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10 June 2002
Andy Kerr MSP
Minister for Finance and Public Services
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ
RENEWING LOCAL DEMOCRACY: THE NEXT STEPS
SSBA welcomes the opportunity to comment on the above document and would want to commend the Scottish Parliament on its activities thus far. SSBA would particularly welcome the commitment of the Scottish Parliament to visible local democracy and democratic accountability.
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
SSBA would wish to see local councils enhanced by the representation of School Board members onto any committee dealing with education and young people. School Board members are elected members of their school communities and as such have as much right as teachers to become ‘invited’ members of education committees. The Church representatives are the only members outside those elected members who have a right, in law, to sit on education committees. This law should be expanded to include both School Board and teacher members.
The Kerley Group has made a number of recommendations aimed at reducing the number of councillors across Scotland. Ministers have concluded that they do not wish to make a wholesale reduction in the number of councillors at this time. SSBA would support the stance taken by Ministers.
CHAPTER 2: REMOVING BARRIERS
SSBA would support the Ministers desire to make councils more representative of the communities which they represent. As detailed above, SSBA would wish to see School Board representation on any committee dealing with education and young people.
We would agree the key factors for change identified as:
12.1 Encouraging the widest possible range of people to serve as councillors
12.2 Recognising that people will have diverse personal circumstances
12.3 Removing any inappropriate barriers to serving as a councillor
12.4 Ensuring the councils are representative of the communities they serve; and
12.5 Allowing for progression to enable councillors to assume more responsibilities over time.
Encouraging people to serve
As is the case with election to School Boards, people who might consider standing for election to the local council and reluctant to do so because they do not understand the powers and responsibilities they are required to undertake. Much of this reluctance could be overcome if training was provided.
The fact that both parliament and local government are starved of women members would indicate that the need for crèche facilities needs to be investigated.
The minimum age for election should be reduced from 21 to 18.
There should be no general reduction in the number of local councillors as this would put a greater workload on elected members.
Council employees should not have to resign their posts before they stand for election. However, consideration needs to be given to those who are elected depending on the type of position they occupy. E.g. those advising councillors on policy. It should not be dependent on level of salary as is the case at the moment.
The one year gap before going back into council employment should be removed.
In an era of video conferencing and extensive ICT planning to provide opportunities to rural communities within Scotland SSBA would support the issue of certain papers through email, etc. SSBA would also support the provision of video conferencing in certain circumstances which would enhance the role of other members of local communities.
SSBA considers that no political restrictions, other than those similar to advising councillors on policy, should restrict other groups of public sector employees.
CHAPTER 3: ELECTORAL REFORM
The key element of local democracy is one in which the local councillor is directly accountable for the people within his/her ward. Proportional representation in the Scottish Parliamentary system has led to confusion in the minds of parents as to who is the best person to contact with an educational problem. The locally elected Councillor or MSP will tackle your problem because they have been elected by you to do so. Parents may be inclined to believe that members elected through the list system are more inclined to be trying to score political points against those who won the election and are therefore not acting in the best interests of those they represent.
Voters can easily express their dissatisfaction with a serving councillor by voting against them at the next election.
SSBA would therefore support the First Past the Post system until extensive research has been carried out on how well Proportional Representation has worked for the Scottish Parliament.
CHAPTER 4: REMUNERATION
SSBA would support the review of Councillors’ remuneration. The current system could lead to social exclusion, i.e. Councillors not claiming their allowances would set an unacceptable precedent to those wishing to stand for election but simply could not afford to pay for their own expenses. We would welcome the following:
SSBA would support the following:
CHAPTER 5: POWERS, RESOURCES AND STRUCTURES
SSBA would support the main objective of Best Value as to deliver better, more responsive public services. Local authorities should be proactive in consulting and engaging their communities. This responsibility mirrored in the expectations of School Boards.
SSBA welcomes the proposed changes, included in the forthcoming Local Government in Scotland Bill, in the powers of councils, including new mechanisms (e.g. area forums, citizens’ juries, co-option) to ensure that councils work in partnership with the communities they serve. SSBA would particularly welcome the involvement of young people in these new mechanisms.
SSBA welcomes the proposals to abolish the existing system of capital consents.
Supporting Improvement
SSBA welcomes the proposals to place a duty on councils and other public agencies to pursue continuous improvement. SSBA also supports that councils need to work together to ensure that they share experience; bring fresh perspectives to bear and challenge outdated or inefficient ways of working.
SSBA recognises that organisations such as CoSLA, and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives already have a central role in co-ordinating views and disseminating information. However, SSBA already plays a significant role in disseminating information to parents, pupils, teachers and members of the wider school communities in each local area as does ADES. SSBA considers the omission of both SSBA and ADES from your paper as disappointing.
SSBA would support the development of a new service which would support:
SSBA would particularly welcome the development of training for members and officers.
SSBA welcomes encourage a review of self review by councils. However, SSBA would also welcome the introduction of a system for ‘independent review and inspection’ of local councils similar to that carried out by HMIE on the local authorities education departments.
SSBA would ask for clarification of the statement "90. Ministers do not wish to be prescriptive about the methods which councils should adopt, particularly as local needs and circumstances will vary from council to council, and the approach which is appropriate in one area may not be suitable in another."
SSBA has 1,983 member School Boards. 32 Executive Board members are elected by their local School Boards to represent them at a national level. There is also a representative for Special Educational Needs Schools. This network has enabled us to make this representation to your consultation paper. The same network could be used to take this initiative forward.
SSBA looks forward to being involved in the ‘next steps’ of this review.
Yours faithfully
Ann Hill
Chief Executive, SSBA
