We’re here to Assure, Explain and Inspire.
The Auditor General is the statutory external auditor of most of the Welsh public sector.
Our key strength is our wide range of skills and knowledge that has arisen from our position as the the statutory external auditor
See our current and previous consultations
This section sets out how you may request information from us and provides some direct links to information of wider public interest.
Governance and oversight at Audit Wales
Our accounts are audited by an independent firm appointed by the Welsh Parliament.
Our Executive Leadership Team is responsible for directing the organisation
The Auditor General is responsible for auditing most of the public money spent in Wales.
See our work around the COVID-19 pandemic
Audit Services has a reach of over 800 public bodies across Wales covering financial and performance audit
Our programme of shared learning events focusses on topics that are common across public services
Having a strategic, dynamic and high quality audit programme is a key focus of our strategy
The NFI matches data across organisations and systems to help public bodies identify fraud and overpayments.
We work with others from across the Welsh public sector and beyond
See our latest news, blogs, events and more
Find out the latest news
See our blogs on many different topics
Access our data tools and useful data sources
View our videos on our YouTube channel
Our events bring together individuals from across the Welsh public sector
Access all the resources from our shared learning events
We have installed ReadSpeaker’s webReader, which allows visitors to instantly convert online content to audio on our website.
Click on the icon above to try this out, and take advantage of the full range of useful webReader features by clicking the link below.
Readspeaker website
This accessibility statement applies to www.audit.wales. This website is run by Audit Wales. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.
View accessibility statement
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact:
info@audit.wales
In recent years local government in Wales has faced significant pressures, dealing with crisis after crisis, but with less resource now available they need communities and people to do more for themselves
Local authorities have a positive track record of adapting well in responding to challenges. Whether its cuts in budget as a result of austerity or finding new ways of keeping services open during the pandemic, local authorities have been devising, and implementing a range of efficiency measures to reduce the cost of services, but also finding innovative ways of working.
However, because of the current cost-of-living crisis, local authorities are now facing their biggest challenge. While Welsh Government are planning to increase council budgets for 2023-24, the level of money being made available falls short of what is required to maintain services. The Welsh Local Government Association estimate that local authorities will have to manage £1.2 billion of unfunded cost pressures between April 2023 and March 2025.
As a result, local authorities are showing an increasing interest in encouraging and growing community resilience; equipping people to do more for themselves and be less reliant on the state. Community and self-resilience have begun to appear as a priority in more local authority corporate plans and strategy documents, as means of equipping people to be able to adapt and directly manage the problems they face.
While it is clear local authorities have a strong track record in some key areas that can help create more self-reliant individuals and resilient communities, we found that local authorities are not using resources to effectively encourage community resilience. In the current economic climate, this is unsurprising, with an uncertain future, switching resources from often over stretched services is no easy thing. But unless local authorities encourage people to do more for themselves and find their own solutions, services are likely to be unsustainable.
Positively, as a result of COVID-19, there is a huge amount of goodwill and commitment within communities that local authorities can build on and use. To do this, local authorities need to ensure they have the right arrangements and systems in place to strengthen community resilience and support people to be more self-reliant. To help and support this new way of working, we recommend that local authorities use our report to self-evaluate current engagement, management, performance, and practice to identify where improvement is needed. As a result of completing our evaluation tool, local authorities will be able to draft and implement an action plan to prioritise where changes are required.
The pandemic showed communities can play a more active role and become less dependent on public services but sustaining this requires local authorities to change how they work. I recognise how difficult this is in the current climate but also believe that change is necessary. Our report makes the case for change and provides recommendations to help authorities make the transition.