As Scotland faces growing fiscal challenges, the need for public sector reform has never been more pressing. This need is amplified by the recent return to emergency spending controls, and confirmation from First Minister, John Swinney that universal service provision will remain a priority for the Scottish Government.
In setting out the Programme for Government this week, the First Minister called out the need for public services to be ‘coordinated, holistic services that meet (family) needs and are easy to access’.
If the Scottish Government is to deliver results in the coming year, these joint ambitions need to be approached in a fundamentally different way.
Public Sector Reform for any government is challenging. Ministers and senior civil servants need to balance complexity with delivering rapid results, whilst protecting existing services to maintain the public’s trust and confidence.
It can be tempting to focus on established processes that give the confidence of tried and tested approaches that keep control in the hands of ministers. However, these approaches carry a risk of being too onerous and rigid to deliver rapid results, as well as alienating the very people who need to embrace, own and drive significant change.
Public Sector Reform must empower and unite public bodies across domains to achieve impactful sustainable change
Scotland’s public sector faces complex challenges; demand has grown whilst the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector has declined. This is partly driven by piecemeal policy interventions and incremental expansion of devolved powers. Reform is not simply a matter of balancing the books or reducing the overall cost of the public sector to meet a short-term challenge. It requires a bold reimagining of how public services are designed, delivered and managed across the whole public sector.
Since 2011, successive commissions and reports have highlighted an urgent need for comprehensive, system-wide change. There is almost universal agreement that reform requires an inclusive approach, but this needs to feel substantially different from established consultation processes if it is to deliver impactful change over the long term.
Progress has been made in some areas; however, the growing gap in public finances reinforces the need for a fundamentally different approach to designing and delivering public services. The gap between income and expenditure continues to widen despite interventions; a more radical response is required to achieve long-term fiscal sustainability and meet the rapidly evolving needs of the public.
Whilst the Auditor General has advocated for centralised control and government-led reform, our experience of delivering complex transformation across public and private sector shows that those closest to the problem are better placed to identify, problem solve and implement impactful changes.
Leveraging fiscal pressure as a catalyst for transformation, Scotland can shape its public sector into being more agile, integrated and citizen centric. Achieving this, however, requires shifting from top-down, outside-in transformation to an approach that empowers public bodies and their partners to lead reform, albeit within a strategic framework set by the Scottish Government. This approach will address financial pressures through a systematic root and branch review of public services, identifying and resolving gaps and overlaps within and between public bodies and other partners. It will also lay the groundwork for longer-term prosperity by continually aligning services to meet actual needs and improving overall citizen outcomes.
Reimagining public services around how people experience life in Scotland, rather than established organisation structures or efficiency targets, is essential to rebuild trust
To drive meaningful reform, the agenda must be refocused on cross-government enablement and collective action at a portfolio level. By reimagining service delivery around how citizens experience life in Scotland, public services can be more closely aligned with actual needs, rather than being constrained by organisational silos. Empowering public bodies and their partners to own and solve challenges collectively will foster a culture of collaboration, break down entrenched power bases, and result in more transparent and impactful public services.
The Scottish Government is at a pivotal moment. To achieve the ambitious reforms that Scotland desperately needs, it must engage with experienced partners who understand both the strategic and operational dimensions of public sector transformation. Working with partners with experience of transforming and delivering complex public sector service is understandably difficult under the circumstances. Hence there will need to be innovative alternative financial models agreed that achieve reform objectives within the constraints of the public purse.
By working together, we can co-create a reform agenda that not only meets today’s challenges but also sets a course for a more resilient, citizen-centric public sector in the years to come.