Christine McLaughlin, the Scottish government’s interim Director General of Health and Social Care since the retirement of Caroline Lamb in August, has been appointed to the role on a permanent basis. The announcement that the Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive of NHS Scotland is moving to the top job was made on the day the health secretary assured NHS staff that plans to reduce the number of health boards will not mean centralisation. The unions meanwhile warned of “brutal cuts cosplaying as progress”.

The Scottish government says Ms McLaughlin (pictured}, who started her career as a management trainee in NHS Scotland and went on to hold Director roles in the Scottish government spanning population health, the COVID-19 response, finance and digital, will now “deliver an ambitious programme of reform focused on improving outcomes for people, strengthening performance and ensuring the sustainability of services”.

The government says the appointment followed a fair and open competitive process.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care, Angela Constance praised Ms McLaughlin’s “extensive leadership experience and strong track record of delivering change across complex systems”.

Christine McLaughlin said:

“It is an absolute privilege to be appointed to this role at such a pivotal moment for our health and care services, supporting the government’s ambitious programme of reform. I look forward to working with people across the system to continue to improve services and deliver better outcomes for the people of Scotland.” 

NHS reform – more than structures

Earlier, Ms Constance had told the annual NHS Event gathering of NHS managers and leaders that the government’s intention to move from fourteen territorial health boards to two strategic mainland boards – alongside separate arrangements for the islands and possible further reductions in national NHS organisations – does not mean centralisation:

“What I want to make sure is that we remove barriers that currently make it challenging to share expertise, capacity and resources across Scotland,” she said in her address.

“For a country of our size, it does not make sense to have fourteen different ways of planning and organising services when that can lead to variation in the care people receive.

“Reducing the number of boards will help reduce duplication, make responsibilities clearer and allow decisions to be taken more quickly where that benefits patients and services.

“At the same time, it remains important to do this in a way that best suits local needs. The new arrangements will support services that reflect the realities of the communities they serve, particularly in our rural and island areas.

“At the end of the day, the purpose of these changes is simple: to make it easier for people to get the care they need and easier for staff to provide it.”

The health secretary told her audience that the changes will also be an opportunity to create services appropriate for island communities:

“The realities of delivering services in Shetland, Orkney or the Western Isles are very different from those in Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen, and successful reform must reflect that. The intention is not to move services further away from communities. It is to create a stronger system that can better support local services while continuing to reflect local needs and circumstances.

“The reforms are also about much more than NHS structures. They are about strengthening the way health and social care work together.”

Ms Constance suggested reforming the NHS in Scotland alongside local government created the opportunity to “make the best use of available resources, deliver fairer and more efficient services, and maintain a strong focus on the needs of communities”.

She assured delegates that the work to design the new NHS, council and social care landscape would be done alongside staff, unions, councillors, communities and service users.

Jobs cull

Scotland’s trade unions say they will continue to monitor the government’s proposals and will engage in good faith.

However, STUC General Secretary, Roz Foyer said it was “for the birds” to think that the sheer scale of public service reform being suggested by ministers, particularly the changes to the council map, can be achieved without substantial investment in communities:

“There is an argument that community authorities can improve decision making but only if the funding exists to deliver these services. The Scottish government must be clear that, in the short-term, this will cost money - not save it.

“You cannot credibly claim to empower communities whilst looking set to cull 20,000 public servants who would, in reality, be required to get these reforms off the ground in the first place.

Ms Foy added:

“We must be clear that any reforms forthcoming must not be a mere smokescreen for brutal cuts cosplaying as progress. Real progress means ending the £3 billion outsourcing within the public sector, delivering sectoral bargaining within social care and properly funding our public services through progressive taxation that builds, not bulldozes, our local government and public services.”

 

Read more: Briefing: The 5-year plan for NHS, care and science; Donald Macaskill: Where is Scotland going?; Sceptical response to government’s care proposals;

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