Day: 28 November 2024

The TSI Scotland Network are calling on Government to ensure communities and a sustainably funded third sector are at the heart of public service reform. 

In advance of the budget on 4^th December, the Network has four asks:-

Ask 1: Invest in collaborative third sector delivery models to support public sector reform

Ask 2: Fairer funding to enable the systems change the Scottish Government seeks

Ask 3: Direct funding to communities that is shaped by local people and groups

Ask 4: Support the TSI Scotland Network to lead on change and fund it to do so.

The TSI Scotland Network, a body that represents the 32 expert local Third Sector Interfaces across the country who work to support charities, local organisations and social enterprises,  said the Scottish budget was an incredible opportunity to invest in a public service reform that would create long-term sustainability – a reform that was designed for and by people in communities.

On the ground, the third sector was a “crucial change delivery partner” who worked locally with people, places and public services.

A spokesperson said, “Our sector is the third largest and across Scotland employs 133,000 people who are committed to improving our communities.  It is a cornerstone in helping keep our society compassionate, equal and just.”

Long-term fair funding would help ensure the sector could offer fair work and security to its employees, be proactively involved in needed local change, and deliver sustainable impact into the future.

“Whether it be running foodbanks, managing advice services or providing invaluable health and social care services, the sector is struggling with the impact of successive budget cuts and a failure to fund them properly,” the spokesperson said.

“Now is the time to invest in multi-year funding agreements as well as a funding increase that reflects cumulative inflationary pressures and the forthcoming increases to National Insurance Contributions.”

A bank of knowledge, experience and trusted relationships within communities could see the third sector better inform the redesign and reform of public services and in turn deliver “renewed, high quality, locally available public services designed with communities”.

“The TSI Network Scotland on behalf of our members believes in the Scottish Government’s ambitions but we need the funding and policy environment to help make these ambitions a reality,” the spokesperson added.

In TSI Scotland Network’s submission to the Finance Secretary, the Cabinet Secretary Health and Social Care and the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs it was acknowledged that the recent increase in the Scottish Government’s budget will not undo fourteen years of cuts and disinvestment but it can be accompanied by a renewed focus on devolving budgets to local communities so they can directly shape the services they want and need. 

—ENDS—

---

Pegs Bailey reflects on the value of learning and shares ‘two good things’ relevant to employability policy and co-production in Scotland. 

Sharing a moment of celebration, 

There is a saying that ‘bad luck comes in threes’. If two bad things happen in a row, I find myself on tenterhooks wondering what the third bad thing will be, and often enough it does. 

But maybe good things can come in threes also?  If so, I am in a good place this week as two projects dear to my heart; two ‘good things’, happened.  

Firstly, as pictured, I graduated from my MSc in Mindfulness with Distinction at the University of Aberdeen (oooh!). This is the culmination of four years of hard graft on top of the day job and family life (thanks husband, kids and tolerant friends). 

 It has been epic and amazing to reconnect parts of my brain that had taken a nap since my degree in1998. I have learned so much about myself as well as this thing called ‘mindfulness’ and how it might help us in our day jobs: particularly in growing our capacity for co-production in public services and public policy design. 

My work explored the experiences and impact of implementing Mindfulness training and practices for senior civil servants in Welsh Government between 2014-20. I look forward to sharing a fuller (non-academic) version of my findings shortly – but some key highlights are: 

• Learning about how our brains work, and improving our physical and emotional awareness through mindfulness can help grow critical co-production skills like emotional regulation, balancing messiness with action and working with conflict. 

• Mindful awareness also helps people realise that their view on ‘how things are’ is inevitably limited, and so genuinely engaging with and listening to diverse relevant perspectives is essential to doing our jobs well. 

• Despite co-production being a mainstay of many policy priorities, these skills and qualities are rarely included in mainstream training for civil and public servants in the UK and this is a miss. 

• Despite the success of the mindfulness training (which reached 3.5% of the Welsh Government workforce), the term ‘mindfulness’ was still seen as misunderstood or off-putting by many. And sitting in silence is not for everyone.  

• So if we ARE looking to grow these skills and capacities in Scotland then we might want to think carefully about how we frame this learning and what will resonate most with the intended audiences. 

The second good thing, and on the same day, the Human Learning Systems (HLS) Collaborative launched a new series of exemplars of HLS in action in this webinar.   

For those that have not heard of it, HLS is an alternative approach to public management which, in their words, embraces the complexity of the real world and enables us to work effectively in that complexity and focusses on human thriving. For me it makes an awful lot of sense and connects with the learning I have gained through my MSc and personal mindfulness practice. 

HLS is increasingly discussed in the policy world of health but less well known in employability. Which is why I was delighted when the HLS team accepted a case study of the work done by the Opportunities Fife Partnership (OFP) in implementing No One Left Behind.  

The team leading the Fife work used HLS theory to underpin the co-production and service (re) design of the local employability commissioning strategy and approach. And HLS thinking is now shaping how the OFP structure their governance and oversight as well.  

You can read the NOLB Fife case study, along with numerous other examples of HLS in practice at the HLS website.  And you can watch a video explaining how this is informing the OFP’s strategic governance and approach to commissioning oversight here:  

I feel honoured and privileged to have participated in both these learning journeys, and to be able to share them with you. 

It is nice to celebrate the good stuff, now what might that third good thing be…?