Every penny must count in our public services

WHEN Chief Superintendent David O’Connor, the president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, told his annual conference this week that the number of Scotland’s councils should be reduced from 32 to about half that number, he made a welcome contribution to the debate about the future of local government in a time of diminishing resources. The Scottish Government’s contribution to the debate yesterday was to reject the idea out of hand. It is not that simple.

Mr O’Connor says the police service in Scotland has been undergoing a journey of reform following the creation last month of a national single force. It has been a tough process, he says, and he believes the police should not be the only public servants to bear the pain. He is right.

The question is: how far should reform of local councils go? This newspaper agrees with the consensus that, with 32 councils, there is too much local government in Scotland and room for considerable savings through increased co-operation between local authorities, particularly on backroom services.

However, some words of warning are needed before there is any rush to support Mr O’Connor. First, we are in the early days of the reform of the police service in Scotland – it only happened last month – so it is critical not to reach overly speedy conclusions. The projected saving may be £1.7 billion over 15 years but there are costs associated with making a merger work and many would apply to reform of local councils. We must wait longer than a few weeks to see whether the savings will be maintained in the longer term.

Secondly, many councils already work together on some services and other councils plan to get closer, albeit there is scope for further economies. Mr O’Connor asked this week if there was duplication of effort and cost between councils and the answer is yes. Doing more to erase that duplication, particularly in the higher reaches of management, should be a matter of priority as the Coalition Government’s austerity programme bites in Scotland.

The local government umbrella body Cosla has made it clear that it rejects any talk of reducing the number of councils as absurd and it is understandable why it takes this position as such reform would inevitably involve the loss of jobs. However, Mr O’Connor is right that we must be sure reform is being considered across the public sector and not just in the police service. Reform must include deeper co-operation between councils focused on making every penny count for the delivery of public services.