Written Statement - Invest-to-Save Funding

Over £6 million of Invest-to-Save funding has been approved for allocation under the latest round of the fund. 

The Invest-to-Save Fund supports organisations involved in public service delivery, to make the transition to more efficient, more effective and more sustainable forms of service delivery and helping them to meet the challenges of a difficult settlement. 

The latest allocation of funding will support collaborative projects between organisations, both within and between sectors and further the efficiency and innovation agenda, supporting innovative projects that transform service delivery.  Funding will also encourage the dissemination of lessons learnt and best practice.

The Fund will provide:

• £3million to enable six organisations in North Wales (Conwy, Wrexham & Flintshire Councils; North Wales Fire & Rescue and Betsi Cadwaladr) to buy into the Public Sector Broadband Aggregation network.  A further £2 million will be made available to local government in the south/south west to further connectivity, in Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Bridgend and Cardiff.  Investment in the roll-out of the network (PSBA) will deliver voice, video and data communications across Wales and typically deliver these for around 20% less revenue cost;

• £121k to assist the National Botanical Garden of Wales to invest in solar photo voltaic power and thereby ensuring renewable energy use and a reduction in its running costs;

• £263k to assist various public sector bodies generate multi-million savings from asset sales and reductions in asset repair liabilities etc.

• £0.5 million for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to pilot digital speech recognition software that will deliver a 30% efficiency saving, speed up communications between hospital doctors and GPs and lead to improved patient services; and £125k for a web-based expenses solution for the NHS that will generate over £1.2million of savings in its first four years and at least £0.5million savings annually thereafter.

A further round of Invest-to-Save will be announced before summer recess.