6. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on invest-to-save principles? (OAQ51070)[W]

Thank you for that question. Invest-to-save funds are deployed against principles, which include delivering improved public services, generating significant cash-releasing savings, encouraging greater collaboration between public service bodies, and disseminating lessons learned and best practice.

Thank you for that response. I would like to suggest to the Cabinet Secretary that investing in developing medical education at an undergraduate level on a comprehensive level in north Wales—that is, including first-year students, and all the way through their studies—would be an excellent example of implementing the principles of invest-to-save. We know that Betsi Cadwaladr health board spent £80 million on locums over the past three years, and somehow we must break that vicious cycle, and investing in training doctors locally would be a huge contribution towards that. We not talking about a full, independent medical school here; that may come in due time, of course. But, whilst there are all sorts of reasons as to why this development is needed, although the Government doesn’t seem to understand that to date—but to the finance Secretary specifically, I appeal to him to recognise this and to see this as an example of sensible investment now in order to create long-term benefits.

Well, Deputy Presiding Officer, I hear the case the Member is making and I acknowledge what he says about the way in which the money is spent in north Wales at present. He will be eager to know, I’m certain, that a meeting was held this morning with the Secretary with responsibility for health to discuss the developments in north Wales.

Cabinet Secretary, I know Members will be pleased to hear that an independent review found that for every £1 invested, about £3 in savings followed. That is really good and a sign of profound innovation. We want more of that. However, housing has only received 0.4 per cent of the investment of nearly £14 million under the scheme so far. I just wonder if you’re going to look at possible ways that the housing sector could benefit, perhaps by reducing upfront costs for the building of homes, and particularly measures to support high energy efficiency standards. They have a big impact on the health and well-being of the tenants and people who then live in those houses.

I thank David Melding for that point. He draws attention to one of the characteristics of the fund, which is that it has been used by some parts of the public sector far more regularly than others. So, the health service in Wales has an excellent record of using the fund for energy efficiency measures, and has saved a great deal of money in the health service as a result. Local authorities have been slightly later to the party in relation to the invest-to-save fund, but we are encouraging those who have made less use of it to date to make more use of it in the future. We are taking applications at any point in the year now, rather than at fixed points in the year, and working with people who’ve had less experience of making applications to the fund, so that they have some mentoring along the way in order to encourage exactly the sort of application that the Member has mentioned.