Hansard

As a member of the Finance Committee, I, too, was very pleased to take evidence in the inquiry into preventative spend and to help to compile the report.

There were two additional aspects of the inquiry that were extremely important. One was the involvement of Scotland’s Futures Forum. The committee’s clerks and its convener and deputy convener are to be commended for taking such a forward-thinking approach and for adopting such an innovative way of looking at things. The other important factor was our report on the reform of public services, because I do not believe that it is possible to look truly at a preventative spend model without looking at how we reform public services. That is a big issue in this country.

Much of the report focused on the early years. That is as it should be, because there is nothing more important to any society than its children. However, achieving a significant turnaround of society as far as our children are concerned involves taking a long-term view and I am concerned that, because of that, it is far too easy not to even start. People think, “That’s away off in the future. We’ll get round to doing that.” When it comes to prevention, there is a mindset in our society that has to change. It needs to be realised in the health service that it is better to prevent than it is to treat and in the criminal justice system that it is better to prevent than it is to punish, for example.

Among the six points that emerged from the committee’s event on Friday, which was excellent, was that the debate on preventative spending needs to go much wider than just the early years and health and social care, and I think that that is very true. It is often the case that we deal with issues in crisis situations. That came out in some of the evidence that we took during the inquiry. Alan Sinclair, who helped us a great deal with his evidence, said:

“The overwhelming mindset that lurks behind how our public services are delivered is that we should invest at point of impact when things have gone wrong ... instead of going back and putting something in systemically.”—[Official Report, Finance Committee, 21 September 2010; c 2496.]

NESTA took a similar view when it wrote that

“The prevalent approach to tackling these challenges is to deal with the symptoms rather than striving to prevent their development.”

Sometimes simple and effective solutions can be put into place when we look at the short and medium term. Members will have their own examples, but one that comes immediately to my mind is the service gap facing those people in our prisons, hospitals and communities who have chronic mental health problems. This morning, I heard about the gap facing people who have to move from child to adult psychiatric services. Surely, if we intervene early enough and use prevention, that will be better than what we will end up with in the future. This morning, I also visited the Up-2-Us project, which is an early intervention to help young people to avoid ending up as pawns in the criminal justice system. These are fairly simple and straightforward potential solutions, so what stops us from putting such ideas into practice?

When taking evidence, the committee was frustrated to pick up on bureaucratic barriers, budget defensiveness, issues of ring-fencing and people saying, “That’s our budget.” A lot of work has to be done to change that mindset, which appears in all sectors. We do it in this Parliament. Local authorities, health boards and the voluntary sector do it. Everyone is looking after their own budget and closing their minds to the idea of being a bit more innovative in looking for solutions that can prevent social problems and save a lot more money down the line.

It does not always have to be about extra money. I was struck by a tiny bit of evidence that we heard. Somewhere in the south of England—I cannot remember where—a local health board paid to have roads gritted in an area in which there are a lot of elderly people. The result was that the health board had to treat fewer casualties and fractures over the winter, which meant a net saving to the public purse. We do not see much evidence of that sort of thing happening in our country because everyone is looking after their own budget. Perhaps Mr Swinney’s change fund will help to alleviate some of the pressures that mean that people think that they have to protect their own professions, services and organisations.

Such an idea must start from the top. We must all show a commitment to working together. There must be a recognition that we can do things differently and better. There is a responsibility on us all to stop making some of the populist sound bites that we are all guilty of and to work together.

The committee convener has already commended the report to the Finance Committee’s successor committee, with a view to it taking the recommendations on board. The committee’s legacy paper will also reflect that view. I can end only with the committee’s words about

“the need for a consensual approach in moving towards a more preventative approach to public spending”.

That will require leadership across all political parties and locally in communities. As the parliamentary session comes to an end and a new one approaches, I hope that we can commend that approach and make a difference to Scotland.

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