievements of efficiency gains. There also needs to be greater clarity around efficiency gains. It’s becoming a bit clearer now, but we need to make sure that every sector understands what will be measured and recognised and what won’t. If we don’t achieve that, we’ll waste a lot of time, and results will be misleading.

Some organisations are concentrating on one issue contained in Making the Connections, such as efficiency gains, at the expense of other messages, such as collaboration and becoming more citizen-centred. It must be remembered that whilst efficiency gains are important, all aspects of Making the Connections need to be addressed.

Outputs

In terms of outputs, we will be putting all identified best practice, where available, on our website and will link to other useful areas of good practice learning. This is a bit of a departure for us, but it will be an ongoing project. Yes, good practice changes and moves, so there are some disadvantages in logging it as it occurs but it will not be set in stone.  And, in a spirit of collaboration, we believe the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

We are also planning to provide feedback to all individual bodies - whether in the form of a report, workshops or cross-sector meetings.  We will also produce a national Making the Connections overview report to highlight what’s working and what’s not as well as issuing individual reports across sectors, as the health sector approach will be very different to the local government one.

Finally, I want to say a few words about the recently published Beecham report.
There are some positive points in the report which include a growing common purpose, citizen-focused improvements and a central-local government partnership on policy formation. These are all strengths of a smaller country like Wales. Closer relationships between sectors may not be possible in a larger country.
But the report found some areas where improvement is needed. We need to accelerate what we are doing. Yes there are lots of good things going on, like procurement and shared services, but we need to do more of it and quicker.

Our organisation is sometimes criticised for not having agreed performance tables for the public sector in Wales. Beecham also calls for improved information on performance for public services. Not just for an individual organisation’s performance, but on their relative performance against other organisations. We are not advocating league tables, but surely the citizen needs to know in an easy and accessible way how their local services are performing.

Hopefully, I have given you a flavour of what we are planning to do in relation to Making the Connections and emphasising the fact that we are not out to tell you what you already know. We will be sharing good practice and supporting you in the delivery of services.

Finally, let me finish with a quote from Sir Michael Lyons:
“Councils are spending more time on what ministers want rather than focusing on local citizens needs.” Now, this is not referring specifically to Wales but is something that I am sure all of us want to see more citizen focus in our organisations.
We need to be more citizen-centred - a view championed by the Welsh Assembly Government and Sir Jeremy Beecham in his report out earlier this week. And this must be in our minds at all times, that services exist to support the public and not ourselves.

Thank you.