5. How is the Welsh Government working with local authorities to support and fund the continuation of shared services? OQ59139

The Welsh Government is supportive of local authorities working in collaboration to improve services and provide value for money, including via shared services. Corporate joint committees provide an important new vehicle to support strategic regional collaboration between authorities.

Thank you, Minister. Minister, I know you will recognise the important role that shared services between local authorities play in affording valuable services to many thousands of children, enhancing their learning experiences. The amounts of support are often fundamental to the viability and existence of extremely important services. So, it was with dismay that I learned that the new Labour-run Monmouthshire County Council are planning to withdraw their £100,000 grant support to Gwent Music, a truly fantastic shared service that works with over 8,000 children across Gwent and has done for over 50 years. This withdrawal of support could be the last nail in the wonderful service's coffin. Minister, recognising the increased settlement you are making available to councils this year, and further recognising the increased levels of reserves many councils have accrued, would you share my concerns that removing crucial resources and cutting the lifelines to shared services like Gwent Music is short sighted and detrimental to the learning and life experiences of our young people?

In prioritising public services, including local government, in our budget settlement, we've always been clear at every step that it still will mean a difficult set of decisions for local government to take. I know that local government leaders have been consulting on a whole range of things that they wouldn't normally want to be consulting their local areas on in terms of service provision for the future. But, at the end of the day, we have provided the best possible settlement to local government. It doesn't match inflation; it doesn't meet all of the needs that local government is going to have to meet in terms of their local communities. So, we continue to press the UK Government to provide greater funding for public services and we maintain that call to them to use the spring statement on 15 March to provide the much-needed additional uplift for public services.