17 October 2003
The Scottish Executive is to recruit an expert from the private sector to head a new performance and innovation unit as part of plans to strengthen the office of permanent secretary and sharpen up support to ministers.
Details of the new arrangements have been given by John Elvidge, who took over the permanent secretary post earlier this year. He succeeded Sir Muir Russell, who is now principal and vice-chancellor of Glasgow University.
The 'proven performer' from the private sector is expected to be appointed to the part-time post before the end of the year, and will have the remit of giving advice, monitoring the progress of policies and putting forward ideas, Elvidge said.
Rather than being a 'standing organisation', the new unit will deal with issues as they come up and will include groups made up of internal and external experts.
Each group will be disbanded once the work is finished, though the head of the performance and innovation unit will be a permanent appointment.
The reforms, aimed at making the Executive more 'delivery focused' and changing the culture of the organisation, will also include splitting up the existing policy unit into strategy and delivery units and the creation of an analytical services group headed by chief economic adviser Andrew Goudie.
Elvidge said that, since devolution, the processes of government had become more complex and ministers were increasingly working as a team as well as with their departmental staff.
The Executive had already responded with a number of changes to the management team and to the financial central services department who now report directly to the permanent secretary.
'We need to do more to strengthen and sharpen our capacity to support ministers, including working collectively,' Elvidge said. He pointed out that the key message received from a range of external organisations was that they wanted to see the Executive behaving as if it were one organisation, rather than a loose federation of bodies.
He added: 'We are by a mile the largest employer of knowledge professionals and analytical professionals in Scotland. I'm not sure that's how people see us.'
PFoct2003
