Scotland is a small country with big ambition.
But, like every other nation, years of constant conflict over resources and prioritisation have, arguably, led to a decline in the overall standard of public services and, more importantly, their impact. Services people depend on every day—housing, education, health, the economy, the environment, safety, and wellbeing—have all come under incredible strain.
People now find themselves paying more, often for less, while demand and expectations continue to rise.
So clearly change is required. At this year's Solace conference in Scotland, reform tops the agenda.
The question is, what kind of reform do we want?
• Preventative strategies over reactive? Yes, but we have been saying that for a long time without making any significant impact.
• Shift resources upstream and tackle causes? Of course, but from where and at what immediate cost to the public?
• Improve efficiency? Always, but the scale of the challenge and its cumulative impact is damaging our ability to innovate, with managed decline potentially a more likely outcome than improvement for many.
• Digital transformation? A whole new world, however, our collective understanding of its potential and our capacity to adapt at pace may be the biggest risk of all.
• Better integration of public services? Possibly but replacing one set of organisations with a ‘better-integrated' new entity risks creating yet another structure that ultimately fails.
You may have noticed a mild hint of sarcasm above. It stems from my frustration, built up over many years, that those of us charged with delivering public services sometimes don't fully understand or appreciate what we wish for. For example, most default discussions around the future of public services start with the challenge of resource. If only we had more, everything would be better. This is despite the simple fact that all our experience and history (and expenditure) has led us to this point, this crisis.
After all, we all imagine there must have been more resources in the past and yet we have still ended up here. So, while resource is important it is not in itself the answer. Put simply, what matters most is behaviour—mine, yours, everyone's. From those responsible for strategy, to those charged with implementing it and those for whom its targeted. And the need for it to change.
But what does this mean in practice?
We need to progress collectively, based on a shared understanding, shared ambition and an honest conversation about the reality of living within our means, now and in the future. We must be willing to change behaviours. To sacrifice, organisationally and individually, for the greater good, to leave institutional thinking behind, to become whole place and whole system (and not just talk about it). To avoid language that divides, that prioritises without an honest understanding of wider system harm, to engage with all people about what the future truly looks like, for communities, families, children.
None of this can be achieved unless we challenge and change our behaviours—not our resources, as if we had much choice about that anyway. There is little point in wishing for the impossible.
Are we able to say, without crossing our fingers behind our backs, that we have finally reached a state of maturity across public services, nationally and locally, where we can agree what our ambition is? What our shared priorities are, for people and place? What we can no longer sustain and why? What the transition to our future looks like?
These are the challenges we must debate—not the endless language of reform nor the well-worn arguments about needing more resources or redistributing less. That requires difficult conversations about a range of issues such as:
• Single-authority models, where health, council, community, and third-sector services are genuinely integrated. Hugely complex to achieve, but worth considering.
• Real preventative expenditure, based on evidence from across the country and beyond, with honesty about its impact on existing red lines.
• A legislative approach to empower and embed greater flexibility: pooling resources and tackling the whole system.
• An honest conversation about what that means for the shape of services and, more importantly, for the people who receive them—and about our ask that they, too, change as we must.
Ultimately, the goal is a sustainable public sector, supporting sustainable communities. So, yes, reform. Not the language of reform but the real thing.
I have always believed in the true value of public services. On their best day, they are remarkable—the people exceptional, the impact transformational. To have more best days, rather than bad days, I need to change my behaviour. Collectively, we all do. If not us, then who?
Des Murray is Solace Scotland chair, and chief executive, North Lanarkshire Council
