Scotland’s public services reform: Meeting fiscal need with policy innovation

Tuesday 23rd September 2025

Public service reform in Scotland is no longer optional – it is now urgent. While Scotland’s public bodies are under pressure from rising demand, constrained resources and accelerating change, they must still deliver better outcomes for people and communities. However, systemic inertia, fragmented leadership and uneven performance threaten the pace and depth of change required. How therefore do we now move from intention to action – across organisations, systems and localities – to deliver real reform?

Public services in Scotland face a complex mix of challenges – ageing infrastructure, workforce pressures, silo delivery models and a public increasingly sceptical of top-down change. Reforms promised in previous decades have often lacked scale, focus, or follow-through. Yet failure to implement reform now risks both service sustainability and public trust.

Against this backdrop, the Scottish Government’s 'Scotland’s Public Service Reform Strategy 2025' sets out an ambitious vision for transformation. It aims to shift investment upstream into prevention, redesigning services around people and place with the intention of saving £1 billion in public sector overheads over five years. Featuring more than 80 proposed actions and a significant number of different workstreams, the scale of its ambition is matched only by the implementation task ahead.

Beyond vision and aspiration lies the challenge of delivery. This will demand alignment across local and national government, public bodies and frontline professionals. Digital reform, organisational consolidation, smarter data use and clearer accountability all feature – but how will they be delivered in practice?

This conference will explore the Scottish Government's plans and will discuss how we can overcome structural, cultural and operational obstacles. It will examine what comes next in moving from strategy to meaningful delivery.

The conference will focus on three themes:

• Resetting Scotland’s public services for a sustainable future – beyond business as usual
• The realities of reform – challenges, risks and opportunities
• Making it real – governance, next steps and delivery

Topics to be discussed

• Resetting Scotland’s public services for a sustainable future – beyond business as usual
• Understanding the 'Scotland’s Public Service Reform Strategy' agenda
• Why reform cannot wait – the tipping point for Scottish public services
• Investing in prevention – designing public services around people
• The realities of reform – challenges, risks and opportunities
• Modernising the front door of public services – digital by design
• Leadership, workforce and culture – reform’s human infrastructure
• Sustainable financing for sustainable services – efficiency without erosion?
• Making it real – governance, next steps and delivery
• Structures that deliver – accountability and governance that works
• Building legitimacy and trust through co-design – power with people
• Next steps, leadership for the long term and keeping up focus across political cycles

Who should attend

All those concerned with the development and delivery of public services in Scotland, including:

• Public sector leaders including Chief Executives, Directors, Heads of Finance, Managers, Service Managers, Departmental Heads, Policy Officers, Change and Service Transformation Managers
• All public sector bodies including local government, quangos/NDPBs, health, further education and emergency services
• Third sector partners in public sector service delivery
• Board members and trustees
• Policy and strategy professionals, strategic planners and policy officers, heads of policy development and implementation, analysts and researchers in public administration
• Advisory and representative groups including policy makers, lawyers, professional representative organisations and trade unions
• Campaigning groups including lobbying groups, sectoral and industry groups, single issue campaigning organisations
• Private sector working with and supplying to the public sector including companies, industry bodies and specialist advisors
• Legal and regulatory experts, legal advisors and in-house counsel for public bodies and specialists in public sector law
• Finance and procurement leaders, chief financial officers and finance directors, procurement and contract managers, budgeting and financial planning specialists
• HR and organizational development professionals, human resource directors and managers, organisational development specialists, inclusion and diversity officers
• Public service improvement specialists
• Academics and researchers in public policy, leadership and public sector transformation
• Elected members and representatives involved in public administration and oversight

Speakers

James Mitchell (Professor)

Professor of Public Policy

University of Edinburgh