4. What financial provision has the Cabinet Secretary made for local authorities to meet their prevention duties? (OAQ51227)

I thank the Member for that question. A large proportion of local government spending helps prevent difficulties from occurring or those difficulties from deteriorating further. In order to assist all local authorities in these endeavours, I have decided to provide an additional £1.77 million over and above the local government settlement to ensure that no local authority in Wales sees its budget reduced by more than 1 per cent compared to the current year.

Diolch. Well, in fact, this question was raised with me by the Red Cross and, after that, I wrote to you with a written question, and your reply recognised that local government is responsible for a range of preventative services, but similarly, then, responded with reference to local government funding in the round. What consideration have you therefore given to financial provision in the context that sustainable, community-driven development at local authority level, mobilising individuals, associations and institutions to come together and build on their social, cultural and material assets, putting them at the heart of decisions, will prevent care needs from becoming more serious and therefore save money for local authorities at times of budget reduction and the opposite?

Well, Dirprwy Lywydd, I regularly agree with what Mark Isherwood says about the need for all public services to regard their users as assets, to make sure that, when people are involved with public services, they are not regarded as problems to be solved, but as joint participants in the business of bringing about improvement. That sense of co-production is particularly important in preventative services. We’re very lucky in Wales to have such a vibrant third sector that helps to mobilise citizens in exactly that way, and I have always believed that local authorities that seek to engage their citizens in that positive way are likely to be able to make greater impacts with the budgets they have, particularly at the preventative end.