Both the Public Service Reform and Finance and Public Administration Committees of the Scottish Parliament have made calls for views about “Pre-Budget Scrutiny for 2027-28” and the affordability and sustainability of Scotland’s tax and spending plans. Here I offer some reflections based on my wide-ranging experience of the use of negotiation, mediation and collaborative problem-solving in major public sector projects and disputes in Scotland.
Broadly, Scotland’s fiscal challenges require greater investment in preventative approaches that reduce demand on public finances, improve decision-making and avoid unnecessary costs. Alongside considering what and how services are delivered, attention should also be given to how public bodies work together, manage disagreements and resolve problems before they escalate into costly disputes.
This applies particularly in relation to procurement and complex, multi-year infrastructure and public service transformation projects, where many £tens of millions of expenditure have arguably been incurred unnecessarily in recent years in Scotland. This would include transport, health, digital and other such projects. It seems likely that these outcomes could have been avoided or ameliorated with more effective approaches to initial contracting, management of disagreements and disputes, and avoidance of escalating costs.
In particular, we know that poorly managed conflict and adversarial behaviours can contribute to procurement disputes, project delays, workplace grievances, breakdown in key relationships, low morale, lengthy legal processes, duplication of effort, opportunity costs and ineffective cross-organisational working. Sometimes, existing arrangements serve to incentivise more adversarial approaches. This is all very costly and has also resulted, in some cases, in lengthy and expensive public inquiries. By contrast, organisations with strong collaborative problem-solving capabilities, good business relationships and excellent negotiation competence are better placed to address complex challenges, resolve emerging disputes quickly, manage risk, reduce waste and deliver sustainable and cost-effective outcomes. Put crudely, they achieve more bangs for less bucks.
Negotiation, mediation and dispute resolution capabilities are often viewed as specialist tools used after conflict has arisen and often become entrenched, essentially reactive in nature. However, these skills can also be understood as core leadership and governance capabilities which improve collaboration, strengthen relationships, support better decision-making and prevent problems emerging in the first place or escalating unnecessarily into prolonged disputes. Seen in this way, these capabilities offer the prospect of significantly reducing public expenditure in both the short and longer terms and achieving better value for money, faster delivery and overall better outcomes. This aligns, of course, with the preventative spending agenda and public service reform. All of this would also enhance public and political confidence, while improving the public sector (including government)’s relationships with key contractors and suppliers, who would also benefit from the advantages of this approach.
Investment in negotiation, mediation, dispute avoidance and early resolution capabilities should therefore be considered a form of preventative spending and as a priority for government. In summary, the benefits are likely to extend beyond direct financial savings (although these should be very significant, running potentially into £hundreds of millions) to include improved trust, greater stakeholder confidence, enhanced organisational learning, stronger partnership working, better accountability and more effective public service delivery.
All of this suggests that the Scottish Government (and other public bodies such as the newly constituted Public Services Delivery Scotland) should take a proactive approach to managing problem-solving in major public sector (and other) projects and consider how these capabilities can be embedded more systematically within leadership development programmes, professional standards, workforce development frameworks, procurement arrangements, contract management and public service reform initiatives. Consideration should also be given to whether existing governance, accountability and procurement arrangements appropriately support collaborative relationships and cost -effective approaches or inadvertently incentivise adversarial behaviour.
It should therefore be a priority to explore the development of a national programme to strengthen collaborative leadership, negotiation, mediation, dispute avoidance and early resolution capabilities across Scottish public services. Such an initiative would support the Scottish Government’s objectives in relation to public service reform, prevention, productivity and fiscal sustainability, while helping public bodies address increasingly complex challenges and problem solving more effectively in a resource-constrained environment.
In summary, negotiation, mediation, dispute avoidance, early resolution and collaborative leadership capabilities can all contribute to public service reform, public sector problem-solving and the long-term affordability and sustainability of Scotland’s public finances.
John Sturrock KC, is Founder and Senior Mediator at Core Solutions.