How can we strengthen the accountability of chief executives and senior managers of public bodies for high performance and achieving outcomes? This was the interesting question posed in the Scottish Executive’s recently-published consultation document on public sector reform. The long-awaited report avoided setting out any structural ideas for reform. However, its emphasis on a ‘bottom-up’ rather than a ‘top-down’ approach to reform, and the executive’s desire to seek views from across the public sector was generally welcomed. However, it appears that Scottish finance minister, Tom McCabe, is determined to have senior officials in his sights. When he first announced, more than 12 months ago, his intention to reform the public sector, he questioned whether Scotland needed 32 council chief executives and 32 directors of finance. The consultation document the minister has now published points out that senior managers hold ‘responsible and relatively well-remunerated roles’. Their influence is enormous, it states. Mr McCabe is not just referring to local authority chief executives but to those who head bodies across the public sector. He clearly believes that highly-paid chiefs ought to be made more accountable. It’s an issue the minister is right to raise. Accountability is an essential element of leadership. But there are other issues he needs to consider. SOLACE believes there is currently a lack of definition of the authority attached to the post of chief executive, and an inconsistent approach to this across the 32 councils. Chief executives will be keen to put forward their views in response to a document that may not only determine the number of chief executives in future but also shape their responsibilities. nDavid Scott is a political journalist and former Scottish Government editor of The Scotsman
