5. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the delivery of public services in Wales? (OAQ51056)

I thank Darren Millar for that. Good public services play a vitally important role in the lives of all citizens in Wales. Each and every one of us has a direct interest in shaping how public services are delivered.

Cabinet Secretary, one of the things that can hinder the delivery of public services is incidence of fraud in the public purse. Many people will have been aware of the concerns that have been raised in respect of some issues in Cardiff and Vale University Local Health Board, and, indeed, there have been others within the NHS, including in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board also in recent years, in terms of its management of some of the capital expenditure in that particular health board at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd. What specific action is the Welsh Government taking to ensure that taxpayers can be sure that they’re not being ripped off as a result of incidents of fraud? What safeguards are you putting in place, and are you considering the safeguards that are already there as a result of these latest stories?

Well, can I just agree with Darren Millar that fraud is corrosive of public trust? It has a direct impact on the resources available to authorities for public services, and very often, at the individual level, fraud is practiced on those people least able to deal with its consequences. So, as a Government, we take fraud very seriously for all those reasons.

On Friday of last week, I was able to address the annual conference of those people who work in the fraud field here in Wales, where there were speakers from outside Wales as well, all of it designed to try to find new and better ways in which fraud in our public services and in other aspects of public life in Wales can be addressed. It’s a challenge, Dirprwy Lywydd. If you were there in that audience and hearing people speak, you would know that fraud is the single fastest growing set of offences across the United Kingdom, and there are always new possibilities. For all the fantastic advantages that the internet and other forms of electronic communication bring, they offer new opportunities up for crime and for fraud as well. So, the Welsh Government has a very direct interest in bearing down on this, on learning the lessons of examples where fraud is uncovered just to make sure that we can block loopholes and make sure that it doesn’t happen again, and in trying to make sure that our workforce, who work so very hard in this area, are fully equipped and kept in touch with developments in other parts of the United Kingdom to help us all in the business of combatting fraud.

Schools are a very important part of the public services we provide and I congratulate the Welsh Government on its funding for the twenty-first century schools programme. Would the finance Secretary congratulate Cardiff Council on the planned new joint building of Ysgol Glan Ceubal Welsh-language primary school and Gabalfa Primary School in my constituency of Cardiff North? I attended the turf-cutting ceremony last week for these two new schools. What plans does the Welsh Government have to continue funding these exemplary new buildings across Wales?

I thank Julie Morgan for that, and absolutely associate myself with her congratulations to all those involved in the development of Ysgol Glan Ceubal. It’s fantastic to see a new Welsh-medium facility in that part of the city, alongside the Gabalfa Primary School. It’s been made possible by the local government borrowing initiative, which my predecessor in this post, Jane Hutt, established, and where we’ve been able to support £170 million-worth of spend by local authorities in the first tranche of the twenty-first century schools programme. We are now actively planning band B of that programme, through the mutual investment model, where we hope to be able to support new building of new schools across Wales to the value of up to £500 million.

In accordance with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 we need to establish public services boards in all local authorities, and each board needs to assess the economic, social, environmental and cultural state of the area and publish the results of those assessments, and publish a well-being plan that will outline local objectives according to the goals of the Act, as well as a means of achieving those. I’d like to know how this work is developing and how effective it is from the point of view of contributing to the well-being goal in particular.

Well, thank you very much, Sian Gwenllian, for that question and for drawing attention to the work that is ongoing in this field.

Dirprwy Lywydd, i mi, mae’r gwaith a wnaed gan y byrddau gwasanaethau cyhoeddus ar gyflawni eu hasesiadau lles yn galonogol iawn. Rwyf wedi cael cyfle i ddarllen nifer go lew ohonynt. A bod yn hollol onest, credaf y gallech ddweud eu bod yn nodweddiadol o gymaint o’r hyn a wyddom ynglŷn â’r ffordd y mae pethau’n digwydd yng Nghymru. Ceir enghreifftiau da iawn mewn perthynas â rhai agweddau ar y cynlluniau ym mhobman—mae’n debyg nad oes llawer sy’n dda ar draws yr holl ystod o bethau y gofynnwyd iddynt eu cwmpasu yn yr asesiad. Felly, gallwch fynd—. Nid wyf am ddechrau crybwyll enghreifftiau o ddim, Llywydd, ond pe baech yn mynd i Gaerffili, er enghraifft, mae’n enghraifft wych o ymgysylltu â’r cyhoedd ac yn enghraifft ragorol o sut y maent wedi llwyddo i gyfleu dimensiwn diwylliannol lles, ac eto, nid yw mor gryf mewn agweddau eraill, ac mae byrddau lleol eraill wedi bod yn well mewn gwahanol ffyrdd.

Felly, y peth gwirioneddol allweddol yn awr yw dysgu o’r rownd gyntaf hon ohonynt, a chadw’r asesiadau hyn fel dogfennau byw, fod pobl yn eu hadnewyddu, eu bod yn dysgu oddi wrth ei gilydd, a’u bod yn symud yn bwrpasol i’r cam nesaf, fel y dywedodd Sian Gwenllian, sef symud o asesu anghenion lles i gynllunio sut y gellir diwallu’r anghenion hynny. Fy nod, wrth weithio gyda chydweithwyr yn yr awdurdodau lleol, fydd ceisio sicrhau, lle y gwnaed y cynnydd cyflymaf, y caiff y gwersi hynny eu trosglwyddo i eraill ac y byddwn yn gweld symudiad ledled Cymru fel y gall y cynlluniau hyn fod mor dda ag y gallant fod.