Public Service Reform Committee call for views on pre-budget scrutiny 2027-2028

Consumer Scotland response to the Public Service Reform Committee call for view on pre-budget scrutiny 2027-2028

Beyond the financial benefits that the Public Sector Reform (PSR) Strategy aims to achieve, what are the key outcomes that reform should be aiming for?

Key messages

• A central focus on service user needs will lead to better designed, more effective and resource efficient public services, both for consumers now and in the future
• A service user focus through using the consumer duty and consumer principles provides a unique opportunity to improve public sector decision making, preventing harm, increasing confidence and enabling economic participation
• The expertise and data held by the third sector and communities give invaluable insight into services user needs. Incorporating these insights into decision making will improve the quality and cost efficiency of public services

Introduction

Consumer Scotland is the statutory consumer body in Scotland. Our purpose is to prevent harm, protect consumers and promote economic participation, progressing the outcomes set out in the Consumer Scotland Act. As the statutory body for public service users, our outcomes include a focus on working to increase the extent to which consumer matters are taken into account by public authorities.

Our work is guided by the internationally recognised consumer principles, which set out what good consumer outcomes look like. These principles are: Access, Choice, Safety, Information, Fairness, Representation and Redress. We also consider an additional principle of Sustainability. By using these principles to inform decisions, public bodies can access a clear, evidence-led view of consumer needs and priorities. This supports bodies to understand if services are fair, accessible and responsive and avoid causing unintentional harm as a result of policies that are not fully informed by the service user perspective.

The consumer duty, a statutory duty introduced by the Consumer Scotland Act, places a duty on public authorities to have regard to both the impact of strategic decisions and the desirability of reducing harm to consumers in Scotland. We have issued guidance for relevant public authorities to help them meet the duty, supporting the design and delivery of public services with consumer needs and priorities at its heart. Effective application of the duty will help ensure that strategic decisions made by the public sector contribute to better outcomes for consumers and public service reform by:

• Empowering people and communities by giving them a stronger voice, with more inclusive, placed based decision making leading to services that meet their needs
• Increasing partnership and collaborative working, giving third sector organisations greater opportunities to influence policy making through expertise and data sharing
• Delivering better value for money, with better designed, prevention focused services meaning less resources are wasted dealing with complaints and resolving issues
• Improving performance, leading to greater levels of confidence in the public sector and increasing ability to participate fully in society, supporting economic growth

Improving the lives of citizens and avoiding harm

Well-designed public services have a critical role to play in improving the lives of citizens and for the delivery of a fairer future, where consumers have equitable access to effective, trustworthy, high-quality services that meet their needs. We recommend that delivery of the Public Service Reform Strategy includes a central focus on achieving better outcomes for consumers. The implementation of the consumer duty and engagement with the consumer principles by public bodies provides a clear pathway to better informed public sector decision making, improved public services and preventing harm to consumers by linking the decision-making process with those who are most affected by it.

We acknowledge the fatigue around impact assessments and the perception of unnecessary administrative burdens being placed on the public sector. It is vital that any asks on the public sector deliver significant returns on investment of resources. The consumer duty, when implemented fully by public bodies, has potential to deliver significant resource savings, while improving outcomes for consumers, supporting on the delivery of Scottish Government strategic priorities and contributing to economic growth.

We recently conducted a survey on how the consumer duty has been used across the public sector since it came into force and to establish the support needs for increasing engagement with the duty. This research asked public bodies how much they agreed with a range of statements and found that, although public bodies have a good understanding of the duty (94% of those who responded agreed),[i] who their consumers are (89% agreed) and what a strategic decision is for them (89% of those who responded agreed), they are not yet making the connection between use of the duty and harm prevention (76% of those who responded agreed) and public services reform (58% of those who responded agreed).

Improving cross-sector working and empowering the third sector

The third sector holds a wealth of expertise and insight into the needs of individual consumers and communities and the barriers that they face in participating in society. Because of this, the consumer duty encourages public bodies to engage with third sector bodies and to make use of their expertise and data they hold. Data also has an important role to play in informing decisions, improving links between public bodies and local communities and individual consumers. When this is done well, it provides public bodies with invaluable insights into the impact that policy changes may have on consumers, however more needs to be done to support this to happen consistently in practice. Our research found that the majority of public bodies are not engaging with third sector organisations, with only 34% of those who had used the consumer duty having engaged with the third sector to inform their strategic decisions.

The ambition for the co-design of a Third Sector Partnership with the aims of improving outcomes for people and communities and providing greater opportunities for third partners to contribute to policy and service design aligns clearly with the aims of the consumer duty. In line with this, we recommend that the Public Service Reform Strategy includes a focus on ensuring that the third sector is more empowered to actively participate in the public policy decision making process. This can be done in an effective and proportionate way through the use of the consumer duty, supporting more consistent engagement, consultation and data sharing between the public and third sector.

Conclusion

The findings of our survey research indicated clear areas where public bodies would welcome further support, and where more needs to be done to increase the impact of the consumer duty in improving outcomes and reducing harm for consumers.

Consumer Scotland is uniquely placed to support public bodies to fully consider the needs of service users through the provision of guidance and further support on the consumer duty, supporting engagement with the consumer principles and through our grant funding and data sharing arrangements with third sector advice bodies.

Recent examples where Consumer Scotland has supported decision making with service user needs as a central focus include:

• Water: the Water Industry Commission for Scotland integrating consumer insight into investment and charging decisions within the Strategic Review of Charges 2027 Draft Determination, improving consumer outcomes and increasing efficiency and value for money
• Housing: Working with the Scottish Government to amend the Private Residential Tenancy Model Tenancy Agreement and associated guidance to be more service user focussed, making it easier for private renters to understand their rights and how to exercise them.
• Legal: working with members of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission’s Independent Consumer Panel, which assists the regulatory system to understand and take account of the interests of consumers in legal services, to develop a wider and more meaningful role as part of the implementation of the Regulation of Legal Services Act

We would be pleased to provide the committee with further information about any of the detail provided above or on our ongoing work supporting public bodies to engage with the consumer duty and public service reform.

Endnotes