North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has criticised the Welsh Government’s response to calls for the co-production of public services, describing it in the Assembly Chamber this week as “inconsistent, ambiguous, often hierarchical, frequently confused and sometimes even dismissive.”
Speaking in this week’s Assembly debate on Local Government, Mr Isherwood, who has long been championing co-production, said:
“This motion refers to the Williams Commission describing public services as being characterised by ‘poverty of ambition’. Of course, the Williams commission report also stated that the only viable way to meet the needs and aspirations of people is to shift the emphasis of public service towards co-production and prevention. The need to make this change, they said, is shared across the developed and democratic world.
“The report says that ‘leaders at all levels will need to be open to different ways of working, including collaboration or coproduction’ and that ‘the basic purpose and nature of public service needs to be redefined. The key features of that redefinition are: a clearer shared vision and sense of common purpose between government at all levels, citizens, and communities........and consequently, a much stronger emphasis on enablement, empowerment and prevention in the design and delivery of public services.’
“The Auditor General for Wales’s report, ‘A Picture of Public Services 2015’, published last December, says: ‘there is now a much clearer recognition that previous approaches have not worked as intended and that radical change is required. The narrative’s focus on reform where it matters—at the frontline of service delivery—could help to move on from a tendency to see the production of strategies and plans as a solution to practical problems. The approach also is clearer in explicitly identifying co-production as a method of reshaping and redesigning services at the frontline.’
“The Auditor General says the Welsh Government developed its updated vision for public services as part of its response to the Williams Commission’s report and recommendations, with a stronger emphasis on co-production, personal responsibility and focus on prevention. In fact, the Welsh Government’s vision says: ‘Our public services must evolve to reflect a new relationship between the people who deliver services and those who benefit from them. In particular, public services must increasingly be delivered not to people, but with people…involving people in the design and delivery of services, recognising people’s own strengths and tailoring services accordingly.’
“But, of course, delivery, and the message, has been far more ambiguous. The Auditor General's survey showed that there were differing views on the importance of co-production across Welsh public services. It said that local government respondents were far less likely to include this in their top three.
“As a Local Government Cabinet member quoted in the report said: ‘The need for co-production and service user involvement is immense but this is poorly understood in the public sector and the investment required in people, skills and culture change is a long term fundamental requirement.’
“However, regrettably, the general response from Welsh Government Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries has been inconsistent, ambiguous, often hierarchical, frequently confused and sometimes even dismissive, yet the letter sent by Co-production Wales to the First Minister at the end of 2014, supported by over 130 letters, started by asking the Welsh Government to agree what co-production actually means, recognising that this is not a response to austerity, but part of a global movement that is now decades old and has made significant improvements across our planet.”