« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
10. Conclusion
10.1 There has been little change over the last three years in the public's views on what should be the highest priority for the Scottish Executive, with health and crime remaining at the top of the list. Focusing on the views of particular groups, it was older people, those who were less affluent, and people with fewer educational qualifications who were most likely to say that crime should be the top priority. Health was the top priority for younger people, more affluent groups and those with more educational qualifications.
10.2 A key focus of this report was to explore the extent to which the public believes that devolution is improving public services in Scotland. In 2006, only a small minority felt that devolution was having a negative effect. The proportion who felt it had improved services varied from around a fifth (for health) to a third (for education and transport). However, for the majority of people, having a Scottish Parliament was not seen to make any difference to public services. This was especially the case for the health service, which may be partly explained by the common view that health is a UK government rather than Scottish Executive responsibility.
10.3 In general, younger people were most positive about the impact of the Parliament, as were service users. However it was attitudinal factors which were found to be more strongly related to beliefs about the impact of the Scottish Parliament. Not surprisingly, people with more favourable attitudes to the devolved institutions ( e.g. supporters of devolution or independence, people who trust the Scottish Executive to make fair decisions) held the most positive views.
10.4 As well as seeking views on the impact of the Parliament on public services, the report also examined views on the performance of public services in the last 12 months, with respect to the health service, education, public transport, general standard of living, and the economy. With the exception of health, a higher proportion believed that standards had increased as opposed to decreased in these areas in the previous year. Moreover, 'net balance scores' suggest an improvement in the overall assessments for these services (except health) over the last three years. Public assessments of the health service, however, were poor by comparison, a theme that has been highlighted in previous SSA reports. It is not clear why the health service in particular attracts a more negative evaluation. Other research ( e.g. Rose & Glendinning, 2004) has suggested that people are generally more positive in their assessments of individual health services such as GP services, implying that factors other than direct experience of the health service are influencing attitudes to the health service in general.
10.5 It is clear that in some cases people's assessments of standards in public services in the previous 12 months were different from their views about the impact of the Scottish Parliament on these services. In general, people were more likely to say that standards in public services in the last 12 months had fallen than to say that the Scottish Parliament was having a negative impact on services. In addition, a positive evaluation of standards in the last 12 months did not necessarily imply a positive evaluation of the impact of the Parliament on services (and vice versa).
10.6 It is suggested that judgements about the performance of public services in the last 12 months are driven by different factors to judgements about the overall impact of devolution on public services. Whereas perceptions of the impact of the Parliament seemed to be strongly related to attitudes about devolution and the devolved institutions, these factors did not seem to be as strongly related to perceptions of recent public sector performance. One implication of these findings is that improvements in public perceptions of the performance of Scottish public services may not necessarily be associated with any corresponding improvement in assessments of the impact of devolution and the devolved institutions in general.
10.7 Moreover, as noted in the reports on the 2005 core module (Given and Ormston, 2007), any conclusions drawn about the impact of devolution on public services based on data about perceptions of performance in the last 12 months also needs to take into account who people think is responsible for standards in these services. For example, if people think standards are improving, but do not attribute this to the Scottish Executive, then it is not clear that this reflects a positive evaluation of the impact of devolution on public services.
10.8 In fact, there has been a clear shift in perceptions of responsibility for standards in public services since 2001. By 2006, people were much more likely to attribute responsibility to the Scottish Executive, and less likely to attribute responsibility to the UK government. Indeed, this shift has occurred across all socio-demographic and attitudinal groups. However, despite an increasing proportion of people attributing responsibility for the health service to the Scottish Executive, in 2006 the majority of people still believed that standards in this area were a result of UK government policies. The reasons for this are unclear but one possible explanation might be related to the way the health service as an organisation is perceived. Whereas education and transport are perhaps more easily identifiable as services run from Scotland by the devolved institutions (possibly as a result of branding or perhaps because historically education and transport have been seen as distinctly Scottish-led public services), the health service may still be perceived by many as a UK wide body (the 'National' Health Service).
10.9 In keeping with the findings in earlier SSA reports, the 2006 results show that the Scottish Executive was more likely than the UK government to be given credit for perceived increases in standards, and the UK government was generally more likely to be blamed for perceived falls in standards. However, as people become more aware of its responsibilities, the Scottish Executive is picking up not only an increasing share of the credit for perceived improvement in standards, but also an increasing share of the blame for any perceived fall in standards.
« Previous | Contents | Next »