Public sector productivity is often misunderstood. It is sometimes reduced to a conversation about cuts, speed, or pressure on already stretched teams. At Transport for Wales, that is not how we think about it.
We are a not-for-profit organisation with more than 3,000 colleagues delivering Wales’ integrated transport system across rail, bus and active travel. Our role is to modernise and connect Wales through public transport, and productivity, for us, is about improving how we deliver that mission so passengers experience a better, more reliable service, while reducing the effort and cost required to provide it.
That means we do not define productivity purely through traditional efficiency metrics. Instead, we look at outcomes. Better journeys. Greater frequency. A more connected system that allows people to move seamlessly between bus, train and other forms of transport to reach work, education and communities. Any revenue we generate is reinvested directly back into improving those services.
We look at how many people are using the network, how effectively the system supports daily life in Wales, and whether the changes we make are genuinely improving public outcomes. Productivity is something that emerges from doing the right things well.
A critical part of that is ensuring productivity improvement is colleague-led. The people closest to the delivery of the service understand where friction exists, where time is wasted, and where processes could work better. If we can make their roles easier and more streamlined, the public benefits directly through a better service.
This is where our innovation lab plays an important role. Lab by Transport for Wales is our 10-week accelerator programme which helps creative, ambitious start-ups pivot their existing solutions and ideas to improve customer experience and business efficiency across Transport for Wales. Through this we focus on identifying and solving real operational challenges, moving quickly from problem definition to testing and, where appropriate, implementation. We spend time understanding the challenge before jumping to solutions, using workshops and colleague-led insight to clarify what actually needs to change.
We also run open innovation challenges, working with start-ups and scale-ups, many of them based in or near Wales. This helps ensure we are tackling the right problems with the right partners, while also supporting wider economic activity. Solutions are tested rapidly, refined where they work, and discarded quickly where they do not. That approach allows us to move faster without wasting time or money on ideas that fail to deliver.
Importantly, we do not badge this work internally as “productivity improvement”. For colleagues, it is simply about having better tools and clearer processes that make day-to-day work easier. The productivity benefit follows naturally from that. The technology comes later; understanding the problem comes first.
This distinction matters. Public sector innovation cannot be treated as a side project rather than as a system. Many public services face similar challenges around cost, demand, and workforce pressure. If we build shared capabilities, reuse digital tools, and collaborate openly across organisations, improvements can compound. The real prize lies in helping each other deliver the same or better outcomes with less complexity and wasted effort.
Looking ahead, my ambition for the public sector in Wales is that productivity continues to be framed around public value. Using time, resources and expertise to improve outcomes. Solving real operational problems quickly. Making smarter decisions through better use of data, and reducing waste by moving on rapidly from ideas that do not work.
Productivity, in that sense, is not the goal. It is the result of doing the right things, at the right time, for the right reasons.
Barry Lloyd talks about this and more in the Unlocking Wales' Productivity Potential podcast episode Productivity in the Public Sector. Listen to the podcast here.
