Composite K (covering Motions 34 & 36)
Public Service Reform
“That this Congress notes the publication of the Scottish Government’s ‘Public Service Reform Strategy 2025’, which seeks to slash billions of pounds of costs and thousands of devolved public service jobs by 2029/30. The Strategy is presented as a programme to ‘streamline’ and ‘transform’ public services but represents a clear threat to publicly owned and delivered services, especially council services, and to the workers who provide them.
“The short-term target for the strategy is saving £200m a year for the next five years to be accomplished by a variety of mechanisms, principle among them reducing the workforce. Some 11,000 jobs are planned to go over a five-year period.
“Congress believes that the Strategy prioritises financial efficiency and managerial restructuring over the needs of workers and service users, treating public services as costs to be managed rather than social goods to be protected. The language of ‘prevention’ and ‘redesign’ masks an ongoing failure to address the systemic causes of service pressure, including poverty, underinvestment, and burnout. The Strategy fails to confront the fragmentation caused by marketisation and outsourcing and instead leaves the door open to further privatisation.
“The Scottish Government also plans to enhance the role of the third sector as a ‘key delivery partner’—which means further outsourcing from the public sector. There are also proposals that public bodies should develop shared services via AI, with a definite preference for all-Scotland solutions, rather than local flexibility or autonomy.
“Congress calls instead for a worker-led approach to reform, which would prioritise solutions to the long-standing problems which impede workers on a daily basis, including under-resourcing, inadequate tools and facilities, and poor job design.
“Congress condemns any attempt to use public service reform as a vehicle for headcount reduction, job cuts, or the dilution of terms and conditions. The short termism of the government’s strategy fails to acknowledge the crucial role of public service workers in sustaining services through austerity, the pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis. In this increasingly volatile world, experienced, skilled, and well-supported public service workers will continue to be essential in preventing crises and responding to domestic, international and global events.
“Congress affirms its belief that public services should be delivered publicly and with local accountability. We know that many public services and the workers who deliver them are struggling because of a failure to properly staff and resource them. What is needed is investment, not further cuts.
“Congress calls on the General Council to:
- lobby the Scottish Government to use their full tax powers to properly fund public services;
- campaign against any attempts by the Scottish Government to cut staff or to outsource from the public sector to the third or private sector;
- lobby all the parties standing for election to support these calls and oppose SNP proposals to further damage our public services;
- convene affiliate Scottish public sector unions to explore areas for potential joint campaigning; and
- support and promote worker-led campaigns for alternatives which address the real barriers to effective public service delivery.”
Mover: Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS)
Supporter: Aberdeen Trades Union Council
RSS