Scottish Funders Association
Being Small in a Big World
Colin Mair, CEO, Improvement Service
Scope
• Why small matters: the “bigging” of the Scottish state
• The limits of big Government• Going small: going local• The better role of big Government
“Bigging the System”: Lowest Level of Functional Government
• Very small number of very large councils• Lowest ratio of councillors and councils to
population in Europe• Limited fiscal and constitutional empowerment• Low voter turnout: limited confidence
Some Comparisons
• Norway: 19 counties and 434 municipalities (4,676,305)
• Denmark: 98 municipalities and 5 ‘regions’ (5,515,575)
• Finland: 20 ‘regions’ and 342 municipalities (5,255,068)
“Bigging the System”: Looking Back
• Scotland 1974: 203 councils; diverse rather than uniform; 50% local taxation
• Scotland 1996: 32 councils; uniformity of functions and empowerments; under 20% local taxation
• Loss of major functions: public health; community health care; college sector; police and fire services
Range for Neighbourhood Scores (2011/12)
• Income deprivation: 3% - 53%• Crimes per 10,000: 51 – 3,180• S4 tariff score: 79 – 288• Emergency Admissions
per 100,000: 5,812 – 22,794• Emergency Admissions
65+ per 100,000: 8,602 – 55,769
2002/03 – 2012/13
Government Finance and Demand 2009/10 – 2017/18 (% real terms)
NB. Projected cash cuts from 2016/17 – 2018/19
Going Small: Going Local• The mantra: co-production; “capacity” building;
social “cohesion”/“coherence”; “assets” based approaches, etc.
• But….– Affluent communities with good outcomes– The poor value that marginalised
communities get from public services– The resource lock: research; policy; training
and management support
Small Grants
• Projects or people• Resourcing challenge; change proposals;
lobbying, etc.• Bottom up co-production….on the communities
terms
Scaleability
• Why?: supporting particular communities on their terms
• Principles: subordination of expertise to the community; inclusion; choice and respect
• Solving the public sector problem (universalisation: solving the communities problem (particularisation and intimacy)
The Role of Big Government
• Macro-economic, fiscal and welfare policy• Inequality cannot be resolved solely at
community level• International comparisons show link between
income inequality and other inequalities
End Points
• We need to scale down: go granular• Supporting communities to shape public
services• Invest in people….not projects