Reshaping public services
Public service reform has been our central concern for over a decade. Not only are public services the place where citizens interact with the state but there a critical feature of the Scottish economy. Yet, they desperately need to change.
Our argument for innovation is threefold:
- Intense budgetary pressures necessitate significant reform with public expenditure in Scotland not returning to 2010 levels in real terms for 16 years.
- Top-down, identikit interventions have created a fundamental disconnect between citizens and the structures that govern them.
- Rapidly changing demographics require an additional £27bn to cope with increased demands and the legacy of failed, reactive policy.
This core interaction needs to radically improve. In the past Scottish Government's simply turned on the supply tap to solve problems. It didn't work, and today that option is no longer feasible. The public sector is in dire need of reform and new funding models are urgently required to meet increasing user expectations, rising demand and the desire to deliver co-produced, localised services.
It is our view that processes and structures should be adapted in a way that balances the very different social and demographic context of different parts of Scotland and that, at the same time, reconciles the appropriate provision of various services with a much greater level of engagement by citizens and residents in determining the form and provision of such services.
There is an emerging consensus across Scotland that our public services need to radically change in the aftermath of Christie and Beveridge. We argue for reform that will:
- Pilot directly elected mayors in our core cities to provide strong, effective leadership.
- Introduce Single Public Authorities for our island areas to embed local democracy, deliver efficient and transparent service delivery and promote community coherence.
- Acknowledge that we don't need to redraw the lines on the local government map in order to see councils working more closely together.
- One Ayrshire, One Renfrewshire or even One Dunbartonshire can become a reality through merging services such as education and social work in the way Stirling and Clackmannashire already do.
- Install accountable, bottom-up processes by reforming community councils and utilising new technologies to reach out to a younger generation.
- Localise local government by allowing them to keep business rates and raise additional revenue through council tax and new models such as Tax Incremental Funding (TiF).
- Encourage the next generation of council leaders by establishing a Scottish Local Government Graduate Programme and thus provide opportunities for our unemployed/underemployed graduates.
- Push for council mergers in logical, natural communities such as Ayrshire, Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire.
- Allow far greater diversity in the provision and running of public services by creating a level playing field in procurement and using social impact bonds.
- Endorse the Hutton Review on fair pay to address the lack of fairness and proportionality within our public sector.
Key Publication
Single Public Authorities for the Islands (
