04 November 2005
Scotland and England are increasingly diverging in key policy issues, a leading academic told a CIPFA seminar in Edinburgh on November 2.
David McCrone, co-ordinator of the Institute of Governance and professor of sociology at Edinburgh University, said the divergence had become particularly apparent in health and education.
McCrone told the seminar, on finance and leadership in Scottish public services, that there were also policy divergences between Wales and England. 'What we are seeing is a shift away from a central resourced allocation and central policy-making to a much more quasi-federal way of doing policy,' he said.
His conclusion was that it was the new politics of Scotland and devolution to a Scottish Parliament that was mainly responsible. 'Britain is now driven almost independently post-devolution by different kinds of micro-politics and political agendas. No-one knows where all of this will end up.'
CIPFA chief executive Steve Freer told the seminar that his great fear was that finance officials had abandoned responsibility for improving quality and had left that instead to auditors and inspectors.
He added: 'I am a great believer in us setting our own agendas in relation to quality improvement and creating our own arrangements by trying to involve everyone in improving financial management.'
PFnov2005
