Hart attack: NHS 'spends £1bn of budget badly'

A billion pounds of the annual Welsh health budget is not being spent properly, according to finance chiefs. Full story here.

Welsh assembly members have been told that some patients are taking up beds needlessly, while others needed to be in hospital but were not.

Paul Davies, of the All Wales Directors of NHS, said a fifth of the £5bn annual health budget was not used correctly, with "extremely costly" mistakes.

The Welsh Assembly Government has been asked to comment.

Mr Davies told the assembly finance committee:

Far too many patients end up in the wrong place, either being hospitalised when they shouldn't be, or they stay in hospital too long, or they stay in primary care, and they should be in hospital.

All these mistakes .... [are] extremely costly, very expensive.

We believe there is at least 20% that we are not doing appropriately within the total budget, that if we did then we would see that improvement come through.

There's £1bn that we're not utilising appropriately.

Please, Brian Gibbons, I want some more

Following on from an earlier post it seems that three Welsh councils, Anglesey, Conwy and Powys are reaching for their bowls.

The councils with the lowest grant rise in Wales are to appeal to an assembly government minister for an increase.

Powys, Anglesey and Conwy councils, which are scheduled to receive between 1% and 1.1%, will press for at least a 1.5% rise next year.

Local Government Minister Brian Gibbons was described as anticipating a "constructive discussion" with them.

Last month, the assembly government said grants across Wales were "tight" but called it a "realistic deal".

The latest meeting comes a week after a cross-party delegation from Powys Council held talks with mid Wales AMs.

The delegation, which will meet Dr Gibbons in Cardiff on Wednesday, is being led by Powys Council and also includes the Welsh Local Government Association.

What are the chances of the response being, "You've got to pick a pocket or two"?

Local Government Funding: Conwy in Call my Bluff

Well, it had to happen. In what seems like a classic example of call my bluff, Conwy County Borough Council attempts to stick its two fingers up to the Welsh Assembly Government - You've failed to give us a fair settlement, so if you can pay for that, then you can maybe pay for this.

The council which will welcome next year's Urdd Eisteddfod does not know if it can afford the £300,000 it has promised to the event.

Originally, Conwy Council had said it would give the money towards the costs of festival in Penrhyn Bay in May. But council leader Goronwy Edwards said financial constraints meant the council had to reassess all its spending.

The Urdd said any loss of support would be a "blow" and facilities would have to be reassessed.

Councillor Edwards said:

The council had promised £300,000 to the eisteddfod two to three years ago, but at the moment because of our settlement, we have to look at all our spending and make sure that council services are maintained... the council was having to reassess all its spending, and not just on the Eisteddfod.

We only received a settlement of 1.1% in the budget, which is very low, and so the money available to sustain services is much lower.

No discussion has yet taken place on financial support, but the council's scrutiny committee has refused other applications for assistance, including one from the Royal Welsh Show. "Things are very tight but I do hope that the council will be able to keep our promise to the Urdd," said Mr Edwards. "The last thing we want to do is not give the money, but council services must come first."

A meeting has been arranged next Wednesday with the Welsh Assembly Government to discuss the council's financial settlement.

It's safe to assume that it won't come to this, but you have to hand it to Council Leader Goronwy Edwards - who must be displaying one proud smirk at the moment - for this clever move. Councillors up and down the country must be kicking themselves that they couldn't come up with something before Conwy, in order to be the first to drive the knife in.

Trials and tribulations of Government

Whatever you do, don't panic! Gordon Brown isn't the only politician to be having a run of bad luck lately. Here in Wales, the Minister for Heritage, Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM, will be taking on board a second challenge since coming to office. The Welsh media, on the other hand, seem to enjoy the trials and tribulations of the Welsh Assembly Government and always seem to have something to play with.

This run of bad luck tends to come in three, and sometimes that figure is per week.

1. Wales Millennium Centre
2. The National Botanic Garden of Wales
3. What's next?

The deadline is soon, but we may have to put up with a different number three to satisfy the media in the meantime.

Welsh Government Package for Disabled Children

Miss Wagstaff hears that there has been a call for the Assembly to cough up the 'consequential' in response to a massive investment in disabled children in England.

It is feared the £21m – Wales’ share of a £340m UK government package for disabled children – has been swallowed up by the general health, social services and education budgets, already struggling under the strain of a tight financial settlement.

In England this money will be used to fund short breaks for disabled children, provide childcare and support, and help disabled children shape the services they need.

The equivalent funding for Wales, known as a consequential, amounts to £21m. But the money is not ring-fenced and the Assembly Government is under no obligation to spend the money in the same area as England – in this case, on disabled children.

Labour AM Lynne Neagle has managed to get herself on the front page of today's Western Mail, along with a few high profile children's charities. She has called for the Assembly to cough up the money and put us on par with England.

Wayne Crocker, from Mencap Cymru, said:

Without real money to help them do this they will continue to be left at the bottom of the box and live lives limited by the type of poor opportunities given to them in today’s Wales.

The Plaid Cymru/ Labour coalition are saying "NO", which shouldn't be a big surprise after the recent budget announcement. Of particular interest, however, is Lynne Neagle's Statement of Opinion calling for the cash to be forthcoming. The Welsh Conservatives and Welsh Liberal Democrats have all signed up, and every Welsh Labour backbencher, bar one, has signed as well. However, as of Monday morning, only one Plaid Cymru AM, Leanne Wood, has signed.

How come? It has been explained to me that Helen Mary Jones might be trying to enforce a 'three line whip' (drastic measure) against signing the Statement of Opinion on the basis that... wait for it... it would mean the One Wales Government doing the same as they are doing in England!

This doesn't look good for disabled children in Wales, and all for the sake of Plaid keeping their political purity. As an aside, any idea who the only Labour backbencher not to sign is? Step forward former Plaid politician and now Labour AM, Alun Davies. Maybe he's trying to tell us something.

Update: 21 November 2007 at 11:30

The following was received from a reliable Plaid Cymru source.

This is Leanne Wood and Helen Mary Jones' amendment to the statement of opinion by Lynne Neagle. Worth adding to your blog discussion I should think.

This Assembly notes the evidence from the Children's NSF SAAT Report 06/07, showing that services for disabled children and their families are consistently the weakest area of service delivery across Wales.This Assembly therefore calls on the Welsh Assembly Government to reaffirm its commitment to fully implementing and funding both the NSF and the recommendations of the Equality of Opportunity committee report on services for young disabled people and to ring fence funding and make it clearly traceable through the Assembly government budget.

Alun Cairns AM is in the chair and means business

Alun Cairns AM and Chair of the Assembly's Finance Committee has spoken frankly on his blog about scrutiny of the 'One Wales' budget.

He talks about the failure of scrutiny in past Assembly Committees and the need for all this to change with the current set up. He also mentions his previous 'scraps' with Minister Andrew Davies, and the how the committee will effectively tackle scrutiny of the budget over the coming weeks.

He goes on to say:

The big challenge for me is to see how the priorities in ‘One Wales’ are to be reflected in government’s budget. This is the time to scrutinise the affordability or the extent of commitments. Commitments have also been made on the money saved from the bonfire if the Quangos and I suspect some members will want to look for evidence that the figures are being achieved.

Being serious, I take the role as chairman of the committee seriously and will act independently and in a balanced way; however, we need to couple this with the general lack of scrutiny in the past and anyone (ministers in particular) giving evidence should be able to answer the basic premise of funding priority
following One Wales.

Alun has spoken about his commitment to the function of the committee and his role. As a 'Scottish' terrier known for biting the nether regions of past Labour Government Ministers in the Assembly, we could be in for an interesting month or so.

Andrew Davies' first ‘One Wales’ budget, ‘A bigger bang for the Welsh buck’

They really should sack the Communications Officer that came up with that headline.

Summary

The total Departmental Expenditure Limit for 2008-09 is £14 billion. This is split between Main Expenditure Groups (MEGs) as follows:

• Health and Social Services - £5.7 billion;
• Social Justice and Local Government - £4.2 billion;
• Environment, Sustainability and Housing - £734 million;
• Rural Affairs - £148 million;
• Economy and Transport - £1.2 billion;
• Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills - £1.8 billion;
• Heritage - £155 million;
• Central Administration - £329 million;
• Other Ministerial Services - £10 million;
• Central Match Funding - £30 million; and
• Public Services and Performance - £59 million.

Full details can now be read here.