THE Welsh Government has unveiled its plan to make health and social care funding "work harder for Wales".

In a statement, minister for health and social services Eluned Morgan and economy minister Vaughan Gething said: "Health and social services spend represents more than half of the Welsh Government’s annual budget and we want to make that money work harder for Wales."

The Foundational Economy in Health and Social Services 2021-22 programme focuses on three main areas:

  • Direct goods and services
  • The workforce
  • How the location and co-location of services has an impact on communities and their access to all services

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Working together in this way, the Welsh Government said, has already seen commitments of more than £900,000 into health and social services for specific projects.

One of those pilot projects has already helped Welsh suppliers win an additional £11 million-worth of healthcare contracts from April to October within this year. 

The ministers said: "When making decisions about spending in the health and social services, just as in the wider public sector, the cheapest option often becomes a proxy for value for money.

"But, low cost doesn’t always take into account where money is spent or what else it could achieve.

"If we spend money with a company wholly based outside Wales, for example, the only value to us in Wales, is the goods or services received – the money is no longer working to help people in Wales."

Through this programme, the Welsh Government say they want to prioritise spending Welsh public money in Wales, supporting Welsh companies wherever possible, which employ people and provide jobs and training in a local supply chain.

"When we spend Welsh taxpayers’ money it should support a local workforce and go into improving people’s lives and opportunities," they said.

"In this way, that pound goes back into the Welsh economy and is spent in Welsh shops, on Welsh produce and on Welsh futures."