THERE’S been a pretty self-serving narrative in some parts of Scottish politics for a while now that somehow, Scotland is in some way either stagnating or even worse, “broken”.
Whether it’s economic growth, public services in general or the small handful of attention-grabbing performance indicators which are used as a bellwether for overall outcomes, the outlook for some is one of overwhelming gloom, for which the blame is reserved almost exclusively – predictably enough – for the SNP Government.
Plus ça change, you might be tempted to say. Since the day the Scottish Parliament opened its doors, there’s never been any shortage of commentary – mostly from those ill-disposed to any further constitutional change, or in some cases even to the modest measure of self-government that we currently have – to the effect that devolution has left Scotland’s public services deficient in some way.
In previous years, criticism of government stewardship of Scottish public services largely slid off harmlessly. The Scottish Government was viewed favourably by most, and the SNP in government was trusted by the people far more to act in Scotland’s interests than was Westminster, whether it was Labour or Conservatives in charge.
While that trust still exists, the recent Scottish Social Attitudes Survey has shown that the gap has been narrowed significantly. There’s no question in my mind that people’s general perception of how public services are performing – fairly or not – is what has done most to bring about that narrowing of the trust gap.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. In terms of its public services and what it offers its people, Scotland compares well to other parts of the UK. Devolution might give us some policy responsibility, but it is not unlimited.
A few tax powers notwithstanding, our finances are still largely determined by decisions taken in Westminster. Devolution simply doesn’t give Scotland the ability to mitigate all the effects of years of Westminster-driven austerity.
And yet ... however opportunistic some of the criticism is when it comes from opposition parties, it still finds resonance for many in the reality of what they experience directly or are themselves willing to believe.
So, in a climate where demand for services continues to increase while the human and financial resources able to meet that demand continue to be constrained, what is to be done?
It’s clear that for things to stay the same, some things will have to change. Which is why, for me, this week’s Scottish Government summit on public service reform chaired by Ivan McKee, Minister for Public Finance and Migration, was so significant.
Much ink has been spilled and pixels taken up on social media over how reform in this area has allegedly been avoided by the SNP over the past few years. Yet it’s not as if things have been preserved in time since 2007.
The creation of Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was lamented long and loud by some. Yet in terms of local accountability and effective performance, both are providing outcomes streets ahead of any alternative reality where their predecessor structures might have remained in place.
At a more granular level, the public health approach to knife crime adopted in Scotland many years ago has saved lives and yielded improved outcomes across the board for those families now less likely to be affected by the consequences. Hopefully the increasing ability to treat drug use as a public health rather than a criminal matter in all cases will bring similar positive outcomes.
I’ve written before about the lazy plea to be “rid of bureaucracy and unnecessary regulations” and how if transformation really was that easy, it would already have happened a long time ago.
The sharing of local government services is another solution which is commonly reached for. But while if done properly it might lead to the saving of a few senior salaries, the economies of scale beyond that are unlikely to amount to much.
In a similar vein, while integration of IT systems and a focus on good procurement practice can bring about savings, none of it is ever likely to be transformational.
And while outsourcing as well as private sector financing have been the holy grail for the Tories and Labour for years now, all too often the reality for the public has turned out to be poorer services at higher cost than the public service model they are supposed to be improving upon.
But the fact is this: if they are to succeed, our public services need our support, as well as our recognition that they can’t possibly meet every demand that we place upon them.
In turn, they also need to have effective workforce and skills planning, as well as predictable investment over the long term.
Above all, as the Christie Report from 2011 highlighted, the biggest improvement we can aim for is when it comes to prevention, and the eliminating so far as is ever possible the costs of treating adverse outcomes.
That approach does not lead to immediate rewards. But it does require a long-termism in politics towards which, sadly, the short-termism of the body politic isn’t always sympathetic.
As John Swinney noted in a keynote speech last October to the Edinburgh Futures Institute, the path to growth is through investment and improved life chances.
We’ve seen that forward thinking through the Scottish Government’s anti-poverty agenda.
But if our public services are to develop as they need to in order to meet our needs, then the most urgent investment in future must surely be in prevention and demand reduction.
