"Being Small in a Big World" A presentation by Colin Mair, the CEO of the Improvement Service to the Scotland Funders Forum's #starterfor10k event

1. Scottish Funders Association
Being Small in a Big World
Colin Mair, CEO, Improvement Service

2. Scope
• Why small matters: the “bigging” of the
Scottish state
• The limits of big Government
• Going small: going local
• The better role of big Government

3. “Bigging the System”:
Lowest Level of Functional Government
• Very small number of very large councils
• Lowest ratio of councillors and councils to
population in Europe
• Limited fiscal and constitutional empowerment
• Low voter turnout: limited confidence

4. Some Comparisons
• Norway: 19 counties and 434 municipalities
(4,676,305)
• Denmark: 98 municipalities and 5 ‘regions’
(5,515,575)
• Finland: 20 ‘regions’ and 342 municipalities
(5,255,068)

5. “Bigging the System”: Looking Back
• Scotland 1974: 203 councils; diverse rather than
uniform; 50% local taxation
• Scotland 1996: 32 councils; uniformity of
functions and empowerments; under 20% local
taxation
• Loss of major functions: public health;
community health care; college sector; police and
fire services

6. Range for Neighbourhood Scores
(2011/12)
• Income deprivation: 3% - 53%
• Crimes per 10,000: 51 – 3,180
• S4 tariff score: 79 – 288
• Emergency Admissions
per 100,000: 5,812 – 22,794
• Emergency Admissions
65+ per 100,000: 8,602 – 55,769

7. 2002/03 – 2012/13

8. Government Finance and Demand
2009/10 – 2017/18 (% real terms)
NB. Projected cash cuts from 2016/17 – 2018/19

9. Going Small: Going Local
• The mantra: co-production; “capacity” building;
social “cohesion”/“coherence”; “assets” based
approaches, etc.
• But….
– Affluent communities with good outcomes
– The poor value that marginalised
communities get from public services
– The resource lock: research; policy; training
and management support

10. Small Grants
• Projects or people
• Resourcing challenge; change proposals;
lobbying, etc.
• Bottom up co-production….on the communities
terms

11. Scaleability
• Why?: supporting particular communities on
their terms
• Principles: subordination of expertise to the
community; inclusion; choice and respect
• Solving the public sector problem
(universalisation: solving the communities
problem (particularisation and intimacy)

12. The Role of Big Government
• Macro-economic, fiscal and welfare policy
• Inequality cannot be resolved solely at
community level
• International comparisons show link between
income inequality and other inequalities

13. End Points
• We need to scale down: go granular
• Supporting communities to shape public
services
• Invest in people….not projects