The Scottish Government has published a consultation paper on the creation of a National Care Service in Scotland. This follows the Independent Review of Adult Social Care (Feeley report, Feb 2021)….Read more…
UK rail policy in transition
One of the many things I enjoyed about working for UNISON was the range of issues we covered. While some days I wished I worked for a single industry union, it was rarely dull! However, I have always…Read more…
Christie Commission – Ten Years On.
Next week is the tenth anniversary of the report of the Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services, known as the Christie Commission. I spent six months working as an expert advisor to the…Read more…
The future of work
I have been helping to review the HR policies of a charity as it considers a return to normal operations after the pandemic. We had a false start last year, although the return to…Read more…
Paint Your Town Red
Community Wealth Building is a new kind of economy. It offers a way of addressing the major divides in wealth and opportunity by focusing on local economies. This new book by Matthew Brown and Rhian…Read more…
Where next for Labour?
That’s another Scottish Parliament election completed with few indications that any real change will happen as a result. Scottish politics remains in a rut that not even a pandemic could shift. The…Read more…
Manifesto 2021 – National Recovery Plan
After more than two years of consultation and engagement, it was good to see the Scottish Labour election manifesto launched today. I have been working part-time managing the process leading up to…Read more…
Understanding opinion polls
I was doing a session on public affairs at a company staff conference last week, and in the Q&A, I was asked about using opinion polls. The questioner referenced a Twitter exchange I had…Read more…
On the Corona Frontline – European perspectives on social care
A new report based on in-depth case studies of social care workers in nine European countries offers a unique perspective on the situation of elderly care workers during the pandemic. I wrote the…Read more…
UK Budget 2021 – Schizophrenic or maybe not
Depending on who you read in today’s UK budget analysis, the Chancellor has either gone full-blown John McDonnell or is returning to austerity. You would think both cannot be right, and in my…Read more…
Health and Care Workers Covenant
The pandemic has seen many key workers going far beyond their contract of employment to keep services running. That is particularly the case for health and care workers who have worked…Read more…
The Future of Adult Social Care
The Independent Review of Adult Social Care in Scotland published its report today. It makes a wide range of recommendations that might address the long-standing need to reform this sector.
Most of…Read more…
Helping small businesses to build back better
I have been doing some work with a couple of smaller businesses, mostly legal and HR issues. This isn’t a sector I am very familiar with having spent most of my career working in the public sector…Read more…
Moving pension funds past the greenwash
The investment industry is responding to the demands of pension funds for investment strategies that address climate change. However, we should seek to distinguish between meaningful action and…Read more…
Procurement failures
The UK Government is mired in a series of procurement scandals that go way beyond poor practice. While not on the nearly on the same scale, all is not well in Scotland either. In recent months I have…Read more…
New thinking on constitutional options for Scotland
With immaculate timing, Boris Johnson blunders into the devolution debate on the eve of the Scottish Conservative conference describing devolution as a “disaster north of the border”. Fortunately, we…Read more…
Contrasting approaches to the crisis of care
The COVID-19 pandemic has inspired several new books, which seek to analyse the impact on our healthcare systems and broader society and propose reform. I have read a number of these as background to…Read more…
The case for hydrogen
When it comes to renewable energy, there is a large degree of consensus on the technologies that should feature in our energy strategies. The differences are most apparent around nuclear power, but…Read more…
Air Traffic Control in the Highlands and Islands.
The public procurement of cutting edge technology is risky at the best of times. For a small public sector airport company to embark on such a programme during a pandemic, which is devastating the…Read more…
Building Stronger Communities
The COVID-19 Pandemic has highlighted the importance of strong communities, supporting and looking out for each other. However, strong communities do not happen by accident; they need to be nurtured…Read more…