Joining up Scots' new government

If this addresses the complaint of many stakeholders, partners and past ministers - that the Executive is insufficiently "joined-up" - then the change will surely be welcomed as an important step forward. If, however, it turns out to be simply a rearranging of deck chairs - albeit just as the new ship of state is setting sail, rather than after it has hit the iceberg - then their frustrations will continue, effective government will be handicapped, and the confidence of new ministers in their civil servants will be at risk.

The replacement of departments by directorates-general responsible for driving the government's strategic objectives, each with a variable geometry dependant on what work needs to be done, may be explained as breaking the "silo" mentality that some saw the previous structure as encouraging. But restructuring is not enough. Leadership, by both ministers and senior management, will be needed if the big "cross-cutting" issues are to be tackled successfully.

The creation of a cabinet secretary for finance and sustainable growth may well be a signal that (apart from securing re-election and, in due course, independence) economic prosperity will be the new administration's top priority, but the exclusion of lifelong learning from the economic portfolio seems strange when the future competitiveness of Scottish businesses depends so heavily on a highly skilled and flexible workforce.

Removal of the link with enterprise may make it harder to align learning priorities with employers' needs and the risk of divergence will be increased if the "root and branch" overhaul of Scottish Enterprise presaged in the SNP's pre-election statements sees its skills responsibilities transferred elsewhere. That the Executive's director general of education was for the past year head of the former enterprise, transport and lifelong learning department may be helpful, but how well the education and economy DGs "join up" will impact on the new administration's economic growth objectives.

But joined-up government requires joined-up policies, as well as joined-up civil servants. It was always difficult under the previous administration to convince the business community that growing the economy was truly the top priority for ministers willing to propose third-party rights of appeal in the planning system, and reluctant for so long to return business rates to parity with England. Many also questioned how joined-up policy really was in an administration that could set ambitious targets for electricity generation from renewable sources, but was also content that Scottish Natural Heritage, one of its own quangos, was the main objector to the developments necessary to deliver those targets.

In other words, joining up, like leadership, must come from the top, and the behaviours of ministers as well as civil servants will bear scrutiny in this regard. So too will their commitment to a strategic approach and their willingness to ensure that scarce human resources are used efficiently and effectively.

It must be hoped the new administration will, unlike its predecessor, understand the efficiency downside to a programme for government with more than 450 commitments, coupled to a monitoring regime so intense it often seemed to those at the delivery coalface that more people were reporting and checking on the business than were actually doing it. Perhaps the new slimmer cabinet will not regard poring over a 100-page monitoring report every few months as an appropriate use of its time.

Accountability is essential, but performance-management systems need to be proportionate. This requires trust between ministers and officials, and between managers and staff. It is to be hoped incoming ministers will not carry with them, in relation to their officials, the baggage of suspicion, resentment, and distrust which - Donald Dewar apart - marked much of the incoming 1999 administration, and did not quite go away during the following eight years.

New ministers need have no fears about the commitment of those on whose services they will call. They will find an impartial civil service ready to offer the best advice possible and to do their bidding. Sometimes their advice will, inevitably, not be what ministers want to hear, but the latter should resist the temptation to shoot the messenger.

As before, ministers will have at their disposal motivated people eager to run with the ball and keen to see them succeed. What is needed now is a new relationship between them and their officials, working together for the good of Scotland. A relationship based on mutual trust, reciprocal loyalty and respect, and one in which ministers value face-to-face engagement with those whose support they need.

The prospect of such engagement, commonplace in Whitehall, was one of Scottish civil servants' greatest expectations of devolution. With ministers in Scotland seven days a week, it was hoped that, after decades of government by remote access, a closer working relationship could be forged. This hope was quickly dashed and, as time passed, it became clear that (with some exceptions) ministers' priorities did not include making sufficient space for engagement with their departments.

In the absence of engagement, communications, and mutual understanding, trust is difficult to establish. In the absence of trust, micro-management and monitoring fill the void, and blame becomes the cultural norm. The result is loss of focus on delivery, risk aversion, uncertainty, and organisational under-performance. There is now an opportunity for Scotland's political leaders to forge a new partnership with those on whom they depend to deliver their ambitions for the country.

If both opportunities can be grasped, things - to steal a slogan from the not-too-distant past - can only get better.

• Eddie Frizzell is visiting professor in public service management at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, and former head of the Scottish Executive Enterprise Transport and Lifelong Learning Department