Cusp not crisis: “Changing to Deliver” Scottish Government

Abstract

A modern democracy is being created in Scotland following the re‐establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 with new executive and scrutiny structures. This paper reports on early developments and the emergence of the Scottish Executive's organisational change programme – “Changing to Deliver” – as a response to the demands for public service reform and continuous service improvement. The paper outlines the contexts, theoretical framework, and early actions taken by the Executive to ground its work; examines the programme aims and the workstreams for change adopted as priorities for action; and reflects on more recent developments and the prospects for the success of the change programme. A key feature which characterises elected, government organisations is the relationship between elected people and senior unelected officials. The paper reports exploratory research investigating the expectations held by Cabinet Ministers of officials and the reciprocal expectations these senior civil servants have of Scottish Ministers.