Quietly, steadfastly, Wales is revolutionising the manner in which it approaches its governance and the delivery of its public services. The ‘Welsh way' has a basis in communities, co-operation, and the active management of networks.

It deliberately eschews markets, competition and further centralisation. Earlier this month, the leaders and chief executives of the 10 authorities in south-east Wales met together, just outside Tonypandy, to consider the progress being made in cross-boundary working to improve services and efficiency. To an outsider, the meeting suggested revolution, but the participants appeared to regard their work as business as usual.

The agenda for this month's meeting included reports on the development of a shared service centre for human resource management and payroll; a shared facility for the  conversion of residual waste to energy; the establishment of a joint records office; a shared schools support network; the collaborative commissioning of children's services; a shared strategy for developing, recruiting and training the social care workforce; the collaborative planning and delivery of EU conversion fund programmes; a regional analysis of housing need; and a proposal to make shared appointments of affordability co-ordinators.  

Equivalent meetings are occurring in each part of Wales, with three other, equally-innovative regional boards comprising leaders and chief executives in each Welsh region.

In 2003, the Welsh Assembly Government set out its programme for the reform of public service delivery in Wales, entitled Making the connections. It confirmed that Wales' reforms would not be based on competitive markets for public service providers. There would be no school academies and no foundation hospitals.

It also confirmed there would be no further centralising structural reorganisation, and provision would continue to have a foundation in the current 22 unitary local authorities. 

Wales has tried to combine community-based forms of governance with personalisation and efficiency by developing the networks between public service providers.

In 2005, Sir Jeremy Beecham was commissioned by the assembly government and the Welsh Local Government Association to review the reform agenda which had been developed. Sir Jeremy confirmed the broad direction of travel, and added to the reform agenda the need to build cross-sectoral collaborations within local authority boundaries, the requirement to improve and utilise performance information, and the desire to develop strong and engaged leadership from both the assembly government and local authorities.

The Beecham review team recognised there were both challenges and opportunities associated with delivering public services in a nation of three million people. The challenge is to ensure the right capacities and specialisations are available.

First minister, Rhodri Morgan, has long expressed the view that the architecture of Welsh governance is less important than the challenge of developing a Welsh public service with a common purpose.

Cross-sectoral collaboration is being developed through the introduction of local service boards in each local authority area which require local delivery organisations to share responsibility for achieving key objectives.

The development of integrated care pathways across health and social care, with pooled budgets and shared management, features strongly in the early work-plans of the boards.

Progress is clearly being made in transforming the Welsh public service into a matrix of cross-sectoral and cross-boundary networks. Much work remains to be done to develop the appropriate forms of governance, accountability and performance management for these networks.

Fundamental to this work will be to locate the ward councillor as the local champion who is fully supported to provide backing for local citizens through the new service pathways. Wales is at the forefront in developing forms of governance and public service delivery for the 21st century. We are combining citizen and community engagement with diversified, personalised, specialist and efficient public service delivery.

The revolutionary capacities of Tonypandy were much in evidence in 1910, when Rhondda miners took on the might of Churchill's cavalry. A century later, we hope the state will respond more positively to the creative potential of local leadership.

Paul Griffiths is a public service consultant and was a senior special adviser to the Welsh Assembly Government