Scottish Government
Scottish Child Payment is welcome
‘How the Scottish government plans to fund the £180 million policy remains to be seen. But after years of cuts to UK social security, it is a pleasant change to see significant new efforts to…
Teaching music to young children with body and soul: Part 2
We all have a voice, Abi Rooley Towle describes how children’s education can benefit by introducing song from the earliest years.
The narrative of devolution twenty years on
Twenty years of Scottish devolution: who controls the historical narrative and can thereby claim to ‘speak for Scotland’?
Smacking children is illegal
‘Scotland’s current “justifiable assault” defence therefore contravenes children’s human rights. Quite frankly the law must be changed to ensure compliance, both in Scotland but also across the UK.’
Scottish child poverty targets
‘The challenge with setting ambitious targets is that parliament can be judged, not just on whether or not it is meeting these targets, but on the effectiveness of the reforms they are implementing.’
New conversation about Scottish HE
‘ Based on patterns of investment, Scotland is closer to the approach taken in Serbia than Sweden.’ ‘But free higher education has to be well-funded higher education for it to mean anything.’
Brexit and Scottish devolution
‘If reforms are to be effective, rebuild trust and be regarded as legitimate by all governments, collaboration and mutual consent will need to go hand in hand.
Sex, gender and due diligence in public policy
‘If national and local government and umbrella bodies do not feel that is their role, then they should not be recommending or providing support for particular practical advice to those on the front line, and…
A question of trust
Auditors in England are under the cosh while the Scottish public audit model wins plaudits. But no room for complacency argues the Auditor General for Scotland
Why politicians need to take a bus ride to reality
In his short story, The Nummer 14 Bus, James Robertson evokes the daily struggle played out on a bus ride through Scotland’s affluent capital. It could be a bus ride in any UK city.
An end to austerity? UK and Scottish Budgets
‘In short, ‘ending austerity’ is possible with significant but not unrealistic spending increases. What makes a promise to end austerity politically difficult is that it cannot be achieved without tax rises if the government is…
The Scottish Bureaucratic Mind
‘Modern Scotland, both before and after devolution, emerges as a country that is more committed to bureaucracy than democracy’.