Huge change vital to modernise services

I WELCOME Vaughan Thomas’ letter to the Public Accounts Committee on his disappointment that devolution has not modernised public services in Wales.

Instead of a radical re-think on how services should be delivered he says that austerity had been

“an increased focus on driving efficiency improvements in service delivery”.

This is correct, but it is either naive or duplicitous to think that this appalling lack of governance and leadership in Wales is isolated from regulator influences.

Both the Wales Audit Office and Health Inspectorate Wales have been active players in the isolated “driving efficiency” game, to the detriment of modernisation.

Any radical modernisation of the public sector would require a vision beyond that imagined in Cardiff Bay; courage to make any change; sufficient headroom and slack in the system to explore and experiment in new service design; a tolerance of the negative reaction that always occurs with any change and a shift away from the “protect our backs” philosophy so ingrained in the political class in Wales.

I’m afraid, Mr Thomas, that while your disappointment is inappropriate, unless our regulators and ministers show a step-change in statesmanship, Wales will continue to suffer from a second-class public sector. D Williams Bridgend