'Councils are being left to absorb significant financial pressure'

To get an idea of the scale of the proposed changes, there are around 240,000 local government/social care workers; 140,000 NHS staff, and 24,000 in non-departmental public bodies in Scotland.

So around 404,000 employees, representing 15% of Scotland’s 2.65 million workforce.

When reorganisation of local government took place in 1996 it caused a massive upheaval and cost around £400 million.

The Scottish Government proposals go beyond local government and include our NHS and other public bodies, so it’s reasonable to assume, the increased scale and 30 years of inflation, the cost will be much greater.

The Scottish Government also wants to make £1 billion savings from the changes, but gave NHS staff a public commitment to no compulsory redundancies, but there’s no such undertaking for council staff.

This is the context of the Scottish Government public service reform, but you might ask, what do they want to achieve.

Their focus seems to be on savings and structural change rather than better outcomes for service users and staff.

The proposal for local government is to have between six and 10 regional authorities responsible for strategic functions and core services, potentially including economic development, housing, planning, transport, education and early learning.

They also want to introduce approximately 120 to 160 community authorities operating within regional boundaries and responsible for more local functions.

In addition, they want bespoke single-authority arrangements for island communities.

They also want to transfer social care services to the NHS.

Scottish councils and HSCPs are already facing real terms reductions in their funding as the Scottish Government’s Spending Review, published in January 2026, states that local government funding will be reduced by 0.07% in cash terms between 2026/27 and 2028/29.

Councils are again being left to absorb all the significant financial pressure as a consequence of inflation and rising interest rates.

In terms of health boards, they would reduce from 14 down to two mainland health boards.

For the other public bodies, they want to reduce the number which would mean abolition of some, mergers, and changes to their remit for others.

Public Service Reform Secretary Ivan McKee said: "My colleagues and I are also engaged in intensive dialogue with public bodies, NHS Boards, local government, trade unions, the third sector, businesses and communities to strengthen the work that is already taking place and to ensure that proactive leadership and collaboration are central to our approach."

The Scottish Government has forecast a £5 billion revenue deficit, but as part of their reform agenda, they built in £1 billion cumulative savings over five years.

They also introduced a target to realise £1.5 billion for reinvestment in public services alongside workforce reductions and efficiency measures.

It all sounds fairly straightforward, however, reforms are always complex, they cause years of uncertainty, disruption and often cost much more than expected.