Accountability Scotland hosted a conference entitled:
Making Scottish Public Services Accountable
Held in the Scottish Parliament on 16th Sept 2013, With financial support from the Glasgow Human Rights Network
The conference was sponsored by Fiona McLeod MSP,
Dennis Canavan (AS Patron) introduced The Need for Accountability in Scottish Public Services and for the organisation 'Accountability Scotland'
The Morning Session chaired by Professor Walter Humes MA, PhD, MEd
There were four presentations of evidence from four branches of Accountability Scotland covering Lack of Accountability of Public Bodies:
- NHS Scotland - Cover up Culture:
- Rab Wilson - A Registered Mental Nurse
- 27 years as staff nurse, mostly in acute psychiatry. Now retired and full time poet, writer and health activist/campaigner.
- Wi apologies tae Spike Milligan ! - NHS Ayrshire and Arran: My part in their downfall
- Rab tried to honestly report a work related scandal to his employers – they tried to sack him. After a six year battle he was vindicated on the front pages of national press. He is currently battling for accountability in the NHS.
- Dr Jean Turner MB, ChB, DA (Aberdeen) - Executive Director of The Scottish Patients Association.
- She is an ex general practitioner of wide experience an ex anaesthetist and ex MSP. She was lured to seek political office due to a proposed cut to services at Stobhill Hospital. She now fights for patient’s rights through the SPA.
- Many factors lead to lack of accountability in the NHS
- Management becomes increasingly diffuse; ill-qualified people on the front line making decisions; often there is lack of continuity in patient care; a reluctance to change inaccurate information in patient notes; telephone contact with responsible medical staff is frequently difficult; private companies employed by the Health Service proliferate - not subject to FOI, they are unaccounatble so can away with almost anything. A designated independent inspectorate is suggested to ensure openness and transparency
- Dr John Womersley PhD, FFCM, MRCP - Public Health Commentator|
- After careers in physiology and public health now an advocate for disabled people and for Improved management and less waste in the NHS.
- Betraying Our Trust - Our NHS : Behind the Cloak of 'Transparency
- Evidence-gathering and high-flown statements of purpose have become a mask for disturbing developments that the public are unaware of and NHS Board members and politicians outside Government are unable to influence.
- Rab Wilson - A Registered Mental Nurse
- Education:
- John Stuart - Deputy Convener Accountability Scotand
- Retired teacher of English and learning support who retains a keen interest in education
- Moving forward - Tales from the front line
- One unaccountable inspector can ruin head teachers’ lives, causing unfair suspension, illness and even suicide (Scottish Review, 21 May 2013.) Very small schools are particularly vulnerable. Headteachers cannot get administrative justice through the SPSO.
- Ian Thow - Ex-SQA Examiner
- For 30 years Principal Teacher of Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies (RMPS) in a secondary school. Developed many teaching innovations, including new national assessment and examining processes in Scotland.|
- Bureaucratic Unaccountability - Some bad experiences - Authority Officials often make a Mockery of Democracy
- It is not accountable for its errors. Recent experience of unanswered complaints of maladministration and service failure by the SQA has demonstrated that they have an unacceptable and unjustified protected status. The lack of accountability for such errors and the limitations of the SPSO to resolve these issues allied to the failure of the Minister responsible for the SQA to investigate these complaints are a cause for serious concern which raises the issue of the need for an independent regulatory body for the SQA.|title=The SQA has a monopoly of setting and marking examinations.
- John Stuart - Deputy Convener Accountability Scotand
- Local Authorities & Planning:
- Dr John Hinton BSc, PhD - Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow
- Research Psychophysiologist in the field of Psychological Stress especially related to work. Active in promoting community cultural festivals and examining psychological stress caused by public bodies.
- Some bad experiences - Local Authority Officials often make a Mockery of Democracy
- Local Authorities’ Planning and Traffic Departments often exhibit a culture of faceless unaccountable bureaucratic control: ‘consultations’ are farces, officials misinform both councillors and the public, giving insufficient time for planning scrutiny, erecting bureaucratic hurdles, misinforming the SPSO, ignoring Historic Scotland: all apparently with impunity. This is a recipe for possible corruption and public apathy. Urgent action is needed to get a culture change...
- Dr John Hinton BSc, PhD - Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow
- On the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO):
- Dr Richard Burton BA, PhD - Secretary Accountability Scotland
- Dr Burton is a physiologist who has widened his interest to include the psychology of stress and the pathology of public bodies.
- A Scottish Mid-Staffordshire? - Lack of Accountability by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
- The SPSO often appears to disregard complainants' evidence, fails to investigate properly, is biased towards public bodies and inadequately explains decisions. Adequacy and effectiveness of SPSO investigations go unmonitored, though Parliament has appropriate powers. A commissioned survey (2010) showed an appalling 40% of complainants dissatisfied with their SPSO treatment. Dissatisfaction continues. The ombudsman recently noted that staff are still ill-trained. Bureaucratic ‘fob-off systems' must be changed. [Note the SPSO is modelled on the PHSO which failed to investigate the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust].
- Dr Burton is a physiologist who has widened his interest to include the psychology of stress and the pathology of public bodies.
- Dr Richard Burton BA, PhD - Secretary Accountability Scotland
The Afternoon Session chaired by Peter Stewart-Blacker
- Professor Walter Humes MA, PhD (Aberdeen), MEd (Glasgow) - Visiting Professor of Education, University of Stirling
- He previously held professorships at the Universities of Aberdeen, Strathclyde and West of Scotland. His publications include work on teacher education, educational leadership and management, history of education and policy studies. He co-edits Scottish Education, a 1000-page text on all sectors of the Scottish educational system, the fourth edition of which has just been published by Edinburgh University Press. In 2007 he received the John Aitkenhead Award from the Institute of Contemporary Scotland for services to education, and in 2011 a Magnus Magnusson Medal for his contributions to the online journal Scottish Review.
- An Overview - The Discourse of Accountability and the Reality of Power in Scottish Education
- The official narrative of Scottish education employs terms such as partnership, consultation and consensus to explain how the system works. In practice, however, genuine public accountability is limited. Bureaucratic protectionism and professional self-regard are more powerful determinants than the interests of pupils, parents and frontline staff. This argument will be illustrated with examples from school, further and higher education.
- Professor Tom Mullen LLB (Glasgow) LLM (Harvard) - Professor of Law at the Univerisy of Glasgow|
- He has been convener of the Board of the Legal Services Agency and expert adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on Scottish Affairs (1996-1997). He has a wide range of publications in his research fields of constitutional law and administrative law.
- An Overview - Administrative Justice in Scotland: An overview of Accountability Mechanisms
- Delivering administrative justice means giving citizens effective means of challenging bad administrative decisions. Those means include tribunals, courts and ombudsmen. But, citizens remedies, as well as securing justice for individuals, are an important way of making public services accountable to citizens.
- Professor Michael Adler BA (Oxford), AM (Harvard), PhD (Edinburgh) - Emeritus Professor of Socio-Legal Studies and Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow, University of Edinburgh.
- He has worked at the Centre for Law & Society at UC Berkeley, the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies in Oxford and the Faculty of Laws at University College. He extensive research publications in the field of administrative justice and other areas of social policy and authored numerous publications. He was member of a social security appeals tribunal for many years and is currently a member of the Scottish Committee of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council.
- An Overview - Administrative Justice in Scotland: What Needs to be Done.
- The UK Government abolished the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council (AJTC) on 19 August 2013 and the Scottish Government has announced its intention to set up a non-statutory advisory body of its own to replace the Scottish Committee of the AJTC. This raises the question of what the structure and functions of this new body should be. Some possibilities will be outlined.
The proceedings are available on this web site.
The proceedings mayl be extended if more detail is made available.