Welsh assembly to keep joint reviews

A call for an immediate halt to joint reviews of council services in Wales and the creation of a single inspection programme for local government has been rejected by the Welsh assembly government.

The Welsh Local Government Association wanted the second round of reviews scrapped – just six of Wales’s 22 social services departments have been inspected so far. In their place it wanted to see an annual self-assessment for all council services.

It claimed the reviews were taking up too much time to complete and were too costly.

But an assembly government spokesperson said health minister Dr Brian Gibbons had “made clear that he expects joint reviews to continue”.

The association’s head of policy, Beverlea Frowen, said the association was not calling for an end to external inspection but wanted a lighter touch approach, as advocated by the recent review of public services by Sir Jeremy Beecham (Call for more care services scrutiny).