Scottish Funders Association

Being Small in a Big World

Colin Mair, CEO, Improvement Service

Scope

• Why small matters: the “bigging” of the Scottish state

• The limits of big Government• Going small: going local• The better role of big Government

“Bigging the System”: Lowest Level of Functional Government

• Very small number of very large councils• Lowest ratio of councillors and councils to

population in Europe• Limited fiscal and constitutional empowerment• Low voter turnout: limited confidence

Some Comparisons

• Norway: 19 counties and 434 municipalities (4,676,305)

• Denmark: 98 municipalities and 5 ‘regions’ (5,515,575)

• Finland: 20 ‘regions’ and 342 municipalities (5,255,068)

“Bigging the System”: Looking Back

• Scotland 1974: 203 councils; diverse rather than uniform; 50% local taxation

• Scotland 1996: 32 councils; uniformity of functions and empowerments; under 20% local taxation

• Loss of major functions: public health; community health care; college sector; police and fire services

Range for Neighbourhood Scores (2011/12)

• Income deprivation: 3% - 53%• Crimes per 10,000: 51 – 3,180• S4 tariff score: 79 – 288• Emergency Admissions

per 100,000: 5,812 – 22,794• Emergency Admissions

65+ per 100,000: 8,602 – 55,769

2002/03 – 2012/13

Government Finance and Demand 2009/10 – 2017/18 (% real terms)

NB. Projected cash cuts from 2016/17 – 2018/19

Going Small: Going Local• The mantra: co-production; “capacity” building;

social “cohesion”/“coherence”; “assets” based approaches, etc.

• But….– Affluent communities with good outcomes– The poor value that marginalised

communities get from public services– The resource lock: research; policy; training

and management support

Small Grants

• Projects or people• Resourcing challenge; change proposals;

lobbying, etc.• Bottom up co-production….on the communities

terms

Scaleability

• Why?: supporting particular communities on their terms

• Principles: subordination of expertise to the community; inclusion; choice and respect

• Solving the public sector problem (universalisation: solving the communities problem (particularisation and intimacy)

The Role of Big Government

• Macro-economic, fiscal and welfare policy• Inequality cannot be resolved solely at

community level• International comparisons show link between

income inequality and other inequalities

End Points

• We need to scale down: go granular• Supporting communities to shape public

services• Invest in people….not projects