19 March 2004
Councils need to undergo radical reform in the way they organise services, First Minister Jack McConnell has told Scottish local government leaders.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities in St Andrews, McConnell said councils faced increasingly challenging times and would need to find ways of delivering more from constrained resources.
He hinted at the prospect of cross-border co-operation by councils and the need for more links with the private sector and other agencies. 'Small councils should not be constrained by their own boundaries and larger councils should not assume that they need do everything on their own,' he said.
McConnell said devolution had allowed public services to be prioritised in a way that could never be done previously and had also enabled the Executive to invest significantly in those services. He added: 'But now our aim must be more radical reform. I believe absolutely in the power and the value of public services to extend opportunity and open up the doors of ambition to all our people.'
People should have a right to flexible public services that respond to specific local needs and adapt and evolve over time, he said. 'Who delivers the public service shouldn't be an issue. It isn't the issue. What's important is that the public service delivers for the person who needs it, when they need it.'
Speaking on the day that new health profiles published by the Executive and NHS Scotland showed a persistent health gap between rich and deprived areas, McConnell called on councils to become more involved in public health issues.
He told Cosla delegates: 'Just as Scotland's councils were central to the modernisation of public housing and the development of universal public education in the twentieth century, I want you to be at the heart of a transformation in Scotland's public health for the twenty-first century.'
Earlier in the conference, Finance and Public Services Minister Andy Kerr warned that local government was moving into a tighter financial climate. Urging an examination of the sharing of services across borders, he questioned whether payroll departments and other 'backroom' services were needed for each of the 32 unitary councils in Scotland.
A big discussion was needed around these and other issues, such as e-procurement, he said.
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