Why SNP cannot allow these three fundamental pillars of Scotland to keep crumbling
Education, the NHS and the police are three vital public services upon which Scotland’s future depends
For any country to prosper, it needs to have a strong economy. In order to have a strong economy, it should be obvious that it needs a well-educated and highly skilled workforce.
However, as we report today, in what is just the latest of an alarming number of worrying signs about the state of Scotland’s schools, one-in-seven secondaries are being asked to teach more pupils than they were designed to accommodate.
It is also important that the adult population is kept ‘working fit’. According to the last census, 24 per cent of Scots have some form of disability or long-term health problem that limits their ability to do ordinary tasks. And the number of adults claiming disability benefits is set to rise from 379,000 to more than 700,000 by 2030-31.
If waiting lists for many forms of NHS treatment were not so unacceptably long, those numbers would almost certainly be lower.
‘Policing deserts’
Furthermore, it should go without saying that law and order is crucial to the smooth functioning of society. Yet Police Scotland has stopped investigating some ‘minor’ crimes, and earlier this year, David Threadgold, chair of the Scottish Police Federation, warned that “policing deserts” were appearing in parts of Scotland due to chronic under-investment in the force.
In Scotland, these three fundamental pillars of a strong economy and a flourishing society – education, the health service and the police – are all struggling to cope with the demands that are being placed upon them.
What’s worse, problems for one of these pillars can have knock-on effects for the others. For example, one of the police’s biggest complaints is they are increasingly being forced to deal with people who are mentally ill because the NHS and social services are unable to provide the necessary care.
Demoralised staff voting with their feet
The rising tide of violence in Scotland’s schools is also storing up trouble for the future when violent children with a contempt for rules and authority grow up into angry and poorly educated adults with few prospects.
Demoralised staff are, depressingly but understandably, voting with their feet, with four out of ten doctors either applying to work overseas or thinking about doing so, and some teachers are making the same choice.
The SNP government needs to urgently recognise the need to focus on these three priorities or Scotland will pay a heavy price – and, sooner or later, so will they.
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