Public service reform must be change in the service of the public. That needs a radically different approach from everyone… politicians included

I changed my planned contribution yesterday after a vibrant and inspiring day-long meeting of ideas with leaders in CCPS membership.

Yesterday coalesced a lot of my thinking on this topic over the last 4 years as CCPS CEO.

There are many great brains in Scottish public service across all sectors. And yet the premise of investing in prevention, and doing things differently to achieve that, is a no-brainer we seem to keep missing. Why is that?

Yesterday a group of senior leaders from Scotland’s major providers of care and support – my members, some of them in this room – met to debate solutions to the scandal (and I don’t use this word lightly) of a contract with the people of Scotland that feels pretty broken. This is where we are: unless you are in dire, critical need you may well not get the support you need to live an independent life, a life connected to family, work, education, community. And as taxpayers we will all see our money wasted on expensive and avoidable crisis interventions that at highly likely to mean people’s outcomes are worse, not better. Which seems terrible investment decision. Delayed discharge alone wastes an estimate £440m a year. And that doesn’t include the cost to individuals.

So we need to do better, do different. And I hear the new government is back with the drive to be radical. That well may bode well for the transformation we need to see. Promoting public service reform to cabinet level has real potential. Putting social justice in with housing is a seed for different thinking. I’m not yet quite sure about the 1990s throwback to ‘community care’ but we’ll see. So potential? Yes.

But… The eagle-eyed among you may have seen social posts yesterday about John Swinney, Jenny Gilruth and Ivan McKee hosting a summit on public sector reform (ahead of the debate in parliament this week) with …. Public SECTOR leaders.

And there’s the rub. We don’t have a system, a leadership, that yet gives equal status to leadership across public SERVICE. And so much of the creative, transformational experience and vision for remaking a social contract through public service reform sits in my membership. In this room. In wider civic Scotland.

We should be starting – at the top – in modelling how political leaders mean to continue. Or we will be on the wrong path from the outset.

Let me share a couple more examples of how the contribution of our sectors to promoting, underpinning and deepening people’s rights to independent living, family life, health, work, education, adequate housing are consistently over-looked.

Targets drive investment. They are process-focused and the driver of a Punch and Judy politics that does no one any favours, least of all supported people. We talk outcomes; we count process points. More Homes Scotland needs to ensure it avoid this from the outset. It’s not just the accounting of bricks that matter; it’s the accounting for people who can get and keep a home.

We hear of the importance of evidence-based investment decisions in these financially straightened times, but little critical assessment of the bias in past investments in evaluating public sector interventions. Where is the investment for us to evidence our successes with people; evidence that can challenge the status quo? And where are the wider public service – non-public sector voices – in powerful forums determining national investment decisions?

We hear about the importance of place- based approaches, 20-minute communities, place-focused leadership. But there is nothing in the presentation of an annual Scottish budget that makes any move to allocate billions in a manner that reflects that. And there is confusion over what local is. Is it local government? Or something else? In that confusion comes fear of loss – of control, of power, of influence, of money – and then we watch a fight brewing. Dare I say the three letters here: NCS.

We hear about the importance in Scotland of a rights-based society. We take pride in this as a bedrock of our culture. But we almost never write a policy that starts from there and develops the supports and protections people can expect. We generally don’t let the money follow that line.

The value of social housing providers and social care providers in their wider contribution to the health of our economy, community and families is not recognised because we are seen through the eyes of a systemic prioritisation of the public sector – too often through a transactional not strategic lens which is, nowadays, rooted in fear-based approaches that affect all partners. We are not seen as a strategic partner and ally here, alongside our public sector colleagues, in service of the public.

That is what i took away from our member discussion yesterday. And that gives me a real focus for how to influence genuine transformation that will challenge us all to use public funds well to support people.

So, in summary: Until confirmation bias in the public sector is addressed I genuinely think little will change. Not because we don’t have amazing, committed colleagues in the public sector – we do – but because we will continue to get the same answers to problems that need driven by new ideas, different experience. That requires a Copernican shift in political thinking every bit as big as the change politicians are asking of others.

All of us, in the endeavour of public service reform, must challenge ourselves and each other so that the point of it all becomes central: the people who need support to live good lives.

This is an edited version of a speech given by Rachel to the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations’ 2026 annual conference, held in Glasgow on 9 June 2026