Scottish Government

On January 30, 2008, First Minister Alex Salmond made a statement in Parliament about the Scottish Government's plans to simplify public services.

It laid out an intention to reduce the 199 national public service organisations by at least 25 per cent. with the aim of achieving less duplication and bureaucracy.

In support of the Parliamentary statement the Government has published the following information:

See also

Annex A - Scotland's public services

Annex B - Summary of proposals

Annex C - 199 organisations

Download a PDF version of these pages

PUBLIC SERVICES IN SCOTLAND

1. The Scottish Government believes strongly in the ethos, value and importance of public services and their continuous improvement for the people of Scotland. From road building and care services through to safeguarding our natural and built environment, public services are designed and delivered in increasingly innovative ways by diverse providers from across the public, private and third sector. We want to reshape Scotland's public services, not because they are failing, but to make them more flexible, responsive and effective by removing unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication in service planning and delivery. This is not about squeezing our valuable public services. The aim is to free-up the time of our skilled public service staff to allow them to innovate and improve service delivery and help achieve more for Scotland.

2. The Scottish Government believes that more effective government can best be achieved by simplifying the complex and confusing landscape of public sector organisations. This will make it easier for the public to access services and for the organisations involved in developing and delivering them to provide a better, more joined-up service. The public sector cannot deliver for the people of Scotland by working in silos. Our delivery structures need to develop a more integrated approach to cut through and remove bureaucratic barriers. Institutional arrangements in our public services need to make sense for a country of 5 million. This means a clearer, more focussed organisational landscape that will be more effective in driving forward our other commitments to change and improve service delivery.

3. The Scottish Government's vision is to achieve:

• simpler structures which support the achievement of the Scottish Government's national strategic objectives and local government's delivery of better outcomes for local communities
• transparent and clear public service decision-making, with streamlined scrutiny and control regimes, which facilitate Scotland's capacity to mobilise capital and grow our economy
• fewer, better structured arms length bodies at a national level; which receive clear and integrated strategic direction from Government, while at the same time given room to deliver
• collaboration and joint-working between public services, which is essential for delivering better services, facilitated through less heavy formal structures and fewer organisational boundaries cutting across decision-making

Read the First Minister's full statement

PRINCIPLES AND APPROACHES

4. Simplifying public services to achieve more effective government is one part of a broader approach to public service reform in Scotland, which includes moving to an outcome based approach, more effective performance management systems, streamlined and improved scrutiny frameworks and a drive for shared services. Effective reform requires an understanding of the public administration system as a whole and how it functions to continuously improve services and deliver a fairer society in Scotland. That is why these changes are based on a holistic look at Scotland's public sector. The Scottish Government's programme of reform and reshaping public services will deliver user-focus, effectiveness and value for money to ensure high quality services are provided for Scotland's people, which means:

• user focus - the basis of good public services is putting the person and not the institution at the centre and developing on-going, personal relationships, between the public and providers rather than seeing services as anonymous, one-off transactions
• effectiveness - focusing on outcomes and monitoring the real improvements people see in their services and communities rather than the level of cash and resource invested in services
• value for money - we expect public service organisations to drive up efficiency and provide better, more streamlined services. This is to make sure that each and every public pound spent is done so effectively, getting the best results we can, but also wisely, making sure that it makes strategic sense and invests in Scotland's future

REDUCTION IN NATIONAL PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATIONS

5. One part of the Scottish Government's approach to achieving more effective government is the reduction in the number of devolved, national public sector organisations. A leaner, more strategic approach to national Government is being pursued, with an overarching purpose of Government underpinned by five strategic objectives. Since coming into office the Scottish Government have brought Communities Scotland non-regulatory functions within the Scottish Government, reformed the Enterprise Networks, replacing 21 LECs with 6 organisations; set out plans to create a single integrated, national sports organisation; begun merging a range of skills and careers functions into Skills Development Scotland and announced our plans to strengthen the Children's Hearings System. VisitScotland will also rationalise its own 14 offices to six, aligning with the Enterprise Networks.

6. In October 2007, the Scottish Government announced its intention to reduce the number of devolved, national public sector organisations by 25 per cent over the next three years, against a published baseline list of 199 organisations (set out in Annex A). The aim of this reshaping is to bring together organisations involved in delivering public services, across organisational boundaries to achieve common goals. The changes set out in this paper continue the process of simplifying public services by reshaping the national landscape of public organisations.

The Scottish Government will:

• Stop activity that no longer contributes to the public purpose
• Remove organisational barriers between linked areas of activity, or between policy and delivery and simplify structures to streamline decision making and increase transparency and public connection
• Bring together organisations with similar skills, expertise and processes to achieve greater effectiveness, economies of scale and critical mass and removal of duplicated functions and powers
• Take a new approach to arms length bodies, including the establishment of Delivery Units within the Scottish Government as an alternative to arms length bodies
• Reduce the number of Advisory Bodies
• Implement a consistent approach to the creation of new organisations
• Take forward a range of other approaches to achieving more effective government including shared services and closer collaborative working

7. Where structural changes take place the purpose is to drive up efficiency and effectiveness in how the public sector organises itself to provide services. This can be achieved through simpler structures and by creating the conditions for better connections, joint working and informal collaboration to occur by removing organisational barriers.

We remain committed that no compulsory redundancies will result from the structural changes we will progress. We will not make structural change to, or reduce the number of, local authorities, Health Boards or police services.

Our focus is on a fundamental change in the relationship with local government signalled by the concordat embodying an outcome based approach. We will continue to support efficient government and an approach to shared services. We will also seek to devolve power to the local level, wherever that is possible to give individuals, families and communities more control over their destiny.

On Health there has been significant change with a move to single system working leading to a substantial reduction in the number of Health bodies in recent years. And the focus is building capacity at national and local level in Scotland's police services.

SPECIFIC DECISIONS AND PROPOSALS

8. On January 30, 2008, the Scottish Government announced a package of changes to deliver more effective government in Scotland by reshaping Scotland's national public service organisations. The package contains three distinct categories:

• Decisions which will be delivered to meet the 25 per cent reduction in the number of national public sector organisations in this Parliament
• Proposals for organisational change on which we will consult stakeholders on the detail of the organisational change before progressing the implementation within the term of the Parliament to meet the 25 per cent reduction in the number of national public sector organisations
• Further work to simplify, integrate and share services through closer collaboration

9. This package will enable the Scottish Government to meet the target of 25 per cent reduction in the number of national public sector organisations over and above the rationalisation of the Justice of Peace Advisory Committees (JPACs), progressed by the previous Administration. Including JPACs, this means a total reduction of 78 organisations from the published list of 199 national public organisations.

The changes proposed will impact on a number of areas and details of these proposals are set out in the following annexes to this paper:

Annexe B provides the detail of the proposals under the three categories at paragraph 8

Annexe C provides a full list of the 199 organisations and the effect of change on particular organisations

Read the First Minister's full statement

10. In summary:

The Scottish Government will make substantial changes to the environmental and rural affairs institutional landscape through improved integration of marine management functions; the merger of the Deer Commission with Scottish Natural Heritage, and the abolition of the Advisory Committee on Sites of Special Scientific Interest. We will also merge the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency into Scottish Government and bring forward the review of the Agricultural Wages Board. We will continue the integration of services to rural organisations and land managers; and will work with our environmental and rural research organisations, notably the Macaulay and Scottish Crop Research Institutes, to encourage them to come together in a new Institute. This will develop a research capacity with the critical mass to compete internationally.

As part of a more integrated approach to national policy on planning, design, architecture and building standards, we will integrate the Building Standards Agency into Scottish Government bringing it together with architecture and planning policy in a new Built Environment Directorate. We will abolish the organisations set up for building standards and historic environment specialist advice,. We will also examine the scope for more joined up decision making across public services in considering development proposals, building on the substantial effort already being made in this area.

We announced on January 18 our intention to create a single national body, while retaining the strong local link, to support all of the statutory processes within the Children's Hearing System to replace the large number of organisations involved in this vital area of service delivery.

• We also propose to remove NDPB status from the General Teaching Council for Scotland. The GTCS was established in 1966 and has served as the gate keeper to and regulator of the teaching profession in Scotland since then.

Despite our very close and productive working relationship with the GTCS, our involvement in its business is 'light touch' in nature. We provide no grant in aid - the GTCS is funded solely by teachers' subscriptions - and the Scottish Ministers nominate only six of the Council's 50 members. This change will establish the GTCS as a self-regulating, professionled body, along the lines of the General Medical Council and will enhance the professional status of teachers. We will consult all relevant stakeholders on the detail of the statutory and organisational changes that will best serve the profession

On transport, we will bring together the Public Transport Users Committee and the Mobility Access Committee into a single body to represent the interests of all transport users in Scotland. In so doing, we will engage with key stakeholders to make certain that this change strengthens the voice of people with travel accessibility and mobility issues. This will include enhancing the PTUC board with 3 additional members with a understanding of accessibility and mobility matters to ensure the travel needs of disabled people are fully represented when making recommendations to Ministers on transport matters.

Following on from reform of the Enterprise Networks and establishment of Skills Development Scotland Ltd, we will abolish the Scottish Industrial Development Advisory Board, and examine the role of organisations such as Learning and Teaching Scotland.

In Justice, we will review the role of the Risk Management Authority to determine whether integrating the functions into other bodies would improve the effectiveness of our systems for public safety; and we have decided not to establish the Scottish Civil Enforcement Commission, which was to be set up as a result of legislation passed by the last Parliament. Justice of the Peace Advisory Committees have already been merged into six rather than 32 organisations.

11. The Scottish Government is committed to progressing these changes to reshape Scotland's public services. There are also some important areas where work will progress to examine the scope for further simplification. These include:

• Our National Collections play a vital role in our cultural life, inspiring our public, generating tourism, and promoting Scotland to the world. The Government will ask them to look at how they can work more closely together to strengthen their impact in their national role, in supporting collections activity throughout Scotland, and in presenting Scotland abroad
• The Scottish Government will review tribunals, taking account of Lord Gill's review of the civil courts and Lord Phillip's review of administrative justice, to streamline and improve their operation and administration
• The Scottish Government's response to Professor Crerar's review into the scrutiny of public services, was published earlier this month. The Government will work with the Scottish Parliament's Corporate Body and with local government to come forward with proposals for a substantial reduction in scrutiny as a means of better delivering better, more streamlined scrutiny arrangements; with a substantial reduction in the number of organisations with a scrutiny role
• An outcome approach for public bodies will be developed, which sets out the direction and expectation of the Scottish Government in supporting the delivery of the national strategic objectives
• Working with local government, the Scottish Government will also seek to reduce the number of local and regional partnerships required by Government

DELIVERING SIMPLER PUBLIC SERVICES

12. This is an ambitious package of reform which will need careful management, with the leadership and drive of the organisations involved, the continued commitment of staff, unions, stakeholders and the views of the public in how we can together improve the services they received. Decisions on the future of public organisations will continue to be taken through a robust and proper process, to ensure that those decisions are clear, consistent and transparent, provide clarity for staff and stakeholders, and also contribute to simplifying and enhancing the delivery of public services in Scotland. The Scottish Government will engage with the organisations and unions involved in each proposal to consider and address the specific implications of change, with business cases and implementation plans prepared to cover issues such as the detailed profile of costs and savings; the implications for individual staff within each of the organisations affected by the proposals and more effective asset management.

13. Many of the proposals require legislation. We are planning to bring forward legislative proposals later this year to enable these organisational changes to be implemented and delivered with on-going flexibility built into the process. Further details will be announced by the Government in due course.

14. Transitional costs of change will be met from within the existing budget allocations following last year's Spending Review. There will be no separate change fund.

15. In a tough financial climate we also need to increase the productivity of the public sector with challenging Efficient Government targets. By ending activity which is no longer needed, and integrating services within streamlined structures, the Scottish Government will make a significant contribution to the efficiency gains of around £25 million, required under efficient government from the bodies directly affected by these changes. The savings made will be available to support improved services. But the drive for more effective government will also produce substantial savings in the wider economy by making it easier and quicker to deal with the public sector. If simpler, more effective government could raise the productivity of Scotland's private sector by just 1%, the increased benefit to Scotland's economy would be around £800 million.

CONCLUSION

16. This approach to making government more effective is not about delivering a one-off initiative but is a longer term process of real change to simplify government and improve the quality of public services. It began with a reduction in Government departments and Scottish Ministers. The Scottish Government then committed to reduce Scotland's 199 national public bodies by 25 per cent. And the new outcome based relationship with local government will simplify the delivery of public services by removing the micro-management of service delivery. A clearer, more focused organisational landscape will be more effective in driving forward our broader package of policy change and improvements.

17. The simplification of the public sector landscape will form part of a re-definition of relationship between Government and Scottish public bodies. Public bodies will continue to play an important role in managing the delivery of vital services across Scotland. As such we will provide the necessary support to release the undoubted skills, knowledge and expertise which currently exist. The new relationship will be based around the principle of 'greater trust within a firm national framework' and be built on four key themes:

• The delivery of the new national performance framework using the outcome based approach with public bodies
• Improved governance and accountability arrangements for Scotland's public bodies including the development of more effective sponsorship arrangements
• A drive for public bodies to be more efficient and more productive in delivering services as part of their continuous improvement
• A need to improve the effectiveness of leadership and the quality of relationships between Government, local government and public bodies to the benefit of the public

18. Government will work closely with public bodies - agencies and NDPBs - to address these challenges in the coming months.