WE need a serious debate about public services in Scotland: what quality of services do Scots want and how much are they willing to pay for them?

Scotland’s anti-poverty organisation, Poverty Alliance, and Scotland’s largest union, Unison, have joined forces to take this message into the heart of every political party to influence the 2026 Scottish Parliament campaigns, and we are starting with fringe meetings at every party conference.

So far, Scottish Labour and Scottish Lib Dem conferences have been a great success with packed meetings and stimulating debate; party members clearly want to engage with us. And the Scotland Demands Better campaign is encouraging unions to join a demonstration which has now been confirmed for October 25 in Edinburgh.

Last year, we saw the election of a Labour government, something that most of us in the movement welcomed, and the promise of the Employment Rights Bill will potentially see real, tangible benefits for thousands of workers here in Scotland.

We hoped the Tory austerity agenda was consigned to the bin, Labour values that would put our people, our communities at the heart of an economic recovery, that would value our public services and reward the workers who deliver them. 

We voted for change. That means direct investment into our public services and social security via tax increases on wealth, property and assets.

Instead, what we see is a Labour government lurching to the right with eye-watering cuts to the welfare state, plunging more families into poverty; these actions have seen the increased need for foodbanks. Shamefully scapegoating disabled people as a drain on the public purse and diverting money that should be spent on public services to defence spending.

We know that being in government requires tough choices, and we know we are not short of challenges — a cost-of-living crisis, a climate emergency, a housing emergency, massive cuts to our public services — but the lack of political will at both Holyrood and Westminster to tackle these challenges is staggering.

Our public services provide our communities opportunities and a safety net when they need it, like education, health and social care, environmental services and so much more, they are essential to the very fabric of our society, and we need to see significant investment to support our most vulnerable within our communities in Scotland.

On the one hand, we see the Scottish government praise our dedicated public service workers, working for communities and supporting the vulnerable, but they are presiding over yet another year of pay falling behind, as many are pushed further into in-work poverty and hardship.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation reports that a million Scots live in poverty — half a million in deep poverty — and a quarter are children. This has changed little in well over a decade.

With insecure work, earning below the Scottish Living Wage, and working two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet. This is particularly true of workforces dominated by women, like early years, care work and cleaning.

We have the longest NHS waiting lists since devolution, social care is a mess, and after taking the brunt of cuts over the last 15 years, local government is having an existential crisis.

Colleges are struggling, police support staff jobs are being cut, Scottish Water is subject to back-door privatisation, near-bankrupt universities are having to be bailed out by the government, and libraries and leisure facilities are closing across the country.

Investing in staff is investing in services. Poverty in Scotland will not end unless we invest in our public services. Cash benefits are vital, but so are in-kind benefits like toddler to adult education, cradle to grave health services, youth diversionary programmes and adult care.

Of course, wages are the largest part of the spend. What else would be? Public services rely on the skilled people who deliver them. A nursery is a nursery because it has trained early years practitioners, a library has librarians and ambulances need paramedics. And staff need fair pay, rest breaks, training, opportunities to develop and time to plan and do paperwork.

That includes the less visible services too: environmental health, trading and building standards, public health, career advice, child reporters, environmental and water engineers, social work, planning teams; I could go on.

We may not see these people every day, but they provide essential services too.

The question is, how do we fund them? Tinkering with the tax base is not cutting it. Neither will glib phrases like “tax the rich.”

Of course, the public needs value for money and no-one more than public service staff understands that. They see the problems and are up for reform. But that can’t always mean cuts.

Take council funding. We’ve had countless reviews of the council tax. All parties — one in government for 18 years — have at one time or another pledged to scrap this unfair tax. But it still exists and is still based on property values from 33 years ago, because all parties are terrified of the political consequences of changing it.

But that means councils do not have control of their own revenue and spend. They rely on central government, which often ringfences budgets. 

Public services are at the heart of all our lives, they are central to a fairer society. Poverty in Scotland will not end unless we invest in services to support the most vulnerable and enable all citizens to reach their full potential.

In essence, we need a balanced and progressive settlement which prioritises badly struggling services which low-income households rely on the most.

I finish where I started: Scots need to decide what quality of public services they want, how much they are willing to pay for them, and Unison is determined to lead this debate in the run-up to the Scottish parliamentary elections in 2026.

Lilian Macer is Unison Scottish secretary and STUC president.