In the last 15 years, local government in Wales has faced significant pressures, dealing with crisis after crisis, which has changed the way services are provided. Austerity tested local government’s ability to change and react.

Local authorities adapted well in responding to this challenge, devising and implementing a range of efficiency measures that reduced the cost of services, but also finding innovative ways of working.

However, public services now face their most significant challenges in a generation. Wales already has some of the greatest and deepest levels of poverty in Great Britain and communities are facing a cost of living crisis. Coupled with a challenging financial outlook and an aging population, it’s clear that public services will need to find different ways of maintaining services and continuing to support the wider community and in particular those most in need.

We recently published a series of reports. Our first report provided a baseline showing that poverty is the major challenge facing all tiers of government. With this context in mind, our second report looked at how local authorities are working to grow and expand social enterprises to help local government deliver more services and reduce demand. Finally, our third report focused on understanding how local authorities are creating the conditions needed to transform ways of working and empower communities to thrive as independently as possible.

Our recommendations are designed to support local authorities to use our report to self-evaluate current engagement, management, performance, and practice to identify where improvement is needed.