Can sacred cows survive, asks SNP adviser

The Scottish Government’s commitment to protecting police and teacher numbers has been called into question by a high-profile member of its own commission charged with mapping out the future of public services.

Professor James Mitchell warned that further cuts to key services may be needed when he appeared before MSPs on Holyrood’s local government committee yesterday.

The academic, who was a member of Campbell Christie’s Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services, said he fears many policies are driven by media pressure and political tribalism rather than good governance.

The Strathclyde University politics professor was asked how Scotland could balance its public service commitments with increasing demand for them. He said: “I think we do need to make shifts. There are limited resources. We’re going to have to focus on preventative spend. That can only be done by cutting elsewhere, or making efficiencies. I don’t think efficiencies are going to be enough.

“So I think we need to ask ourselves, where might those changes come about and are they changes for the better?

“And I think we’ve got to ask ourselves whether we then put issues which we are so focused on, and which frankly I think are driven by the media.

“No disrespect to them. They’re doing their job and they’re doing their job well focusing on police numbers and such like. Whether that’s good public policy-making, I would question whether it is.”

He pointed to evidence he gathered from the policing front line. He said: “I was struck going round Scotland by the number of police officers at every level who have said to us: ‘Is this a good measure? Is this going to help? No it is not.’

“And I was struck by that, because if that’s what police officers are saying then we should be taking note of that.

“So I think we’ve got to be very careful over teacher numbers and such like. Is that really improving quality of education, and the life chances of kids? I just don’t think so.”

The Christie Commission was set up at a time of tumbling budgets in Scotland, with spending not expected to return to 2010 levels for 16 years. The report warned this year that more than a third of public cash in Scotland is spent on social problems which could have been prevented in the first place. It said services may “buckle” without more preventative measures to tackle inequality.

Finance secretary John Swinney’s budget last week included a £100 million tax on supermarkets which will be used to top up a new £500m fund which would back programmes which aim to prevent social problems emerging.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The people of Scotland attach the highest value to their public services – we share this view, which is why we are investing more than £500m in preventative spend and protecting police and teacher numbers.

“With recorded crime now at a 35-year low and reoffending levels at their lowest in over a decade, we are focusing investment on areas that will make the greatest impact on protecting the public including measures to prevent reoffending and maintain the 1,000 extra officers.

“We want our children to have the best start in life so have continued to prioritise spend in the early years, starting with a £50m Early Years Fund and the settlement available to local government includes resources to enable them to maintain teacher numbers in line with pupil numbers. These are tough times because of Westminster cuts, but the budget delivers fair choices.”

Prof Mitchell also called for a cross-party committee of MSPs to conduct a root-and-branch review of public service delivery.

He added: “One of the problems, one of the reasons we’ve not moved to preventative spending, is, I suspect, because of party political competition. My sense is there is more consensus across the parties than is evident.”

He added: “I have gone on record with my views on tuition fees. That’s an example of a shift. So in that respect I can claim I have done something that has taken a wee bit of guts.”