Statement on Public Sector Reform

Statement from Lib Dem Councillor Sally Pattle on Public Sector Reform and the Programme for Government 2026-2031:

No-one is arguing that public sector reform isn’t needed. But the recent missive from the Scottish Government has come from nowhere. It’s barely coherent and contains massive spending pledges with no indication of how they will be funded. It focuses on a three-month ‘engagement’ window, but there is no information on how this engagement is to be carried out and with whom. Jenny Gilruth claimed that every person in Scotland would be able participate, but when questioned, had no idea how this would happen. And of course, the window closes in less than three months from now, around the same time as the Scottish budget is expected.

Let’s look at just a couple of areas the Scottish Government claim they want to improve through this programme of reform. Under Growing the Economy, there are some vague promises made about commencing consultation on reforming the planning system, developing a ‘Glasgow-Edinburgh Arc’ and establishing a Major Projects Office. There is no mention of delivering a ferry service that actually works for residents, businesses and leisure users. There is no mention of completing the dualling of the A9, attracting foreign and inward investment opportunities, or developing governance structures for AI. These are things that would actually help to grow the economy and it would be great if the SNP would just finish one thing.

Let’s look at health. The National Care Service failed to get off the ground, despite £30 million of tax-payer’s money being wasted on reaching that conclusion. The new proposals are simply trying the same trick by the back door, yet nothing materially has changed. It is unworkable. And still the SNP persists in attempting to centralise everything – establishing two health boards for the whole of Scotland will simply see everything be sucked into the twin vortexes of Edinburgh and Glasgow and will serve no-one.

Finally, let’s look at local government. The SNP claim that local government is failing the communities they serve. Perhaps this is because over the past two decades, funding has been stripped meaning deep cuts to services – losing organisational skills, expertise and goodwill along the way. These new proposals make no mention of the potential impact on the workforce, no mention of the outcomes of the past nine years of the Local Government Review or Democracy Matters.

Existing reform work has been well-documented, whether it’s Clacks and Falkirk Councils pooling legal resource, the benefits of being a part of a City Region Deal, or the shared benefits of public, private and third sector working with Regional Transport Partnerships to name a few.

Instead of building on this good work, actually funding local government properly to deliver the services it is best placed to do, the Scottish Government want to rip it all up and start again. And they want to do this in three months – presumably with an eye on the crucial local elections in 2027.

Ultimately, I don’t believe this will end up happening – just like the time and resources wasted on the failed Deposit Return Scheme, this will come to naught. But we will have spent hours and scant resources coming to that conclusion.

I am so pleased that West Lothian Council, COSLA and the Scottish Liberal Democrats have committed constructively engaging in public sector reform, however this must be done in partnership with the Scottish Government and or communities. It cannot be imposed on us in another top-down decision that is doomed to fail.

Real, meaningful public sector reform has to be built up from strong foundations, on the back of considered evidence. Not least evidence that this blatant power grab, this massive programme of centralisation, is driven by public desire and measurable, beneficial outcomes and not the political will of one party. A party that is clearly out of ideas that has consistently failed to deliver for the people of Scotland on the vast majority of their promises for the past nineteen years.