Graeme Pearson: Dire finances require a radical solution - and this could be one

Published on Friday 3 September 2010 20:25

Scotland needs to make £5 billion of savings to balance the books by 2015. Either the brunt of those savings is borne by front-line services, or managers must find the means to save on buildings, administration, management and partnership costs.

Highland Council is therefore to be congratulated for beginning the search for radical solutions to our current financial difficulties by examining the feasibility of unifying the police, fire and ambulance services.

The Centre for Public Policy for the Regions said it expected the Scottish budget to be cut by 1bn or more due to our current economic downturn.

The years of 6 per cent annual rises in the Scotland's block grant from Westminster are finally over and with it the opportunity to fix the roof before the bad weather arrives.

The structure for the emergency services was created in 1975. It is clearly no longer fit for purpose in terms of the changing demands made by the public. The bringing together of the three emergency services offers an opportunity to make real savings in terms of estates, personnel, finance and administration functions, not to mention integrated control room functions and the collective buying power.

In addition, streamlined council oversight and accountability for these services would further cut costs by reducing the numbers of management posts.

Changed governance arrangements should cut the need for additional meetings and therefore the costs of maintaining council support and attendance allowances.

These changes will no doubt be difficult for all concerned. Culture, self interest, ego, pride and cost will be hurdles to be faced in delivering savings. But be in no doubt, savings there must be.

Already we have the unedifying spectacle of police, fire and health service spokespersons threatening dire consequences if services are affected by the forthcoming cuts. We face an economic tsunami. The warning bells have sounded, trouble is heading towards us fast.

We either argue about the way to survive or we come together to plan our future with good grace, knowing we all must bear some of the discomforts ahead.

Police chiefs have indicated they believe radical thinking is needed now. That merely states the obvious. Their commitment to even more "partnerships", information exchanges and superficial reorganisations will not deliver.

Driven, unfortunately, by the cuts, we have to reorganise and redesign not only our services but public expectations of those services. There will be a range of devilish issues to deal with, including the preservation of a chief constable's operational independence so critical in a democratic society. The command and control structures for the services, not to mention budgets, will also cause debate.

Finally, I would hope the proposal is not some shortsighted strategy to protect the area from wider rationalisations with other parts of Scotland.Who knows? We might even be able to reduce the numbers of councils and amalgamate services across Scotland to make significant savings for the future.

• Graeme Pearson is a former head of the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency.