Inevitably interest focusses on the recent trends in public sector employment; however, the themes of cuts, capacity and targets are indicative of more significant current and medium term issues affecting the public sector. Cuts in staffing and capacity (a 30% reduction in staff and loss of experienced managers) were seen as a contributory reason for the failures by the Department of Transport‟s West Coast rail franchise, as contributing to the failure to pick up the recent food contamination (Local Authorities in England collected some 21% fewer samples in 2011 – 2012 compared to earlier years), and underpinning concerns as to the reduced levels of fire service cover in London. The impact of cuts, capacity and targets on standards of care were highlighted in the publication the Francis Report (The final report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry) and we return to this later

Lockyer, Cliff

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Public sector employment in Scotland [March 2013]

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Strathprints Institutional RepositoryLockyer, Cliff (2013) Public sector employment in Scotland [March 2013]. Fraser of AllanderEconomic Commentary, 36 (3). pp. 46-50. ISSN 2046-5378Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde.Copyright c© and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authorsand/or other copyright owners. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for anyprofitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or study, educational, ornot-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to Strathprints administrator:mailto:strathprints@strath.ac.ukhttp://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/MARCH 2013 PAGE 46    Total Employment Private Sector Public Sector Public Sector  Excluding public sector financial institutions          Public Sector employment in Scotland    Inevitably interest focusses on the recent trends in public sector employment; however, the themes of cuts, capacity and targets are indicative of more significant current and medium term issues affecting the public sector. Cuts in staffing and capacity (a 30% reduction in staff and loss of experienced managers) were seen as a contributory reason for the failures by the Department of Transport‟s West Coast rail franchise, as contributing to the failure to pick up the recent food contamination (Local Authorities in England collected some 21% fewer samples in 2011 – 2012 compared to earlier years), and underpinning concerns as to the reduced levels of fire service cover in London. The impact of cuts, capacity and targets on standards of care were highlighted in the publication the Francis Report (The final report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry) and we return to this later.  Public sector employment (based on headcount and excluding public sector financial institutions) rose between 1999 and 2006, but since 2006 has declined by 64,300. Although the movement of local authority staff both in and out of arm‟s length organizations, typically charities, makes comparisons slightly harder.  Public sector employment in Scotland continues to decline, although at a slower rate than previously (see table 1). The latest data at the time of writing this section (Q3 2012) indicates that there were 581,300 (552,100  excluding  public  sector  financial  institutions)  employed  in  the  public  sector  in  Scotland,  a decrease of 11,700 (2.0%) over the year. Employment in the devolved public sector declined by 5,700 (1.2%) to 486,000, due mainly to declines local government employment (5,300) and further education (down 900).  A comparison between headcount and full-time equivalent data suggests that since 2009 the public sector in Scotland has been shedding more part-time than full-time jobs, between Q3 2009 and Q3 2012 headcount (total public sector) employment declined by 51,700, whilst the full time equivalent declined by 39,200.  Table 1                Number of people employed in Scotland (headcount)       Q3 1999   Level  2,293,000   Level  1,746,300   Percentage  76.2%   Level  546,300   Percentage  23.8%   Level  546,300   Percentage  23.8%  Q3 2006  2,499,000  1,900,700  76.1%  598,400  23.9%  598,400  23.9% Q3 2007 2,552,000 1,956,100 76.6% 596,100 23.4% 596,100 23.4% Q3 2008 2,552,000 1,955,300 76.6% 596,700 23.4% 596,700 23.4% Q3 2009 2,507,000 1,873,700 74.7% 633,000 25.3% 595,600 23.8% Q3 2010 2,479,000 1,861,300 75.1% 617,700 24.9% 585,600 23.6% Q3 2011 2,485,000 1,892,300 76.1% 593,000 23.9% 560,800 22.6% Q3 2012 2,474,000 1,892,700 76.5% 581,300 23.5% 552,100 22.3% Source: Quarterly Public Sector Employment series, Scottish Government, Office for National Statistics 1 Notes Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred. Total employment has been rounded to the nearest thousand. 2 Public sector financial institutions include Northern Rock (classified to the public sector from Q4 2007), Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc and Lloyds Banking Group plc (both classified to the public sector from Q4 2008). PAGE 47 VOLUME 36 NUMBER 3     Table 2 indicates the changing levels of employment (headcount) at the broad category level. Over the past year the largest declines in headcount have been in local government (down 5,300), public sector financial institutions (down 3,000) and the civil service (down 2,100). In percentage terms the largest declines have been in public sector financial institutions (down 9.4%) and further education colleges (down 6%).  Table 2     Public Sector employment by National Accounts classification (headcount) all Q3 2012 figures    Total Public Sector  National Accounts Central Government Category  Public Local         Public           Sector Gov.           Corp          Financial Inst.    Other Further Total Civil Armed Service Public NHS Forces Education Central Bodies Colleges Gov.     1999 546,300 48,500 14,400 129,700 15,000 15,700 223,400 293,600 29,300  2006 598,400 52,400 19,200 150,000 12,800 16,700 251,100 320,900 26,400  2007 596,100 50,000 22,700 154,200 12,200 16,900 256,000 315,200 24,800 2008 596,700 49,400 23,700 156,500 12,000 16,900 258,400 313,200 25,000 2009 633,000 51,300 23,900 159,800 11,900 16,000 262,900 304,500 28,100 37,500 2010 617,700 49,100 23,300 158,800 12,300 17,100 260,500 297,700 27,300 32,100 2011 593,000 47,900 21,800 154,500 11,700 15,100 251,000 284,000 25,700 32,200 2012 581,300 45,800 21,900 155,300 11,700 14,200 248,900 278,700 24,600 29,200 Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics Quarterly Public Sector Employment series. Notes 1 Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred. Total employment has been rounded to the nearest thousand. 2 Public sector financial institutions include Northern Rock (classified to the public sector from Q4 2007), Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc. and Lloyds Banking Group plc. (both classified to the public sector from Q4 2008). 3 Local Government category revised to include SPT. 4 A number of local government staff have transferred to arm’s length organisations which are part of the private sector. This largely explains the decrease in local government employment between 2008 and 2009. 5 Information for further education colleges is based on actual information from Q4 2010.  Local Government  Table 3 indicates the changes in headcount by local authority and indicates a decline in Local Authority employment of 5,300 (1.9%) over the year. The majority of authorities have now published budgets with proposals for further employment reductions, increased charges for services and reductions in the range and  depth  of  services.  Developments  in  English  local  authorities  highlight  the  increasing  use  of outsourcing,  accounting  for  some  60%  of  the  value  of  all  public  sector  outsourcing  contracts.  It  is estimated that 50% of council waste management services and 23% of HR, IT and payroll functions are now outsourced.  Education  Scottish Further education colleges have declined by 900 over the year to Q3 2012, and by 2,700 since Q3 2008 and further reductions are likely. As noted in previous Commentaries the publication of the Scottish Government‟s Reform of Post 16 Education and subsequent consultation paper outlined the Government‟s proposals for a very rapid restructuring of 35 colleges into 12 regions with a programme of mergers, collaboration, sharing services and courses. Three Glasgow colleges, John Wheatley, North Glasgow and Stow, have now signed a partnership agreement and are likely to merge in the second half of the year. In Edinburgh the newly created Edinburgh College (a merger of Telford, Jewel & Esk and Stevenson colleges) raised concerns as to the impact of funding reductions on staff numbers and the range of courses provided “the current pace of financial cuts runs the risk of creating a funding crisis and short-term staffing and educational difficulties” (Edinburgh College submission to the Scottish Parliament‟s education committee). MARCH 2013 PAGE 48     Table 3 Local Government employment by local authority (headcount) Q3 2006 – Q3 2012 (Not seasonally adjusted)  Year 2006 Q3 2007 Q3 2008 Q3 2009 Q3 2010 Q3 2011 Q3 2012 Q3 Annual Change H count Annual Change % Local Authority / Joint Board          Aberdeen City 11,600 11,600 11,500 9,400 8,900 8,800 8,700 -100 -1.2% Aberdeenshire 13,300 13,600 13,800 14,600 14,500 13,900 13,500 -400 -2.9% Angus 5,700 5,700 5,800 5,700 5,600 5,500 5,400 -100 -1.0% Argyll & Bute 5,500 5,300 5,300 5,400 5,200 4,800 4,700 -100 -1.2% Clackmannanshire 2,800 2,900 2,900 2,800 2,800 2,600 2,600 0 1.4% Dumfries & Galloway 8,400 8,300 8,200 8,300 8,200 7,800 7,700 -100 -1.7% Dundee City 8,400 8,300 8,300 8,100 8,000 7,300 7,300 0 0.7% East Ayrshire 6,900 6,900 6,800 6,700 6,600 6,500 6,200 -300 -4.1% East Dunbartonshire 4,600 4,800 4,900 5,000 4,900 4,300 4,300 -100 -1.3% East Lothian 4,900 5,000 4,900 5,000 4,800 4,700 4,600 0 -0.2% East Renfrewshire 4,600 4,800 4,800 4,800 4,600 4,500 4,500 0 0.4% Edinburgh, City of 20,600 20,500 20,100 19,000 18,500 17,800 17,700 -100 -0.5% Eilean Siar 2,500 2,600 2,600 2,600 2,500 2,500 2,400 -100 -3.4% Falkirk 7,700 7,900 8,000 8,100 7,900 7,400 7,500 100 1.4% Fife 23,400 22,500 22,500 22,800 22,400 21,100 20,400 -800 -3.7% Glasgow City 37,800 33,500 31,800 23,300 22,300 21,600 20,700 -900 -4.3% Highland 12,700 12,600 12,700 12,800 12,700 12,100 10,000 -2,100 -17.4% Inverclyde 5,200 5,200 4,800 4,800 4,600 4,400 4,300 -100 -1.7% Midlothian 4,200 4,600 4,700 4,700 4,800 4,600 4,500 -100 -1.8% Moray 5,000 4,900 5,100 5,200 5,100 4,900 5,000 100 1.3% North Ayrshire 7,300 7,500 7,500 7,300 7,100 6,800 6,700 -100 -0.8% North Lanarkshire 18,500 18,000 17,900 18,200 17,200 16,300 16,200 -100 -0.8% Orkney Islands 2,100 2,200 2,400 2,400 2,400 2,300 2,400 0 0.1% Perth & Kinross 5,900 6,000 6,100 6,100 6,000 5,900 5,900 0 0.4% Renfrewshire 9,300 9,100 8,800 8,600 8,300 7,500 7,800 300 4.0% Scottish Borders 5,700 5,800 5,800 5,700 5,700 5,600 5,500 -100 -2.3% Shetland Islands 3,600 3,700 3,800 4,100 4,200 4,000 3,800 -200 -4.1% South Ayrshire 6,000 5,700 5,700 5,600 5,600 5,300 5,200 0 -0.5% South Lanarkshire 16,600 16,000 15,800 15,900 15,500 14,700 14,800 100 0.7% Stirling 4,400 4,500 4,400 4,400 4,500 4,100 4,200 0 0.8% West Dunbartonshire 6,000 6,200 6,300 6,600 6,100 6,100 5,700 -300 -5.3% West Lothian 8,300 8,300 8,400 8,500 8,400 7,800 8,000 100 1.9% Total Fire Joint Boards 5,800 5,700 5,800 5,800 5,700 5,600 5,400 -200 -3.1% Total Police Joint Boards 24,200 23,600 23,800 24,700 24,700 23,900 23,900 100 0.4% Total Valuation Joint Boards Total Regional Transport Partnerships (SPT) 700  700 700  700 700  700 700  700 600  700 600  600 600  600 0  -100 -1.8%  -8.2% SCOTLAND 320,900 315,200 313,200 304,500 297,700 284,000 278,700 -5,300 -1.9% Source: Joint Staffing Watch Survey, Scottish Government Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. 2. Totals may not add up to the sum of the parts due to rounding 3. Figures for fire service staff exclude volunteer and retained fire-fighters 4. Police and Fire Service staff in Dumfries and Galloway and Fife, who are not covered by Joint Boards, are included within the figures for Joint Boards for consistency. PAGE 49 VOLUME 36 NUMBER 3     A continuing problem for universities has been the reduction in the numbers of overseas students and hence income, due in part to the UK Government seeking to reduce numbers of migrants seeking to enter the UK. Data for 2011 – 2012 suggests significant declines in the numbers of students from India, Nigeria and Pakistan coming to Scottish universities, although there was some improvement in numbers from other countries. Concerns have also been voiced that a number of the proposals  in the Post – 16 Education (Scotland) Bill could reduce the autonomy of Scottish universities.  Transport  The issue and provision of free bus travel remains a concern. It is estimated that £34 million of the £180 million spent on free bus passes in Scotland went to people still working, and concerns remain that the provision will be reduced. A number of possible reductions to bus routes were announced following a cut in funding for the Scottish Government‟s free bus scheme, the rate is to be cut by 13% over two years – but eased by a £10 million emergency investment in 2013 – underlying this is the funding shortfall of £13 million in 2012/2013 as demand exceeded the £187 million available. Proposed industrial action by RMT over new flexible work patterns being proposed by Serco, the new operators of Orkney and Shetland ferries, was suspended in December. Elsewhere ferry fares to the Western Isles, Coll and Tiree will increase by 10% in 2013.  Health  Concerns over the contamination of processed food coincided with an Audit Scotland Report „Protecting Consumers‟ a review of councils‟ trading standards services. The report noted the reductions in staffing and budgets and concluded the long-term viability of councils‟ trading standards services is under threat. Councils are increasingly targeting their resources at the highest risk areas and reducing work on the lowest risks, but this requires good intelligence, which is not always available. “However, the reduction in consumer advice and support means that some consumers will not get the help they need when things go wrong. Nearly a quarter of the Scottish population now live in areas where they will not necessarily receive support for civil matters from councils‟ trading standards services.” (Audit Scotland).  The numbers (headcount) employed in the NHS rose by 800 to 155,300 Q3 2011 – Q3 2012 (see table 2). As we noted in the previous Commentary NHS spending in Scotland is currently roughly a third of the annual Scottish budget. As the Audit Scotland‟s report noted the NHS budget rose by £232m in 2011-12 in cash terms. "The Scottish government's 2011 spending review outlined a 4.2% real-terms decrease in NHS funding in the five years to 2014-15." There are clearly pressures building in the system from increasing costs, rising expectations and increasing demand and changes to policies are increasingly inevitable.  The adverse impact of performance management has been evident in two reports into the National Health Service. First, Audit Scotland (February 2013) noted „the combination of shorter waiting times targets and increased numbers of patients added to waiting lists means NHS boards are facing increasing challenges to treat patients within the required time. It found evidence of the application of false periods of unavailability to patient records to appear to meet waiting time targets‟ (para. 4 p 3), and a culture of managerial pressure on staff to find ways around the system to avoid failing to meet targets (see part 2 of the report pages 21 – 30 for examples).  Secondly, the Francis Report (The final report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry) highlighted a series of major failings which led to poor standards of care and contributed to the premature deaths of hundreds of patients. Francis noted (para. 76 Executive Summary) “Stafford was not an event of such rarity or improbability that it would be safe to assume that it has not been and will not be repeated or the risk of a recurrence was so low that major preventative measures would be disproportionate”. As the president and vice presidents of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh noted “the contributing circumstances have the potential for this to occur in any hospital under pressure, and leave no room for complacency… the lessons learned are too important to ignore, must be acted upon and result in cultural change to avoid repetition”.  The Francis report highlighted issues of poor leadership, tensions between medical and management staffs, a negative culture, inaccurate self-declaration of its own performance, a failure of professional MARCH 2013 PAGE 50     associations to support staff who voiced concerns and failure of external agencies to accurately monitor performance.  The  unintended  and  negative  failings  of  performance  management  target  systems,  especially  when coupled with performance based pay (either organizational or individual) is well documented in management literature, as contributing to a 'tick box culture' and a focus on outputs rather than processes. It is questionable whether the best route to raise or ensure compliance with fundamental standards is best served by a combination of SMART objectives and incentives.  Emergency Services  As noted in the November 2012 Commentary the appointment of the new chief constable for the Scottish national police force led to some clarification as to the scale of initial job losses, with up to 3,000 mainly support jobs (in HR, finance and procurement etc.) to be lost, mainly by voluntary redundancies and early retirement, and to proposals to reduce police estates by 20%, implying some reductions to the number of police stations. It is likely that some of the civilian job losses will lead to police officers taking back some of this work, and the trend towards a more porous divide between police officers and civilian staffs, a feature of future years, reduced in the period to 2015. The protection of police officer numbers may well be by standardising terms and conditions and at the expense of reductions in hours, overtime and conditions.  Issues of management control and responsibility arose in a well-publicised disagreement between the Scottish Police Force and the Scottish Police Authority, as to the implications of the new legislation in terms of the control of HR, finance, other back office functions and civilian staffs. Concerns that the SPA would not delegate control of staff to the new Police force would make it much harder for the new chief constable to effectively manage staff and resources and in recognition of this a number of finance and HR staff will now be placed under the chief constable‟s control. Audit Scotland, in its Overview Report into best value in police authorities, echoed these concerns: “It is critical that the respective roles of the Scottish Police Authority, the Police Service of Scotland, local authorities and their partners are clearly understood and that policing services are managed in accordance with well-established principles of good governance and accountability” (overall conclusions para. 22).  The Fire Services in England are responding to reduced budgets by shifting to fire prevention and risk analysis, Greater Manchester has been reported as reducing front line staff by a third, but its chief fire officer noted the advantages of initiating changes in more buoyant economic times, and argued that there was no quick fix for slimming the public sector without damaging the services the public receives. Resources had been successfully taken out of the system by managing a reduction in demand, but there are obvious limits to such policies.      References  Audit Scotland (2012). Best Value in police authorities and police forces in Scotland. Audit Scotland (2013). Protecting consumers. Dewhurst, N. G. Jones, M.C. & Wilson, J.A. (2013) Time to refocus the NHS on quality and dignity of patient care: RCPE response to Mid Staffordshire. Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The Francis Report (2013). Executive Summary. Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry.  Cliff Lockyer February 2013  

Best Value in police authorities and police forces in Scotland. Audit

The Francis Report (2013). Executive Summary. Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry.

Time to refocus the NHS on quality and dignity of patient care: RCPE response to Mid Staffordshire.

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Public sector employment in Scotland [March 2013]

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