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16Apr 2010
Call for Public Service Reform
SCOTTISH voluntary organisations are calling for a major reform of public services in an attempt to prevent the public bodies cutting vital services in “panic”.
A number of national and local voluntary organisations also claim that the public sector is not currently ensuring the human rights of vulnerable people and that “across the board” funding cuts will jeoporadise this even more.
A radical reform of Scotland’s public services to focus on preventative progammes that ensure savings across health, justice and social care is needed, according to voluntary organisations.
The organisations, including the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition (SSEC), Community Care Providers Scotland, Children 1st, Barnardo’s and learning disability group People First, claim that third sector bodies need to be involved in designing public services if they are to improve despite economic difficulties.
They argue that users must also be more involved in decisions about services to help prevent waste and protect their human rights.
The voluntary sector is able to tackle the problems that are causing the public service bill to soar, claim the organisations.
They highlight activities such as community food initiatives and sports activities that fight obesity; befriending and advocacy projects that improve the mental health of isolated people; youth services that tackle youth crime; and training and employment services that impact on unemployment and welfare bills.
The organisations make up around a third of the bodies in Scotland that have responded to the Scottish Parliament Finance Committee’s inquiry into efficient public services, part of its review of the Scottish budget process.
The inquiry aims to establish how the government can run services like the NHS, schools and care services for older people despite cuts in public spending.
It has received written responses from 50 organisations, including the Convention on Scottish Local Authorities, the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, the Law Society of Scotland and 17 independent voluntary organisations.
Voluntary organisations have called on the committee to consider new ways of delivering public services.
“It is clear that there is a need to think beyond the existing structures of public service delivery, and ensure that the focus is on how to deliver high quality services, particularly those which prevent longer term social problems taking root,” said Ruchir Shah, SCVO’s policy manager.
Discussing the current approach, he said: “The decisions on where the axe falls seems to be arbitrary and based on panic rather than any consideration of evidence-based service priorities.
“Small cuts in the wrong areas will make a big impact. Individual voluntary organisations delivering local public services act as a buffer addressing need within communities before these escalate into acute health care, social services, benefits and criminal justice issues.”
People First (Scotland), a self-advocacy group for people with learning disabilities, was one of the groups that highlighted concerns about human rights.
“We are concerned that our members are still struggling to have their human rights upheld and to have the same choice, dignity and freedom as other members of society,” said chair Monica Hunter.
“Whilst the lives of many of our members have improved since the closure of the long-stay hospitals, they have not yet achieved equal and meaningful lives. We are very concerned that any cuts to learning difficulty services will turn the clock back.”
The call for public sector bodies to work in partnership with voluntary organisations to develop services that reflect the needs of service users was made by a range of bodies.
“Destroying the public sector monopoly in service provision across Scotland would allow third sector organisations to have a greater opportunity to deliver public services,” said Antonia Swinson of the SSEC. “The added value that these organisations deliver to service users by strengthening social fabric, will lead to an added value for the public finances with savings being created across other budget lines.”
Other organisations also urged politicians to ensure improvements in procurement practises in areas such as social care.
“We would urge local authorities not to use across the board cuts to external providers as a way of reducing costs,” said Kirsten Gooday, policy manager at CCPS.
“We ask instead that they first follow the principles of Best Value in considering the cost and the quality of services they commission.
“There are clearly some very efficient providers whose services result in positive outcomes for individuals and we would urge local authorities not to penalise these providers with across the board cuts.”
A snippet of views from the voluntary sector
“The Scottish Government estimates the cost of domestic abuse to the public purse is £2.3bn and the cost of violence against women is estimated to be £4bn. The amount of money involved and the human suffering is immense. Public authorities seem to view the provision of support services for women facing violence and abuse as a selective aspiration thus failing to understand that spending to protect human rights is a fundamental duty.”
Glasgow Women’s Voluntary Sector Network“Independent advocacy projects also provide an important check at a time of budget cuts, in terms of monitoring and safeguarding the human rights of vulnerable people. We are concerned that grants to advocacy projects are a relatively easy cut to make but with significant impact on the safeguarding to vulnerable people’s interests.”
People First (Scotland)“The third sector plays a significant role in health care in Scotland but this is underfunded – accounting for less than 1 per cent of the health budget. This is ironic, given that in all analyses of future services it is the kind of interventions that third sector organisations make which are seen to be critical – supporting self help, the hospice movement, support services, carers’ networks and an array of informal and community based care.”
Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations“Cuts to public sector budgets are likely to have a massive impact on funding to the third sector. It is vital that the role of the sector is recognised and that organisational capacity is not further diminished, following year on year funding reductions, due to voluntary organisations and local community projects being viewed as easy targets for cuts. Decisions must be responsibly, balance and above all, fair.”
Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector“To most organisation the term “efficiency savings” is simply a euphemism for “cuts” and as such then clearly they have – and always have had an impact on services. Genuine efficiency savings require a change in approach to public service delivery. For example, public bodies recognising the potential added value that social enterprise and other third sector organisations deliver, and to focus on the needs of the service users, not the service deliverer.”
Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition“Social care services result in a variety of savings to other public services, including health and criminal justice. Support services for people with alcohol or substance misuse issues, for example, assist in preventing hospital admissions and potentially cut crime. Housing support and care at home services avoid the costs of residential care, while leading to a better quality of life for the individuals concerned.”
Community Care Providers Scotland“We welcome the growing recognition of the potential of the voluntary sector to help deliver public services. However, to do this effectively we need to be seen as an equal partner, involved early in the planning process and delivering services to long-term contracts, rather than one or two year funding packages.”
Barnardo’s
Commenting is now closed.