By Richard Johnstone | 7 November 2011
The proposed single police and fire service bodies for Scotland should be trialled in shadow form before taking on their responsibilities, CIPFA has said.
The institute was commenting on the Scottish Government’s plans to merge the eight regional police forces and eight fire and rescue units into single, national bodies. CIPFA’s submission, published today, warns that failing to trial the new boards in shadow form would put financial management at risk.
The government announced its proposals in September, and is currently consulting on the plans. The consultation document does not propose running the boards in shadow form before they replace the existing structures.
Don Peebles, CIPFA Scotland’s policy and technical manager, told Public Finance that shadow arrangements should be in place for 2012/13 to ensure that ‘the governance and financial management plans bed in’ before they go live at least a year later.
He said that this recommendation was based on the experience of Scottish local government reorganisation in 1996, when there was a shadow period of one year.
CIPFA’s response, which has been submitted jointly with the CIPFA directors of finance section and the Scottish Local Authorities Chief Internal Auditors Group, said the shadow period should be ‘commensurate with the scale of the change’. It added that even one year was not sufficient when unitary authorities were introduced in 1996.
The submission also says that it is ‘essential’ that the projected savings from the reforms be independently verified.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has said that the mergers will save £130m a year.
Verification of these savings would be ‘of significant public interest’, CIFPA said. It called on the Scottish Parliament and auditor general to both validate and track the claimed benefits.
Angela Scott, head of CIPFA Scotland, added: ‘These are the largest public service changes we have seen in Scotland in recent years. It is imperative that the government does not underestimate the scale of these changes and that effective financial management foundations are laid ahead of the reforms going live.’
A Scottish Government spokeswoman insisted that the senior officers and management of the new organisations would be in place ‘in good time before the new organisations go live’.
She added: ‘The approach we are taking to establishing the new Scottish Police Service and Scottish Fire & Rescue Service ensures absolute clarity at all times about where financial responsibility lies.
‘We also have robust programme management arrangements in place which involve those responsible for financial management before and after the change.’
