2025: The Future of Public Services in Wales

Academics from Cardiff Business School are playing a leading role in a major new project, Public Services Wales 2025, which was launched this week.

Professor Steve Martin, Director of the Centre for Local and Regional Government Research helped conceive and design the project, and Professor Ian Hargreaves, of Cardiff Business School and the School of Journalism Media & Cultural Studies, chaired the launch conference.
Speaking at this inaugural event, the First Minister, Carwyn Jones AM, welcomed the initiative, which will consider the implications of spending cuts and increasing demands from an ageing population for the kinds of public services that will be affordable by 2025.
The conference was attended by public service leaders from across Wales including senior civil servants, senior police officers, and chief executives from the health service, local government and voluntary sector. The second event is being held in St Asaph in April.

Professor Steve Martin explains:
"Public spending cuts are going to hit Wales hard because we have a more rapidly ageing population, more areas of deprivation and fewer jobs in the private sector compared to the UK as a whole.
The danger is that cuts will mean worse public services. So we're looking at what public services will be needed and what can be afforded in ten to fifteen years. We are keen to find ways to help services become more efficient and better at meeting citizens' needs."