As the Integration Joint Board is forced to cut social care, addiction and homelessness services across Greater Glasgow, Aitken's administration withholds millions in dosh to mitigate pay pressures
Nowhere have you discussed getting effective and efficient services through better management. I know, I know!
That often is an excuse for getting minimum wage staff treated badly. But some better more empowered decisions could deliver happier staff helping deliver more and better services. But "could we do this better" often doesn't figure.
There is only so much "efficiency" savings local governments can make if facing a decade (and £1bn) in accumulative cuts imposed from Holyrood. Eventually you run out of fat and its bone your hacking at. I would argue Glasgow City Council has long ago arrived at that point, and there are real questions if these proposed cuts mean GCC can even legally adhere to its statutory obligations.
We simply don't know. Neither you or nor I. But my experience of the NHS in England is that they remain organised to deliver care in a 1948 model. There is a very plausible argument that better organised they could deliver 30 to to 50% more care by organising differently. Yes really.
Agriculture has delivered a 10 fold increase in efficiency over the last century so these kind of numbers are not wild. Same with car manufacturing and dozens of others.
But commentators tend to ignore this. Hence my post.
There are a load of different factors that prevent change. One of the main ones is the cultural belief that there is never enough money and nothing can be done This belief in senior managers is held fervently. An example was the finding in the East Kent Maternity scandal. Senior managers assumed the service would be crap so did nothing to fix the eminently fixabke issues... 45 babies later we hear they could have.
I have seen similar management failings in many areas of public and private sectors with a real unwillingness to think about change creatively. The result is that efficiency becomes code for ignorant and brutal cuts.
None of this detracts from your main thesis that the Dear Green Place is being let down very badly indeed.
Nowhere have you discussed getting effective and efficient services through better management. I know, I know!
That often is an excuse for getting minimum wage staff treated badly. But some better more empowered decisions could deliver happier staff helping deliver more and better services. But "could we do this better" often doesn't figure.
There is only so much "efficiency" savings local governments can make if facing a decade (and £1bn) in accumulative cuts imposed from Holyrood. Eventually you run out of fat and its bone your hacking at. I would argue Glasgow City Council has long ago arrived at that point, and there are real questions if these proposed cuts mean GCC can even legally adhere to its statutory obligations.
We simply don't know. Neither you or nor I. But my experience of the NHS in England is that they remain organised to deliver care in a 1948 model. There is a very plausible argument that better organised they could deliver 30 to to 50% more care by organising differently. Yes really.
Agriculture has delivered a 10 fold increase in efficiency over the last century so these kind of numbers are not wild. Same with car manufacturing and dozens of others.
But commentators tend to ignore this. Hence my post.
There are a load of different factors that prevent change. One of the main ones is the cultural belief that there is never enough money and nothing can be done This belief in senior managers is held fervently. An example was the finding in the East Kent Maternity scandal. Senior managers assumed the service would be crap so did nothing to fix the eminently fixabke issues... 45 babies later we hear they could have.
I have seen similar management failings in many areas of public and private sectors with a real unwillingness to think about change creatively. The result is that efficiency becomes code for ignorant and brutal cuts.
None of this detracts from your main thesis that the Dear Green Place is being let down very badly indeed.
Hey, GCC have to fund their Low Emission Zone somehow.
10's of millions to set the scheme up, scrapping and replacing council vehicles with conforming ones.
Then there's the Bus Emission Abatement Retrofit Programme - another £19 million
Not to mention GCC wages with 21 staff earning in excess of £100,000
The maximum being Annemarie O'Donnell's £260,999.
The low emissions zone is a prize example of poor policy planning appraisal and implementation that will end in tears.
A better way to reduce emissions is to have flowing traffic.
Stop/start driving is known to be the least efficient way to drive - driving from one red light to the next is not sensible.
Furthermore, flowing traffic disperses any emissions better than slow stop/start traffic.