Serving Scotland: our five-year plan

The case for change

We are the civil service for the Scottish Government. We exist to improve the lives of the people of Scotland. Our organisation supports ministers to deliver for the communities we all serve.

From our origins in the Scottish Office, through to the creation of the Scottish Executive, and on to today’s Scottish Government, our responsibilities have grown. Since 1999, devolution has brought new powers, new duties and new expectations. Throughout this, we have adapted to support ministers in meeting growing demands.

We manage a budget of over £65 billion on behalf of ministers and the people of Scotland, and we do so with a workforce of dedicated, expert civil servants who care deeply about the impact they make.

But the world is changing faster than ever, and it’s changing in ways that are testing the systems and structures we rely on.

Our resources are more constrained, just as demand is rising. Scotland’s population is ageing, and the gap between what people need and what the government can fund is widening. It will keep widening unless we reform, and that reform has to start in how our organisation works.

Many of you have said that workloads are heavier and the pace of work has increased. Effort is sometimes duplicated across teams, and processes can be convoluted. Our current structures do not always help us; teams are often separated by boundaries that make sense on an organisation chart, but not to the person trying to get things done.

We need to reconsider the volume and length of work we produce, whether that’s briefings for senior leaders, reports, or ministerial submissions. Our aim should be more concise, time-efficient outputs that reflects the reality we’re operating in, not the habits we’ve built up over time.

These pressures also test our skills and capability. We are an organisation that deeply values expertise, and we need that expertise to keep pace with a changing world. A recent Capability Review shows where the strengths and gaps are in our policy delivery, digital and core civil service skills. We now need to invest in addressing those gaps and building on our strengths to meet the challenges ahead.

The same is true for technology. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming what’s possible in public service delivery. AI and automation is already removing repetitive, manual work from our processes, freeing skilled people to focus on what needs human judgement. But we are not yet using this to its full potential, to make the best use of the resources we have.

These challenges are not unique to our organisation. The Future Civil Service programme sets out plans for reform of the wider UK Civil Service. Where there are areas of joint interest, we are pursuing parallel programmes that serve our ministerial and organisational context.

Change is a job for all of us. As we strive to work smarter to achieve more for the people of Scotland, we recognise that the best ideas for removing obstacles often come from those closest to the work.

We should all feel empowered to lead the change we want to see. Now is the time for action.

• Resources are constrained while demand for public services is rising
• Bureaucracy and processes get in the way of delivery
• Rapid advances in technology are changing what’s possible
• Our expertise must keep pace with a fast-changing world