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…
Build back a better economy
Economic forecasts on the economic impact of the pandemic vary. However, they are all pretty bleak, and this emphasises the need for an effective recovery package.
There is growing support for an…Read more…
More lessons from the pandemic – Scottish Care Service
Today, the Jimmy Reid Foundation has published the second in their series of papers on ‘Reconstructing Scotland after COVID-19’. As with the first paper, they seek to put forward policies that…Read more…
Build Back Better
In April I wrote about the longer-term lessons to be learned from the pandemic and the importance of thinking about these now, rather than allowing others to capture the narrative – as they did after…Read more…
The Case for Economic Democracy
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our economy will be significant, and we will need new ideas to address the consequences. While written before the pandemic, Andy Cumbers’ (University of…Read more…
Return to work planning – some issues to consider
I have been helping one medium size organisation with its HR challenges in recent months, and this week, we were looking at plans for a return to work for the majority of staff who have been…Read more…
Lessons to be learned from the pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has immediate implications for its victims and those in health and care treating them. There are also medium and long-term implications to consider if we are to avoid the…Read more…
The case for Universal Basic Services
If the current crisis teaches us anything, it has to be the importance of a genuine safety net for everyone in our society and the weakness of the global economic system. COVID-19 has brutally…Read more…