Local Authorities Guide: Shetland Islands Council

The following is a Q&A with Independent Emma Macdonald, leader of Shetland Islands Council.

The Public Sector Reform strategy is a key mission of the Scottish Government, what does that mean for you and your council?

Shetland Islands Council is looking ahead into large scale investment such as tunnels to connect our outer islands and see this as very much part of the public sector reform agenda. This could allow flexibility in how services are delivered allowing us to use people more flexibly and reduce the reliance on agency staff.

Are there particular innovative or collaborative ways of working that you can point to in your own council as examples of how you can do more with less?

As a council we have focused on early intervention as a way to prevent future spend and to improve outcomes for our communities. Anchor for Families is embedded across schools in Shetland and provides a whole family support approach.

AI is held up as a potential game changer in terms of public service delivery but on the ground, what contribution is digital technology making to your own approach?

Shetland Islands Council is keen to explore further opportunities to use AI to deliver services as we currently have real challenges around working age population and we need to find different ways of delivering our services.  Some of our teams have been using ‘Magic Notes’ and this has saved significant hours.

What counts as a good day in the office?

A good day in the office is one where you manage to complete everything on the days to do list, and manage to drink your coffee whilst its hot.

What keeps you awake at night?

Shetland has a budget gap of around £43m this year which will be filled by using reserves. Only half of these reserves are sustainable so each year we are spending over £20m of our reserves at a rate that is unsustainable.  

I am increasingly concerned about the lack of prioritisation of local government by the Scottish Government and how it doesn’t appear to value the vital role that local government plays in the social determinants of health and the role this plays in decreasing the demand on the NHS. These are the things that keep me awake as I worry about the sustainability of local government in the longer term.

How do you describe what you do as council leader to a stranger?

As an independent council leader, I think my role is very different to those in political parties, I would describe my role as bringing together the views of all elected members and speaking on behalf of the council at a local and national level once we manage to find a position that we can agree. I would say that on a day to day basis you could be doing anything from engaging with young people at our Youth Voice Forum to discussion around our inter island transport project exploring tunnels. It is definitely never boring and an incredible privilege to be a council leader.

This article appears in Holyrood's 2026 Local Authorities Guide.