The Welsh Government has overall responsibility for planning of the system, while local Health Boards, trusts and local authorities also have established mechanisms for setting out how resources (financial, workforce and infrastructure) will be deployed to yield maximum benefit in order to address areas of population health need and improve health outcomes, improve the quality of care, and ensure best value from resources. Health Boards in Wales are responsible for assessing the needs of their population as a whole, and for ensuring services are provided that meet those needs. Wales’ 22 local authorities, with locally elected politicians, are responsible for local government including social services. They are statutorily required to work with the NHS and non-statutory partners using a variety of joint arrangements such as local strategic partnerships. Groups of local authorities have coterminous boundaries with Health Board (Figure 3.1). Health Systems in Transition, Vol.