Welsh councils are to formally join up with other public bodies in new local service boards announced by Cardiff. Ministers at the assembly are creating the new boards with the aim of pulling together public service delivery, and the news points to the Government's willingness to stick with 22 local authorities in the wake of the Beecham report Each board will be co-terminous with existing council boundaries and the local authority chief executive is likely to be the convenor. Boards will possess statutory powers requiring co-operation between partners. Although the boards will be provided with independent budgets by the Welsh Assembly, utilising funds top-sliced from existing service providers, they will not be legal entities employing their own staff, instead relying on secondees. Final accountability would remain as now. Services provided by the boards will be brought in from both the public and private sectors, in an exercise of 'shared sovereignty'. Although each board will be able to range over the entire network of service provision, officials said they expected them initially to concentrate on aspects of the problem areas in social care, children and health. The boards are an ambitious development of Sir Jeremy Beecham's suggestion of piloting local public service boards to deliver contracts between councils, local health boards, NHS trusts, the police and voluntary organisations. All these organisations will become members of the new boards and consultation will help decide the boards' sizes, as well as their number of councillor-members. Cardiff is wary of giving the chair automatically to council leaders and outsiders, such as local bishops, could be another possibility. The establishment of the boards is pencilled in for 2007-8, with budgets available the following year.
