Just for the record, I can’t predict the future. I’m not a prophet or a fortune teller. The one exception is perhaps the botched launch of the new ScotRail travel app.
A new, improved app should be good news. Technology used in the public sector often needs updating.
However, with my fake fortune teller’s hat on, I made a conscious decision not to commute to Edinburgh on app launch day.
I knew that getting up earlier to download an app, reset my password, login, then work out how to use it would probably take ages, if it even worked.
On launch day I literally laughed out loud at the predictable headlines. The BBC Scotland News read “ScotRail apology after passengers unable to book tickets in app launch chaos”, while “ScotRail apologises as customers face issues with ‘shambles’ new app” was the STV headline.
The decision had been made not to soft launch the app so that customers could test in advance, just to suddenly introduce it and hope for the best. A smooth transition didn’t happen. Shocker.
How did we get here and why?
Now there may have been valid reasons why the app was launched this way. I might be proven wrong about the rationale. I don’t know. Hardly anyone does.
But that’s exactly the point. This isn’t just about an app.
I don’t know anything about how this or indeed any other ScotRail decision is made – and about 99.99999% of our 5.5 million citizens are in the same boat train.
That’s because ScotRail – and every other public sector body – is not run democratically.
ScotRail is owned by the government but it’s not owned by the people. There’s no voice for customers. Equally there’s very little in the way of outlets for employee voice. There are no elections.
A broken model
It’s certainly welcome that ScotRail profits don’t go to private shareholders – or to pay for Dutch public services as it did in a bizarre previous life.
However, it has the exact same centralised, top-down, hierarchical structure as any big corporation. We, the people, are nowhere to be seen on the company board.
But this problem isn’t unique to ScotRail. Remote, closed public services that are disconnected from the people who use them – passengers, patients, crime victims, parents – are the norm across Scotland and the UK.
The fundamental problem is the absence of those with lived daily experience of public services, otherwise known as the experts.
To improve public sector performance and productivity we must begin to replace bureaucracy with democracy.
The practical alternatives
There are real-world precedents, with cooperatives, social enterprises and community-owned enterprises offering viable, alternative delivery models. Instead of centralised, top-down nationalisation, ScotRail could adopt a Go-op-style co-operative model.
Other successful examples of alternative public service delivery include South Ayrshire Community Transport that specialises in socially inclusive, community-owned transport and The Wise Group that delivers essential employment, justice and skills services.
We also have the Newfield Medical Group, a cooperative with a focus on health prevention and West Granton Housing Co-operative that empowers tenants with affordable housing. All these models demonstrate the sort of innovation that the public sector urgently needs to learn from.
Outwith Scotland, one of the reasons that Germany has such a strong economy is because they embed democracy in business through their system of codetermination. Many more global examples like this exist.
Hope and progress
Some politicians and parties do seem to be listening, as demonstrated in the recent parliamentary debate and in Scotland’s Public Service Reform Strategy.
And to any public sector leaders alarmed about democracy, this will actually make your lives easier.
Imagine a big reduction in public complaints and verbal abuse, in staff stress, absenteeism and industrial conflicts – and crucially, in areas like the NHS, a reduction in demand for stretched services.
In turn, this will assist with the urgent, money-saving shift to preventative spend and early intervention, dealing with many issues before they become critical.
Public service reform is indeed one of the defining characteristics of this term of the Scottish Parliament – but only by embracing democracy will it succeed.
