Date: Tues 25 Sept 2007

UNISON broadly welcomes Crerar Report

UNISON Scotland today broadly welcomed the Crerar report, saying it is in line with our calls to cut the burden of scrutiny while increasing the involvement of users, the public and public sector staff in delivering well run services.

Scottish Secretary Matt Smith said: "UNISON's submission to the review highlighted the heavy administrative burden of excessive and overlapping scrutiny and review processes which currently divert too much staff time away from actually delivering the service.

"Therefore the recommendations around streamlining processes are welcome and we would like to see this start immediately, as suggested.

"We called for open and transparent systems which provide truly meaningful results to assist in the provision of quality public services. In particular, we welcome the move to more self-assessment by providers.

"In local government the recommendation for self-assessment to be 'the core tool of accountability' is good for local democracy but requires considerable improvements to performance measurement methods."

UNISON believes that these must be sophisticated enough to take into account all relevant factors in service provision. Any targets or key indicators should be designed to improve overall services. The public is concerned that pressures to meet one target do not skew the service, reducing provision in other areas.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. UNISON Scotland's Submission to the Crerar Review is available at: www.unison-scotland.org.uk/response/scrutinyreview.html

2. Our June 2007 Briefing on the Review is available at: www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/crerar.html

3. The Crerar Review report itself is at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/82980/0053065.pdf

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