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A cynical attempt to scapegoat workers
We utterly reject the Scottish government’s pretence that wage claims in public services are the reason for savage spending cuts — raise taxes to pay workers better for better services, writes COLETTE HUNTER, of Unison Scotland
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CUTS to public services — and we had £500 million worth announced this week — are the fault of the workers who provide the services. That at least is the view of the Scottish government.
It put this “necessity” down to a number of causes, but high up in the mix were pay claims from workers in public services, particularly council workers.
As excuses go this one is more lame than most. It’s politicians who set budgets and make plans, not council staff. It’s a bit rich turning around and blaming a lack of free school meals on the women who cook them.
The Scottish government would do better looking at its own track record of starving local government of funds and preventing councils from raising their own revenue.
Unison Scotland has been highlighting how badly local government and its staff are being treated for a long time. It was interesting recently though to see so many of our concerns laid out by the Improvement Service in their benchmark report on Scottish local government.
The Scottish government budget has increased by 37 per cent since 2013-14, yet the increase in the local government budget over the same period has been 1.3 per cent. The impact of these cuts is clear to all who work in local government and those who use the services.
When the growth in ringfencing by the Scottish government is taken into account, funding for councils is reduced by 1.9 per cent in real terms in 2022-23. The report by the Improvement Service states: “This equates to £176.7m less funding available to councils to pursue local priorities.” This means savings and cuts have to come from non-ringfenced areas.
The results have been stark; 20 per cent reduction in culture and leisure spending, 27 per cent reduction in planning spending, 24 per cent reduction in corporate support service spending, 9 per cent reduction in roads spending, 26 per cent reduction in trading standards and environmental health spending, 35 per cent reduction in street cleaning.
It is noted in the report that in education, “savings have been disproportionately targeted towards ancillary workers including support staff, janitors, caterers, and cleaners.”
The value of local government pay has fallen by 25 per cent over the last 14 years and low pay in local government still proliferates — many of Unison’s school support staff members who took industrial action last year claim universal credit.
Staff shortages are becoming more widespread, with councils now facing gaps in areas not previously affected. For example, there are a number of statutory local government professional roles facing workforce shortages.
This is directly impacting a range of critical statutory areas, including planning, environmental health, trading and building standards — in light of this, Unison Scotland’s “damage reports” look remarkably prescient.
The benchmarking report reaches conclusions that have been well-known to Unison for years; inadequate pay plays a significant part in causing the staff shortages: “Staff are choosing to leave local government for better-paid jobs in other sectors to cope with rising inflation.”
Other workforce pressures are also mentioned, as is the ageing workforce and staff retiring earlier. Social care and social work remain the most common workforce gap, with almost all councils reporting shortages. In social care, minimum pay rates are described as being “not competitive in the wider labour market.”
A lack of funding is pointed to as the reason that there has been insufficient development of the council workforce and that local government is “expected to deliver the same or better outcomes with less available labour and access to development.” The report does not mince words, saying that this is “often creating intolerable work pressure for staff.”
Throughout all of this, we have seen the government in Holyrood making little use of its own capacity to raise taxes, despite strong urging from trade unions.
Literally billions more could be available to local government if the Scottish government were prepared to enact real reforms. Instead, we get lofty commitments accompanied by budget cuts.
It is long past time to make it clear to the Scottish government — and their opposition — that fine words without finance are just hot air, and that there are no services without the people who deliver them.
Colette Hunter is chair of Unison Scotland’s local government committee.
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