By Martin Sime
Director of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations
Constitutional change is firmly on the agenda for Scotland and the majority of people will welcome it. Opinion polls consistently indicate that people want to see more powers devolved to Scotland but my concern is that at present this change could come under the auspices of the Scotland Bill.
Even before it has had the chance to be fully implemented, the Scotland Bill has already been rendered irrelevant by the SNP’s comprehensive victory in the 2011 Scottish Election and the guarantee of a referendum on independence that accompanied it.
In any case, debating which powers should or should not be devolved is the wrong approach.
We should start by considering what kind of Scotland we want to see, what kind of change we want to happen and how we are going to use our powers. Only then should we move on to think about the powers we would need to make that vision a reality.
We need to completely rethink how we develop devolution. If we are to build on the Scotland Bill, we must frame the debate differently.
The wider social and economic issues that will directly impact Scotland’s people and communities – health and care, benefits and employability – must be taken into account. What would an independent Scotland do with its powers over benefits? How would control over Job Centre Plus change the nature of support for unemployed people? How would welfare reform affect the ability of the disabled to live independently?
This is a debate about the future of Scotland that is too important to be left to the politicians. It belongs to the people and communities of Scotland. Civil society has an important role to play in this by building public understanding and involvement, by being a key link between people and government and by developing consensus beyond the political domain.
It has to be about people not powers and third sector organisations have the capacity to reach people and communities on a scale which the political parties lack. The sector must maximise this advantage in the run up to the forthcoming referendum by sharing its expertise, and facilitating discussion and debate.
I gave evidence to the Scotland Bill Committee this week on the UK Government’s proposed welfare and benefits reform, calling for a debate about the specific elements of constitutional change and what they would mean for the people the third sector advocates for and supports. “Kill the Bill” was my plea to the Committee – it’s the only logical way forward.
The SNP and Labour’s subsequent refusal to give Legislative Consent on welfare reform to the UK Government is a welcome step in the right direction.
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon, has called for further scrutiny of the finer details of welfare reform and what it would mean for the people of Scotland – a clear indication that the concerns of the third sector about the impact of the reforms on the most vulnerable in our communities are being heard.
Now it’s critical that the Scottish Parliament as a whole conducts urgent and intense scrutiny of welfare reform over the coming months and fully engages the third sector in it.
A meaningful discussion about the future of Scotland is long overdue - a debate that doesn’t obsess over which powers should or should not be devolved but focuses on how any new powers would affect people and communities. The third sector must be at the heart of this debate to ensure that Scotland’s people have a say in shaping their future.
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