The future of public service delivery

Wednesday, 21 September 2011 00:00

What does a Scottish public servant look like in 2012 and beyond and what do we want from public services in Scotland? Anna Fowlie, Chief Executive of the Scottish Social Services Council will present the case for it being more about quality and less about structure and money at a workshop at The Guardian Public Services Summit in Edinburgh today.

What makes a public servant and what values and responsibilities do they have?

How important is innovation and enterprise to the public service ethos and what skills do we need on the front line and in leaders?

Anna will address these and other questions at the conference attended by people from all walks of public life.

"In Scotland we have a strong political commitment to early intervention and prevention. This was reinforced in the Scottish Government budget yesterday with their commitment to invest £500m in preventative spending to encourage joint working in across the public sector in early years, adult social care and tackling re-offending.

"To succeed, we need to equip our workers to take on a role which is anticipatory and puts the citizen at the centre which means it must less focused on conventional structures. Public sector workers need to understand their own role and that of others to understand who's best placed to offer what is needed.

"We need to agree what we want for society and what we want from public services and public servants.  We need to re-think the relationship between individual and state, how much we're prepared to pay, and how we make sure that our values as a Scottish society are upheld."

Find out more about what Anna has to say on the Guardian website.