11. Will the Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's invest-to-save programme? OQ59284

Since its introduction in 2009, the invest-to-save programme has supported approximately 200 projects with an aggregate value in the region of £200 million. Most recently, it has provided funding for three new projects, helping us to deliver our programme for government commitment in respect of looked-after children. 

Can I thank the Minister for that response? I know that, at one time, it was being used by Natural Resources Wales to fill their gaps because of the cost of the merger. But, generally, I believe it's a very good thing, invest-to-save, and it is an opportunity to help the Welsh public sector and get as much as we can for what we spend. The question I've got is: how do we ensure that what works and is seen to work in one place is actually shared and followed up by other parts of the Welsh public sector, so that we can all benefit rather than just having some one-off successes instead of having successes across the whole sector?

Cardiff University undertook some work with us, which sought to have discussions right across the public sector where the invest-to-save programme had been used, and it's been used right across Wales in a range of ways to understand what the barriers were for the implementation and expansion of those good projects and the learning across Wales so that these kinds of interventions could be made without the need for the invest-to-save funding. So, we are still considering, really, the learning of that, and it was very much about ensuring that there are opportunities for collaboration and for sharing that information. But we are currently exploring and considering how the fund will operate in future, what activities it should focus on, and part of that will be considering the learning about the barriers to the expansion of good practice.

Thank you very much to the Minister.