Blue Skies or Black Clouds for Wales

Last week saw the launch of an initiative to look at how Wales’s public services need to be reshaped in coming years, called Wales 2025.  Involving leading figures from academia, health and local government, the project aims to “rethink Wales’s public services”.

Public services in Wales, as in the UK as a whole, face a challenge that is almost mind-numbingly large. The ageing of the population and a gaping hole in the UK’s finances are unprecedented in their impact, as Paul Johnson from the Institute of Fiscal Studies graphically described.  On top of this, Wales’s public services already leave much be desired, whether in terms of academic attainment or care of older people with dignity and respect.  Public services have to not only get ahead, they have to catch up as well.

The launch certainly attracted a great deal of interest – rarely can there have been so many of Wales’s chief executives in the same room, although whether there was quite so much enthusiasm is another matter.  The conversation over coffee was peppered with “good idea, but ….” which was not because people were defending the status quo but because of a healthy scepticism about the likely benefit of such an initiative.

I think this scepticism is justified.  Over the years I have been involved in a number “futures” projects as they are called. Lots of time is spent developing “bold visions” or “radical missions” to “transform” Wales at a future date (which is always a catchy number of course).  These missions always involve prosperity, a sustainable environment, a skilled workforce etc – intentions that are laudable but so far removed from the current state of play they are almost laughable.  Mea culpa I have written dozens of these things.

The reality of improving and changing public services is a long, hard grind. Public services are struggling to meet the most modest of targets, whether it’s a four hour wait in A&E, attainment at Key Stage 4 or administering benefits correctly and on time. How these services will get up to standard is far from clear, let alone how they will be transformed.

The Wales 2025 programme needs to get the engagement of people who use public services and the people who provide them. If it is to be truly radical it has to start from people’s individual and collective needs, not from how services are today.  It’s worth remembering that the very public services that are now deemed to need “transforming” emerged from practical solutions developed by ordinary people, such as Tredegar Medical Aid Society.

So the next task for Wales 2025 should not be another conference or seminar, but some discussion sessions with people living on the Gurnos estate, in Townhill, Penparcau and Plas Madoc.  Hear what people have to say, listen to how they cope, and learn.  We’d be happy to help.

Oh, and ditch the name.

Victoria Winckler is Director of the Bevan Foundation