Latest news with #ChristieCommission
The Herald Scotland
12 hours ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
A chance to reform public services: can we get it right this time?
The autumn political conference season in the year before an election is always one to watch. It's when near-final manifesto pledges — focus-grouped and thrashed out over the summer — are given a public airing to see how they fare against the prevailing mood. Crucially, it also gives parties time to finesse or abandon them altogether if the response is less than enthusiastic. By the time spring conference season rolls around, campaigning is in full swing and everything becomes about the pitch to voters. This autumn's season will arguably be one of the most significant in the post-devolution era. Current polling points to a much broader split in representation at Holyrood in 2026 than we've seen before, and there's a growing sense that every vote is up for grabs. The public mood increasingly demands action over loyalty — something we haven't seen for quite some time. Read more by Calum Steele As things stand, the SNP is still on course to be the largest party at Holyrood, albeit a much-diminished force compared to its 2011 peak. Labour — still a long way off the halcyon days when they boasted of weighing the vote rather than counting it — will be buoyed by their recent success in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, and are starting to believe they're no longer just there to make up the numbers. Meanwhile, the emergence of Reform will almost certainly see the new kid on the block hosting its own conference, creating a dilemma for many organisations and businesses now furiously debating the optics of attending — and how such a move might be perceived. However it's sliced and diced, the very nature of devolved politics leaves little room for genuine originality. With the overwhelming majority of the Scottish budget directed straight into public services — and with increasing welfare responsibilities now falling to Holyrood — tinkering at the edges is all we're likely to see in reality. That's not to say we won't hear grandiose pronouncements about changing how 'we' do things. (No one wants to use the word 'reform' any more, lest it boost the algorithms that propel Farage's party further into public consciousness.) This probably explains why the Christie Commission of 2011 seems to have been dusted off and turned into a talking point again in recent weeks. As far as aspiration goes, the Christie Commission is right up there. In fact, I can't think of a single person I've met who disagrees with its principles. Christie rightly identified massive inefficiencies in public service delivery and emphasised the need to shift spending away from ever-growing demand and towards preventing that demand in the first place. Few disagreed on the what — the how was never addressed. The First Minister has already cited the creation of Police Scotland as an example of the kind of reform Christie inspired. This is, of course, as politically courageous a claim as it is an inaccurate one — police reform was already well under way before Christie was even established. But it illustrates just how far apart political interpretations of 'successful reform' are from public perceptions. It also assumes the public has forgotten what that reform was actually supposed to deliver. When Alex Salmond ran the temperature check on a single Scottish police service at the SNP conference in October 2010, he declared: 'If it comes down to a choice between cops and bureaucracy, between bobbies on the beat and the boundaries of police authorities, then with me it's simple — it's policemen first — safety first — communities first — bobbies before boundaries.' John Swinney is right that £200 million has been cut from the annual cost of policing, but beyond saving money, police reform brought leadership chaos, consecutive years of accounting failures and bailouts, catastrophic headlines, and several years of political pain — before finally settling into a model that delivers a much-diminished quality of service across the country, far removed from how it was sold. John Swinney (Image: PA) It's inevitable that this summer recess will see parties of all stripes grappling with questions of structural reform — particularly across local authorities and health boards. How these deliberations manifest at the conference lecterns later this year will largely determine the direction of travel for the post-2026 parliament. Structural reform holds many appeals for politicians. They look at the number of chief executives and the size of management teams replicating much of the same functions and see easy wins in cutting their number. They'll claim procurement benefits and economies of scale, while ignoring the chaos increased centralisation always causes — simply hoping that service improvement will follow. The Police Scotland experience suggests those hopes would be very misplaced indeed, as new, more expensive bureaucracies emerge to replace old ones, and those actually delivering services are jettisoned to make way for shiny new corporate functions measuring them. We can debate whether Christie failed because it was designed for an ideal world rather than the real one, or whether Christie was failed by the very institutions it aimed to inspire — who simply ignored it and carried on as before. Either way, it has not delivered the outcomes that the fanfare surrounding its publication promised. The reasons for that are not structural. Almost all of them come down to failures in leadership — and unless politicians are prepared to tackle that problem, the only thing that will change is that our public services will become centralised beasts, even further removed from the communities they are meant to serve. The fall out from that would be a price no government could survive. Calum Steele is a former General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, and former general secretary of the International Council of Police Representative Associations. He remains an advisor to both
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Public sector reform: you can't fix it by cutting those delivering it
Read more from Roz Foyer: Let me be clear: the workers of these services were heroic. Their efforts cannot be forgotten, and ministers would do well to remember this as they plot their savings. It was the infrastructure surrounding them – lack of sick pay, poor planning and the complete absence of enforcement of covid regulations – as well as the under-resourcing of crucial sectors such as social care that meant workers were thrown to the wolves. If reforms of our public services are to mean anything, then our message is simple: you can't fix public services by cutting the people who deliver them. It's illogical to talk about reducing headcount while NHS waiting times, A&E delays and social care backlogs are at crisis levels all while local government has been effectively gutted. Scotland deserves high-quality public services that are fully funded, resilient and responsive. That means investing in the workforce, not undermining it. In many ways, we've seen this story before. Just a few years ago, Kate Forbes attempted to reduce the number of public sector jobs to 'pre-pandemic' levels, with some 30,000 workers to be sent packing. The move was quickly jettisoned. But it's clear to see that reform of our public services has always loomed large in the background. This aborted move followed what we saw in the early 2010s, when austerity budgets passed down from government shrunk the size of the Scottish public sector by 10%, with the local government workforce reducing by 60,000. Despite the promises of central government that these were 'efficiencies' and government spending would be more 'targeted', what actually happened, to put it crudely, was ministers issued edicts on spending to local authorities, the Chief Executives and departmental heads of which, purely, looked at headcount and cut from there. If council chief executives are being told to cut their cloth accordingly, it's little wonder they look immediately to their staffing costs and misguidedly assume that's the place to start. This cannot be repeated this time around. That's not to say we are against reform, far from it. Savings can and should be made if we genuinely adhere to the Christie Commission's principles of empowerment, partnership and prevention. Campbell Christie, was of course, a former General Secretary of the STUC. Savings can also be made if we root out the profiteers involved in so many of our public services. Take social care – up to £28 in every £100 leaks out of care homes in the form of profits, rent, payments to the directors, and interest payments on loans. Or take the outsourcing giants charging our schools £60 to change a lightbulb. But reform to address this will require upfront investment to insource services and savings are likely to take years to materialise. Presenting public service reform as a means to save money while simultaneously improving services is fundamentally dishonest. The reality is that across almost every developed country in the world, public spending is increasing. Years of austerity and demographic pressures, not to mention the investments needed to tackle the climate crisis, make this unavoidable. For all the talk of AI and technological change – a point the First Minister was at pains to mention in his speeches last week – an aging population will require greater investment in services delivered by people, not machines. If I'm speaking frankly here: Alison the social care worker, not AI, administers your granny their medicine and care. That cannot be replaced, no matter how much we, as a society, seek to embrace new ways of working. There are people in our workforce – those who toiled and sacrificed during the pandemic – that cannot be cast aside just because politicians think that ChatGPT is the future. Yes, there will be genuine savings to be found by embracing technology, we don't doubt that. Unions are proceeding with caution and with eyes open. Artificial intelligence is here and it's here to stay. If used correctly, recognising the labour of those that created the content in the first place, it can revolutionise, for good, the world of work. It could – and I stress could – correct the power dynamic between the executives and the employees. But it cannot and should not be used as a pre-requisite for efficiency savings which cost workers their livelihoods. Before charging ahead, the Scottish Government must engage meaningfully with trade unions. We have made it clear to ministers that we will not support any plan that puts public services or public service workers at risk. Politicians across the political spectrum need to face up to the fact that total tax revenues will have to rise in the coming years. The truth is, no matter how well-intentioned reforms of our public services are, the Scottish Government has powers of taxation that could raise up to £3.7 billion of extra revenue. This not only addresses our financial challenges, but it also gives public services the oxygen they need to breathe. That's the real reform we need in Scotland.
Scotsman
18-06-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
If Swinney knew how to fix the challenges our country faces, he'd have done it by now
First Minister John Swinney during his speech on national renewal and prevention, at the Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE) at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow. Photo: Robert Perry/PA Wire John Swinney may be the SNP's best bet when it comes to keeping the party together, but that doesn't mean he's good enough to lead Scotland Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Like any good bank manager, John Swinney has a plan to protect his firm's reputation. Soothing speeches to the customers promising them their money is safe. Reassurances that things will get better if they stick with the person they know. And, of course, the warning that other banks cannot be trusted. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But while Swinney may have practiced his sales patter, the reality is that he is working for the SNP, not Scotland. And any shrewd customer should read the small print before cashing their cheque. On Monday, Swinney delivered yet another speech promising national renewal. You would not be able to tell from his talk of an 'enterprising, compassionate, forward-looking nation' that just days earlier iconic Scottish bus firm Alexander Dennis launched a consultation on closing its Falkirk and Larbert sites citing a lack of pipeline work. Or that in recent years Alexander Dennis received more orders from Greater Manchester than the Scottish government, with Falkirk workers building 160 buses for Manchester's Bee Network, compared to just 44 out of a potential 252 buses for Scotland. And no mention that John Swinney knew about this a year ago and has done nothing to stop this. In the same speech, Swinney pledged to build an NHS for the future. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The SNP promised an NHS app back in 2021, only for Swinney to scale back the plans in January 2025 to a pilot in Lanarkshire. NHS England have had an app since 2018, much of the content developed by a Glasgow headquartered company, but they can't gt the SNP to listen to them. Swinney harked back to the recommendations of the Christie Commission, a report published in 2011. He's only had 14 years to digest those findings so maybe it's no surprise that Scotland's public services are on their knees. Swinney's not alone in being haunted by the past though. In 2010, just one in 18 Scots were on an NHS waiting list. Now it is nearly one in six. Investors who squander their clients' money prefer to talk about the potential of future returns. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Cue Swinney turning up at the Scotland 2050 conference to talk up that speculative asset, independence. So seeing as leopards don't change their spots – or bank managers their ties – what will Scotland look like in 2050 if the SNP are still in charge? A two-tier health system where those who can afford it are paying to go private and those who can't watch their lives sap away while they wait in pain? A Scotland which has forgotten how to manufacture, build and create, while Scottish taxpayers pay more and get less? John Swinney may be the SNP's best bet when it comes to keeping the party together, but that doesn't mean he's good enough to lead Scotland. In the past week he and his Ministers have been gaslighting Scotland, bringing forward timid ideas, recycled initiatives and announcing things that will never be delivered. If Swinney knew how to fix the challenges our country faces, he'd have done it by now.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Will 'radical' talk finally speed up public service reform?
There's much talk of a "new era" being defined by the second Donald Trump presidency, from trade to defence. On the home front for Americans, under the direction of Elon Musk, federal government services are being ripped up. The world's richest man and tech billionaire brings the Silicon Valley mantra of "move fast and break things". There's not much concern for those people and services left scattered and abandoned in his wake. So facing a new era of public service reform in Scottish government, talk of "radical" change looks relatively calm. But it also looks urgent. Between public sector unions and local authorities, who have their own mandates and legal powers, Holyrood ministers choose to tread relatively carefully. Too carefully for some. It is 14 years since the late trade union leader Campbell Christie set out a report into public service that had been commissioned by one John Swinney. It concluded, in 2011, that Scotland's public services were "in need of urgent and sustained reform to meet unprecedented challenges". It went on: "Unless Scotland embraces a radical, new, collaborative culture throughout our public services, both budgets and provision will buckle under the strain." It had some ideas that were widely accepted, but not widely adopted, starting with a shift to investing early to save money later - in early learning, for instance, which can be linked to better results, less need for learning support in later stages and, eventually, more diversion from crime and a smarter, healthier populace. "It is estimated that as much as 40% of all spending on public services is accounted for by interventions that could have been avoided by prioritising a preventative approach," said the Christie Report. It called for public agencies to become less fragmented and cluttered, a priority on tackling inequality, less of a "top down" and more of a "bottom up" approach to how services should support individuals and communities, as well as a clear justification for providing some services free to everyone. Sounds familiar? It noted some progress towards reform back then, but this was in isolated pockets. The same can be said 14 years later. Audit Scotland, the public spending watchdog, repeatedly says as much. Last November, it reported that spending plans are not sustainable as they are, so reform is a necessity. Its report observed: "There is no evidence of large-scale change on the ground, while the Scottish government has not yet fully established effective governance arrangements for a reform programme; does not know what additional funding is required to support reform; and has not provided enough leadership to help public sector bodies deliver change". The lack of progress is, at least privately, conceded by ministers. On becoming first minister last year, Swinney did not call for a new, time-killing version of the Christie Commission, but instructed ministers to look for guidance to the first one. In Ivan McKee as the minister now in charge, summoning the various parts of the government's sprawling agency empire to a "summit" on Monday, St Andrew's House has someone who talks the talk on public service reform more coherently and persuasively than others have done over those years. Attending were representatives of the same health boards and the same local council areas that have existed since before the Scottish Parliament was first elected. These are the big beasts and big spenders of public services, far more than Holyrood could ever be. Under instruction from ministers, they have been trying to integrate health with social care to get better outcomes. There have been mixed results, typically dependent on an individual with effective leadership skills. But the lack of integration of acute services and convalescence support remains one of the NHS's biggest headaches. Attempts to reform the care sector, including centralisation, have foundered. Initial support from business, unions and local councils fell away. Ahead of the meeting, in an interview with BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland, McKee identified a merger of councils and health boards as one of his preferred models for reform. It's called the single authority model, and the starting point is in Scotland's three island councils. Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles/Eilean Siar have three separate health boards as well as the councils set up 50 years ago. The health boards have become increasingly hard to justify. They require chief executives and various senior officials, paid at national rates, along with back office support. Because they're small, they can't command the best pool of recruits. Volumes of circulars on clinical and administrative guidance cascade down from national level, and require staff to absorb them. They each require board members, where expertise in clinical issues is thinly stretched. And after all that, the service they frequently provide to islanders is limited to the air fare to get people to and from hospitals. In the northern isles, medical landfall is usually Aberdeen. From the Western Isles, Loganair is the key factor in getting patients to services in Glasgow and sometimes Inverness. Where it might appear appealing to have the full range of medical services on the islands, it is impossible to recruit and retain the specialist doctors required, let alone the funds to pay them. A doctor's career progression requires a minimum throughput of patients, a bit like a pilot licence requires logged hours in the air. Pressure has been exerted in the past to get health boards to merge - the northern pair with Grampian, the Western Isles with Highland. There has been similar pressure to get the three Ayrshire councils working together, among other combinations. But local politics get in the way. Vested interests of elected and employed officials dig in their heels. Experience of the last major redrawing of council boundaries, in the early 1990s, shows that they cost a lot to remove. So rather than erasing boundaries between geographies, the intention now seems to be removal of the boundaries between services within those geographical areas. McKee is also keen to press on with merger of back office functions across mainland council areas. But the difficulties, including the challenge of accountability when things go wrong, become more complex where council boundaries do not match those of health boards. Don't be surprised to find more progress in Scottish Borders and Fife, where they do. Different accounting and software systems in councils and health boards remain an obstacle to speedy integration. There are public sector union obstacles as well. The Institute for Fiscal Studies last week showed that there's a windfall gain to be had from a falling number of school pupils. Teacher numbers could be proportionately reduced, releasing funds for other priorities, it was suggested. None of the key players were attracted by that, where sustained "teacher numbers" are more the measure of political commitment than pupil outcomes. The resistance to reform is not just among ministers. It comes from within the agencies they command, from councils which they don't, and from the public - who can often see the need for change in the services they expect, but can also be mobilised in opposition when change feels close to home. Ministers open to 'radical' public sector reform
BBC News
17-02-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Will 'radical' talk finally speed up public service reform?
There's much talk of a "new era" being defined by the second Donald Trump presidency, from trade to defence. On the home front for Americans, under the direction of Elon Musk, federal government services are being ripped world's richest man and tech billionaire brings the Silicon Valley mantra of "move fast and break things". There's not much concern for those people and services left scattered and abandoned in his facing a new era of public service reform in Scottish government, talk of "radical" change looks relatively calm. But it also looks public sector unions and local authorities, who have their own mandates and legal powers, Holyrood ministers choose to tread relatively carefully. The Christie Report Too carefully for some. It is 14 years since the late trade union leader Campbell Christie set out a report into public service that had been commissioned by one John concluded, in 2011, that Scotland's public services were "in need of urgent and sustained reform to meet unprecedented challenges".It went on: "Unless Scotland embraces a radical, new, collaborative culture throughout our public services, both budgets and provision will buckle under the strain."It had some ideas that were widely accepted, but not widely adopted, starting with a shift to investing early to save money later - in early learning, for instance, which can be linked to better results, less need for learning support in later stages and, eventually, more diversion from crime and a smarter, healthier populace."It is estimated that as much as 40% of all spending on public services is accounted for by interventions that could have been avoided by prioritising a preventative approach," said the Christie called for public agencies to become less fragmented and cluttered, a priority on tackling inequality, less of a "top down" and more of a "bottom up" approach to how services should support individuals and communities, as well as a clear justification for providing some services free to everyone. Sounds familiar?It noted some progress towards reform back then, but this was in isolated pockets. The same can be said 14 years later. Audit Scotland, the public spending watchdog, repeatedly says as November, it reported that spending plans are not sustainable as they are, so reform is a necessity. Its report observed: "There is no evidence of large-scale change on the ground, while the Scottish government has not yet fully established effective governance arrangements for a reform programme; does not know what additional funding is required to support reform; and has not provided enough leadership to help public sector bodies deliver change". The lack of progress is, at least privately, conceded by ministers. On becoming first minister last year, Swinney did not call for a new, time-killing version of the Christie Commission, but instructed ministers to look for guidance to the first Ivan McKee as the minister now in charge, summoning the various parts of the government's sprawling agency empire to a "summit" on Monday, St Andrew's House has someone who talks the talk on public service reform more coherently and persuasively than others have done over those were representatives of the same health boards and the same local council areas that have existed since before the Scottish Parliament was first elected. These are the big beasts and big spenders of public services, far more than Holyrood could ever instruction from ministers, they have been trying to integrate health with social care to get better outcomes. There have been mixed results, typically dependent on an individual with effective leadership skills. But the lack of integration of acute services and convalescence support remains one of the NHS's biggest to reform the care sector, including centralisation, have foundered. Initial support from business, unions and local councils fell away. The single authority model Ahead of the meeting, in an interview with BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland, McKee identified a merger of councils and health boards as one of his preferred models for called the single authority model, and the starting point is in Scotland's three island Orkney and the Western Isles/Eilean Siar have three separate health boards as well as the councils set up 50 years health boards have become increasingly hard to justify. They require chief executives and various senior officials, paid at national rates, along with back office support. Because they're small, they can't command the best pool of of circulars on clinical and administrative guidance cascade down from national level, and require staff to absorb them. They each require board members, where expertise in clinical issues is thinly after all that, the service they frequently provide to islanders is limited to the air fare to get people to and from hospitals. In the northern isles, medical landfall is usually Aberdeen. From the Western Isles, Loganair is the key factor in getting patients to services in Glasgow and sometimes Inverness. Where it might appear appealing to have the full range of medical services on the islands, it is impossible to recruit and retain the specialist doctors required, let alone the funds to pay them. A doctor's career progression requires a minimum throughput of patients, a bit like a pilot licence requires logged hours in the has been exerted in the past to get health boards to merge - the northern pair with Grampian, the Western Isles with Highland. There has been similar pressure to get the three Ayrshire councils working together, among other local politics get in the way. Vested interests of elected and employed officials dig in their heels. Experience of the last major redrawing of council boundaries, in the early 1990s, shows that they cost a lot to remove. So rather than erasing boundaries between geographies, the intention now seems to be removal of the boundaries between services within those geographical is also keen to press on with merger of back office functions across mainland council areas. A complex fix But the difficulties, including the challenge of accountability when things go wrong, become more complex where council boundaries do not match those of health boards. Don't be surprised to find more progress in Scottish Borders and Fife, where they accounting and software systems in councils and health boards remain an obstacle to speedy integration. There are public sector union obstacles as well. The Institute for Fiscal Studies last week showed that there's a windfall gain to be had from a falling number of school pupils. Teacher numbers could be proportionately reduced, releasing funds for other priorities, it was suggested. None of the key players were attracted by that, where sustained "teacher numbers" are more the measure of political commitment than pupil resistance to reform is not just among ministers. It comes from within the agencies they command, from councils which they don't, and from the public - who can often see the need for change in the services they expect, but can also be mobilised in opposition when change feels close to home.
