Casey Smith

Good to be at Parliament today hearing from @futureeconscot.bsky.social’s Funding Scotland’s Future report - important heading into the election all parties get real about how we raise the revenues necessary to deliver on public priorities

There are plenty of assumptions about public servants and their attitude to change - we spoke with workers across the public sector & heard their thoughts on public service reform - unsurprisingly views are more nuanced than commentators and politicians would have you believe!

Will technology reduce the cost of delivering public services? | IPPR The Scottish government has huge ambitions for digitising public services. In late November 2025, first minister John Swinney stated that:  “…the potential

Rapid technological advances and the implementation of AI has the potential to transform healthcare - however this does not necessarily translate into reduced costs for public services.

Read our latest blog on the limits of new technology in making healthcare cheaper

www.ippr.org/articles/wil...

Scotland still feels hemmed in by the idea that the welfare state is purely burdensome, rather than a springboard to national prosperity and a more dynamic economy.

Other countries manage better outcomes with higher rates of spending and investment in social infrastructure.

Read out latest report

More than a safety net: The welfare state as springboard to economic success and a better country | IPPR It is widely proposed that higher social spending – especially in the form of social security benefits – is damaging to the economy. Yet the evidence prese

📢 It's launch day!🚀

💷 Social spending ≠ economic damage.

💪Plenty of countries prove you can have strong social security and strong economies.

Read our new report, More than a Safety Net ⤵️

@stephenkb.bsky.social @davehawkey.bsky.social @caseysmithippr.bsky.social

www.ippr.org/articles/mor...

For months, we have been digging into a big myth — that strong social protection holds back economic growth.🔍

Spoiler: it doesn’t.💪

We launch our findings tomorrow in our report 'More than a Safety Net'. Stay tuned.🚀

For now, hear it from @stephenboydippr.bsky.social ⤵️

Apples and oranges? Scottish teachers’ pay in international context | IPPR Ongoing pressures on the Scottish government budget are firing debate about the public sector paybill. Is the public sector in Scotland unmanageably big? A

📢 Starting today, we will publish a series of blogs as part of our project on Employment, Productivity and Reform in the Scottish Public Sector.

First up, this blog by @davehawkey.bsky.social looking at teacher pay per pupil in Scotland in an international context. ⤵️

www.ippr.org/articles/app...

Scream it from the rooftops

🧵

on.ft.com/3XGBvuZ via @FT

As the Chancellor pulls back on changes to income tax, there are lessons from Scotland - the most taxed part of the UK is also least opposed to further rises. Politicians should be less frightened by tax reform so long as they make an argument for it.

See blog below👇

Now we're onto Scottish democracy. Very interested to hear on people's opinions on democracy from a devolved government...

High levels of support from parents in Scotland for reform of UK child maintenance. The current system pushes too many parents away. We @ipprscotland.bsky.social find 78% would like to see greater state support on offer for parents who struggle to make arrangements work.
opfs.org.uk/get-involved...

📊 New polling from @ipprscotland.bsky.social shows overwhelming support for reform of the child maintenance system.

Read the latest blog from @IPPRScotland, part of our #TransformingChildMaintenance project with @fifegingerbread.bsky.social

📄 opfs.org.uk/get-involved...

Better for everyone: a new vision for child maintenance - One Parent Families Scotland Ambitious proposals for systemic reform of the Child Maintenance Service to improve financial security for children in single parent families.

🚸Too many children are missing out on the child maintenance support they deserve.
It’s time for change!
We
@ipprscotland.bsky.social
alongside @opfs.org.uk
,
@fifegingerbread.bsky.social

are calling for a fairer, safer system.
📄 opfs.org.uk/betterforeve...
#TransformingChildMaintenance

Excellent @IPPRScotland
session on future of Scotland’s industrial strategy with Ivan McKee and Sara Thiam crucial discussion on honing Scotland’s comparative advantages and adapting to a world with rising trade barriers. #snpconference2025

#SNP25 | Maximising economic opportunities across all Scotland's regions
🕠 17.00-18.00 | Meeting Room 1, Level 1, TECA (inside the secure zone)
➡️@shonarobison.bsky.social
➡️Stacey Dingwwall, FSB Scotland
➡️Ross Martin, Adviser on regional economics
➡️@stephenboydippr.bsky.social

#SNP25 | GB Energy and the acceleration of renewables in Scotland
🕠 12.30-13.30 | Meeting Room 1, Level 1, TECA (inside the secure zone)
➡️ Stephen Flynn MSP
➡️Damien Zachlod, EnBW
➡️Zoe Holliday, Community Energy Scotland
➡️@davehawkey.bsky.social

With @enbw-ag.bsky.social

#SNP25 | A modern industrial strategy for Scotland
🕠 09.15-10.15 | Meeting Room 1, Level 1, TECA (inside the secure zone)
➡️Ivan McKee MSP
➡️Sara Thiam, Prosper
➡️@stephenboydippr.bsky.social

📢 We are in Aberdeen this weekend at the SNP conference, hosting three fringe events. A conference pass is required to attend the events. Hope to see you there. Details below ⤵️

💷The investments in Scotland announced by the Chancellor today are welcome, so long as they create the kind of manufacturing jobs that provide security and opportunity for workers in the long-term, and the benefits are felt in the wider community.

@caseysmithippr.bsky.social 🗣️

IPPR Scotland: 10th Anniversary Conference | IPPR Ten years ago, in the wake of the Scottish Independence referendum, there emerged a clear need for a think tank to support progressive policymaking and fos

🎉10th ANNIVERSARY🎉

A decade ago, IPPR Scotland was established in a big moment of change to support progressive policymaking.

📢Now, as Scotland faces fresh challenges, we’re hosting a major conference to ask: What next?

🗓️Save the date: 29 Oct 2025

www.ippr.org/events/ippr-...

Filling the funding gap: at what cost to Scotland’s public services? | IPPR The MTFS was accompanied by a Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan which was preceded a week earlier by the Public Sector Reform Strategy.  The MTFS did not

📢 Scotland’s Medium Term Financial Strategy is out — and it warns of a £2.6bn resource funding gap by 2029/30. The big question is: how will it be filled? @stephenboydippr.bsky.social's latest blog addresses this question 🧵(1/4)
www.ippr.org/articles/fil...

🎯The broad settlement for Scotland in today's Spending Review is welcome but not enough to meet its fiscal challenges.

👀All eyes should now be on the upcoming industrial strategy.

@stephenboydippr.bsky.social reacts ⤵️

Full statement on our website: www.ippr.org/media-office...

🗳️Voters in Hamilton have shown they want to a fairer, greener future, but can Scottish politicians afford to be complacent? Certainly not.

✅2026 cannot be a contest mired in negativity but a battle for the high ground.

@stephenboydippr.bsky.social

The Scottish Government projects that mitigating the two-child limit in Scotland would lift 15,000 children out of child poverty. However that leaves 225,000 children still in poverty. 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦

UK Government must abolish the two-child limit as a starting point, but a far bolder action plan is needed.

⚠️The CCC published expert advice on how the Scottish government can tackle the climate crisis.

📺 @davehawkey.bsky.social spoke to @laurapiper.bsky.social of STV to elucidate further: "What we need now is a policy package that can step up to deliver [the simple things recommended by the CCC]."

Watchdog urges Scotland to take action after repeatedly missing climate targets Climate Change Committee says original goal of a 75% emissions cut by 2030 will now be delayed by up to six years

"IPPR said Scottish ministers should draw up new climate 'missions' to set overarching policies for sectors with the biggest climate impacts... which would mandate action."

We're quoted in @severincarrell.bsky.social's excellent piece in @theguardian.com 👇

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Singapore on the Clyde? | IPPR What does “radical” look like? Well, according to a new report published by Sir Tom’s eponymous Hunter Foundation, Scotland should learn from Singapore by

Tom Hunter believes that Singapore provides a useful template for Scotland's economy.

Is he right? Um, no...

www.ippr.org/articles/sin...

There are different routes to national prosperity - Singapore and Scotland are not analogous - I’d suggest looking across the North Sea to the Nordics for lessons on what a better economy and society looks like…🇩🇰

An important event this evening marking 60 years of @carersscotland.bsky.social stressing society’s obligation to uphold the rights and entitlements of all carers to a decent and fulfilled life.

IPPR Scotland on child poverty on ITV Peston YouTube video by Institute for Public Policy Research

📺Great to have our child poverty analysis feature on @itvpeston.bsky.social!📺

👀 @johnswinney.bsky.social asked why the Scottish government is miles away from hitting its own child poverty target.

We are clear child poverty is not inevitable. #ChildPoverty #Scotland

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQJp...