The Wales Audit Office is committed to an on-going programme of work which focuses on the Making the Connections agenda. The first phase of this work in 2007 comprised a baseline assessment of progress in implementing the Making the Connections agenda across the public sector alongside an audit of efficiency gains.

The second phase of our work will examine asset management across the whole public sector which collectively has a substantial asset base of around £30 billion. This is wide and varied in terms of type, location, value and age. The location, configuration and use of many assets are based on historic need which may no longer be fit for purpose. Asset management lends itself to potentially significant efficiency savings.

MAking the Connections encourages greater partnership working across the Welsh public sector. It states that ‘reshaping services can also involve public service providers working across boundaries and entering into joint arrangements when commissioning and delivering services’. In addition, ‘One Wales’, the new Assembly Government’s joint policy statement makes a number of references towards making better shared use of public sector assets.

Our review of asset management will be carried out over a four year period:

• 2008 – Fleet Management
• 2009 – Buildings Management
• 2010 – Management of Plant, Equipment and Machinery
• 2011 – Management of IT assets

Some of this work will be more relevant to some sectors than others, and so may not be carried out at all audited bodies. Where this is the case, there may still be indirect benefits arising from our work for those bodies. During the life cycle of the project, work will be carried out which is of direct relevance to all audited sector bodies.

This work is being funded directly by the Welsh Assembly Government and so it will be completed at no direct cost to any audited body in Wales.

Fleet Management

The first phase of our work on fleet management will examine how over fifty different audited bodies manage their fleets of vehicles. The work will answer the following question:

Is the Welsh Public Sector collectively ensuring that its approach to fleet management makes best use of resources to support improvements?

The project approach has been developed by a team of Wales Audit Office staff in conjunction with both IPF and a private sector specialist who has over twenty years experience of transport management.

We provided training to auditors on the project approach in January and February  and carried out the fieldwork during February and March. Findings will be reported back to audited bodies in teh form of local reports in Spring 2008.

Any good practice identified either by the work, or from outside of Wales, will be collated and made available on the Wales Audit Office Good Practice Exchange website by June 2008. This website will be regularly updated as further examples of good practice emerge. 

A series of shared learning seminars are being organised in May 2008 to share the results of our work with audited bodies. They will follow a similar format to the events held by WAO to provide feedback on the results of our Making the Connections preparedness study in October 2007. The response to these events was extremely positive. Feedback from audited bodies indicated that the events provided the most effective way of disseminating our findings. Most importantly, the events will promote public service wide shared learning through the dissemination of examples of transferable good practice identified during the course of our work.
 
A very important part of these sessions will be the opportunity to discuss solutions to some of the barriers we identified and share knowledge and experiences to avoid ‘re-inventing the wheel’. The seminars will be targeted specifically at fleet managers as well as other key professionals with an interest in effective fleet management.

Buildings Management

We are currently developing the next phase of our work on buildings management, and plan to start fieldwork in October 2008. We are establishing a stakeholder group to support the development of this study. We would welcome expressions of interest to join the group, as well as any examples of good practice that you are happy to share.

Further details will be posted on our website as we develop the project approach.

Contact details

If you would like any further information about our work on Asset Management, please contact either Kevin Thomas (Engagement Partner) on 07799 133 475 or at kevinp.thomas@wao.gov.uk or Geraint Norman (Project Manager) on 07810 056 683 or at geraint.norman@wao.gov.uk.