UNISON's
approach
Public services are the collective expression of our society
and citizens should be fully involved in the development
of our services. This means greater devolution of powers
to Scotland, stronger local government, extending democracy
into the quango sector and the meaningful engagement of
service users and staff in planning and delivering services.
Background and Outlook
The defining difference between public and private services
is democracy. It is democracy that makes public services
responsive to the needs of those who pay for and use them.
UNISON believes that democracy is about more than elections
and a Scottish Parliament, it is about ensuring that the
public can meaningfully participate in the decision-making
processes about the areas in which they live.
Democracy requires government at all levels to ensure adequate
opportunities for the general public to participate in and
influence the policy making process. This should be more
than being asked to comment on plans that have been made
in private. It should mean involvement in developing desired
outcomes and the methods to achieve them. To facilitate
this, organisational structures need to be decentralised
to the appropriate level for each function. The fragmentation
caused by privatisation and the growth of unelected bodies
hinders this process.
Democratising the quango state
Democratic structures create public bodies which
are open and transparent in their dealings with the public.
Government at all levels must explain and accept responsibility
for its actions. However, weak mechanisms and the rise of
the quango state have devalued many of our democratic structures.
The Government’s public services reform bill aims
to address some of these issues. The key weakness in its
plan is its focus on structures and lack of detail on workforce
issues. People are central to public service and its ethos.
Itis vital that service delivery is built around the needs
of users and not structures. Staff are both users and providers
of public services and therefore have a unique voice and
should be closely involved in any change process.
Co-operation continues to offer the best route forward.
Public Service Organisations increasingly need to collaborate
and work jointly to provide public services. However we
also need to address the fragmentation of services, disrupted
by privatisation as well as the growth of un-elected public
bodies.
UNISON believes that public bodies should as far as possible
be directly elected. The forthcoming pilot of direct elections
to health boards is an important step forward. UNISON expects
the pilots to be successful and would like to see a move
to full implementation as quickly as possible.
For some quangos direct elections may not be practicable.
Those organisations should become an amalgam of elected
representatives, appointed laypersons and professionals
with a statutory duty to engage with service users and the
public. Others could be incorporated into existing democratic
structures.
Subsidiarity
Establishing the Scottish Parliament is an excellent
example of how devolving decision making has seen a different
approach to public services. The Parliament's openness,
innovative committee system, pre-legislative scrutiny and
petitions are all models of public service reform that we
should be proud of. Devolution is a process - not an event,
and we fully support the recommendations of the Calman Commission
to continue that process.
Subsidiarity also requires the Scottish Government to resist
the temptation to centralise services and recognise the
importance of local government. Local Authorities require
more control over their own finances. This requires the
end of the council tax freeze and the return of business
rates to their control.
Involving users and staff
All public bodies should have a statutory duty
to meaningfully involve users as partners in the decision
making process, not as customers. This involves a high degree
of transparency and the provision of capacity for users
to fully participate. We need to celebrate public services
as benefiting the whole community. They are not just a safety
net.
Capacity to participate
UNISON is supportive of an increased role for voluntary
and community organisations, and staff representative bodies
in working with elected representatives to influence planning
and delivery of local services. This cannot be achieved
without appropriate resources. These are not just financial,
although clearly crucial, it also means politicians and
public service workers developing listening skills, the
skills to get people together to discuss issues, and to
ensure that all voices are heard, not just the best educated,
wealthiest or the loudest. All PSOs should be required to
produce a corporate strategy on participation and involvement
which demonstrates how users, community organisations, staff
and their trade unions can be involved in the planning,
design, monitoring and review of services.
Equality of access & social justice
Democracy is for everyone living in Scotland not
just the wealthy, the articulate or the well connected.
If Scotland aspires to be a nation built on principles of
social justice then public services must allow people to
participate, providing forums for people to meet both to
discuss issues and also for day to day contact. Public services
have a key role, as both employer and provider of services,
in ensuring that gender, race or religion should not determine
life chances.
Freedom of Information
Meaningful involvement requires equal access to
information. The Freedom of Information Act has begun to
change the culture of secrecy but we must build on this
provision to remove so-called commercial confidentiality
and ensure all appropriate organisations are covered by
the legislation.
KEY QUESTIONS
What mechanisms can we propose to involve service users
in designing services?
How do we make the argument that privatised and contracted
out services are less democratic than directly provided
services?
What concrete examples and suggestions of subsidiarity
can we make?
Draft published: 5 December 2009
Current version updated: 20 January 2010
Members and branches can help to develop these
policy ideas further.
|
million
voices for change - PUBLIC WORKS!
