Michael Connelly: Nothing simple about public sector reform

Ron Hewitt's suggestion (Platform, 7 January) that the two routes to public sector financing/deficit management, ie pay restraint and/or closing down programmes, is a bit of a crude definition as to how Scotland should manage its public sector affairs.

He compliments the private sector for managing the economic realities and turns to the need for the public sector to play its part. As his Platform piece was going to print banks and other financial institutions were pressing ahead with more bonuses.

This is too narrow a definition of what's required. If the public sector is to be successful, much work needs to be put in to establishing the long term trust between those who deliver the service and those who take the decisions.

Until now that has been purely through collective bargaining. Unfortunately, it appears that public sector workers with minor exceptions no longer engage with any understanding about the value which they offer the public. I believe they wish to add value as in the case of schools, social care and healthcare. But the majority has switched off.

This breakdown and corrosion, which has taken decades to create, cannot be resolved through pay restraint and large scale redundancies. It will create more resentment among those that are left.

The hemming in of local authorities through the financial settlement also doesn't help to create the scope of opportunity mentioned by Ron Hewitt.

What we require is a full scale review of what types of high value services the public sector can best deliver for the money available and how services should be funded. It is not just about how much people should be paid.

Ron has touched on schools and hospitals setting their own pay levels. As the chair of a parent council in a Glasgow secondary school I would argue that the reform needs to go beyond this simplistic view.

You cannot simply cut 30 million of the education budget and just examine levels of pay and pension provision. Something else has to change if this amount of money is removed.