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
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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.
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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
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Our events bring together individuals from across the Welsh public sector
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Poverty has been a long-standing challenge in Wales, but the numbers affected are growing.
Our report looks to help councils make better use of resources to support people in poverty.
Poverty in Wales is not a new phenomenon and tackling poverty, particularly child poverty, has been a priority for both the Welsh Government and councils in Wales. The current cost-of-living crisis means that more people are being affected and families who have been living comfortably are moving into poverty for the first time. Our report looks at the challenges of poverty in Wales and how government is responding.
We found that many of the levers that could be used to alleviate poverty are outside of Wales’s control. The Welsh Government adopted a Child Poverty Strategy in 2011, which was revised in 2015, but this is out of date and the target to eliminate child poverty by 2020 was dropped. We found that councils and partners are prioritising work on poverty, but the mix of approaches and a complicated partnership landscape mean that ambitions, focus, actions, and prioritisation vary widely.
The Welsh Government makes significant revenue funding available but, due to the complexity and nature of the issues, the total level of spend is unknown, and no council knows the full extent of its spending on alleviating and tackling poverty. The short-term nature of grant programmes, overly complex administration, weaknesses in guidance and grant restrictions, and difficulties spending monies means that funding is not making the impact it could. Councils find it hard to deliver preventative work because of the sheer scale of demand from people in crisis.
Despite this, there is a lot of good work happening on the ground to help lessen the impact of poverty. Our recommendations are designed to support decision making in councils and their partners and improve how they target their work.
I acknowledge that scale of challenge that poverty presents. It is essential therefore that Welsh Government and councils maximise their efforts and address the weaknesses identified in my review. We need to ensure all tiers of government work together to help people in need and my recommendations are targeted at supporting improvement.