Whatever its outcome, the election is a reset moment for Scotland
Published: 13 March 2026
13 March 2026: With the 2026 Scottish election rapidly approaching and following a keynote speech at the Centre for Public Policy's recent Stop/Start event, Professor Nicola McEwen emphasises why this election is an important reset moment and an opportunity to reflect on what has worked, what hasn't, and what we can collectively do better.
13 March 2026: With the 2026 Scottish election rapidly approaching and following a keynote speech at the Centre for Public Policy's recent Stop/Start event, Professor Nicola McEwen emphasises why this election is an important reset moment and an opportunity to reflect on what has worked, what hasn't, and what we can collectively do better.
Blog by Professor Nicola McEwen, Director of the Centre for Public Policy
Another election is looming in Scotland. Whatever the outcome and whoever emerges to form the next administration, the election is an opportunity to reflect on what has worked, what hasn’t, and what we can collectively do better.
A different kind of election
That opportunity for reflection might be crowded out by a campaign where soundbites prevail and retail politics crowds out strategic thinking. This upcoming campaign is discomforting in some other respects, too.
First, it is taking place against a backdrop of extraordinary and unsettling developments globally where the actions of powers and forces way beyond these shores create uncertainties for their impact on domestic politics, the economy, security and the viability of public services.
Second, there is a new kid on the block in the form of a political party that is promoting and, in turn, reflecting diminishing trust in government and growing concerns about asylum and immigration. In constitutional terms, asylum and immigration is reserved to the UK Parliament. But devolved elections have never been confined to devolved matters alone. And, as Dr Pontus Odmalm pointed out in a recent podcast, the Reform Party like many other right-wing populist parties, uses the asylum and immigration issue as a frame through which to debate matters that are devolved, like housing supply, schools, access to health care, and criminal justice.
Third, the next parliament and the next administration will face extremely challenging fiscal and policy choices that are compounded by demographic and technological change. These challenges are at least partly within the control of the next government and parliament. But meeting them will require new approaches on a much bigger scale than we’ve seen to date.
Time for a new approach
The election presents an opportunity to reflect on what has worked, why something hasn’t worked, and whether confronting persistent challenges requires new ways of working. Many of these challenges are complex and system-wide, but are historically approached through policy silos.
For example, the Population Health Framework set out the Scottish Government and COSLA’s understanding of key challenges in health and social care – by some distance the biggest component (almost 40%) of the Scottish Government’s resources budget, and according to Scottish Fiscal commission forecasts, set to represent around half of the budget in the coming decades. Yet, the Framework recognises that as much as 80% of health outcomes are driven by factors outside of the health and social care system. That necessitates a shift to prevention and a whole system approach focused on reducing ill health and health inequalities and promoting healthy living.
Child poverty provides a further illustration of the challenge. In 2017, the Scottish Parliament set ambitious statutory targets for the eradication of child poverty by 2030. Few expect these targets to be met, though the journey towards them is important. The evidence-based composite stories in our State of Poverty research illustrate the systemic barriers those in poverty experience. The Government’s latest Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026-2031 recognises this to a degree, with its range of interventions across policy portfolios. But the approach still relies upon new programmes and new initiatives, like the Whole Family Wellbeing programme, that in budgetary terms, are modest at best, rather than systemic change. And there remains a heavy reliance on social security as the primary policy tool, contributing to its substantial and growing impact on the Scottish Government’s budget. That’s a political choice, and not necessarily the wrong choice. But it’s a choice that inevitably involves shifting resources from other parts of the system that may themselves help to prevent or ameliorate poverty.
If the next administration identifies complex, system-wide, challenges as priority missions, new approaches are necessary to drive change:
- A transformation in the approach to decision-making, budgeting, data integration, administration and implementation.
- A new approach that moves beyond the ‘business as usual’ of departments competing for resources in budget negotiations, where proportionate reductions in budget allocations are seen as a sign of weakness.
- New approaches to how we scrutinise, debate and judge progress.
- Accepting that some policies or programmes might not produce the outcomes we hoped for and setting them aside to try something different is not judged as failure.
- And new ways of working that help overcome the siloes that inhibit sustainable and system-wide change on a scale necessary to meet the challenges. Ways of working that go beyond impact assessments that don’t seem to have any impact at all, other than generating new processes.
The scale and complexity of these challenges inevitably means that not everything can be a priority. There will always be a need for the routine business of government. And there will always be unforeseen problems and emergencies that will demand the attention and action of government. But giving added impetus in resources, time, programming and, where necessary, legislation, to a few priority areas - and redesigning the administration to enable it to act on these priorities across the system - makes it more likely that the administration that emerges from the election will be able to achieve its and the parliament’s ambitions for the next parliamentary session.
A collaborative approach
A new approach would also recognise that no government can face these challenges alone, and that the job of government isn’t done after the policy is announced. From policy development to implementation, achieving meaningful change means sharing power as the architects of devolution intended, and working collaboratively with parliament, the UK Government, local government, key sectors and with communities. There are opportunities, too, to harness the collective resources and expertise of the wider government family, of local government, the third sector, businesses and the universities, where there is an abundance of expertise and evidence that can support policy and decision-making.
Elections, then, are an opportunity to stretch horizons and reset ambition. As we approach the elections for the next parliament, let’s hold our would-be parliamentarians to that.
Author
Nicola McEwen is a Professor of Public Policy and Governance in the College of Social Sciences and Director of the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Glasgow. Nicola has published widely in the field of territorial politics, nationalism, multi-level government and policy-making, and multi-level parties and elections. She is actively involved in informing debate within the wider policy and political community, through with extensive experience in providing analysis in broadcast, print and social media, public engagement, advice to governments and parliamentary committees, and consultancy.
Stop/Start: Making Public Service Reform Stick in Scotland
Read more about the event, Stop/Start: Making Public Service Reform Stick in Scotland, including a series of blogs, speaker slides, and an episode of our UofG Spotlight podcast.
First published: 13 March 2026