Your Shout

There's been some coverage in the press suggesting that the Pathfinder programmes aren't making savings as efficiently as the Unitary Authorities.  Is this true?

This refers to press coverage of a draft report by the Office for Public Management consultancy, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Cardiff Business School.  The draft report is part of a long term project which sets out to assess the "relative effectiveness, efficiency and impact of the new unitary authorities and enhanced two tier pathfinder authorities". The report is still only in draft form and has not yet been issued. 

Discussions have been ongoing with the department of Communities and Local Government who have met all the Pathfinder areas recently. The general view being expressed by enhanced two Pathfinders is that comparing the Unitaries and the Pathfinder areas only on a cost model is not enough or a useful exercise. The drivers for the new unitaries are entirely different to the pathfinder areas. The unitaries launch in April is being portrayed as progress and compared to the more evolutionary approach of the Pathfinder areas our progress is being portrayed as slow. 

The District and County Leaders met with the CLG in late July and there will be further engagement with the government office over the coming months.