'Parties need to look themselves in the mirror' over public service reform, says Ivan McKee

Ivan McKee has said that other political parties "need to look themselves in the mirror" and decide whether they will support public service reform plans.  

The Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform made the comments during Holyrood's Reimaging Public Service Delivery event in Edinburgh, in response to the Scottish Conservatives' criticism of new proposals by the Scottish Government to reduce the number of local authorities.  

The party's local government reform spokesman Alexander Burnett accused the SNP administration's plans of being "a dog's dinner" and said ministers were "making it up as they go", describing reforming local services delivered by councils as "far too important to be taken forward with half-baked measures".

Asked how constructive he thought this was, McKee said the Conservatives are "a bad example because they are increasingly irrelevant".

"There are other parties that frankly need to look at themselves in the mirror and decide what they are going to do here," he said.

"As we accelerate the delivery on this, parties need to be looking at what is needed. We want to talk about the specifics of that, and we are very much in the tent of working together to deliver on that.

"Or they [other parties] can be in opposition for the sake of it, which frankly I think the broader public and people working in the public sector will see through.

Reacting to headlines in the Sunday Times about civil servants "who are no longer needed" and being paid a reported total that could be as much as £2.4m a year "because SNP ministers refuse to make them redundant", McKee said he "didn't even catch that one". "At the end of the day journalists need to fill newspapers, stuff gets printed. With the best will in the world, £2.4m isn't going to fix any problems," he said.

He added: "Taking a step back and looking at the bigger issues that it is kind of hinting at, the core civil service has been reduced by 11 and a half per cent over the last three and a half years. It's on a four per cent reduction trajectory every year."

Since recess, the Scottish Government has made announcements on reducing the size of health boards and local authorities. McKee addressed the question of how different public services will be by the end of this parliamentary session.  

McKee told delegates it will look "very different" but that it will also "look better", not just in terms of structure, but in terms of the overall experience to the service user.  

He said: "If we do that, people will see services that are more integrated and joined up, and that work more seamlessly. We'll also see resources going to places that make a difference."