SNP don't seem to realise frontline police, nurses and teachers are their best special advisers – Brian Wilson

From what the Inspectorate heard, it became “clear from conversations with officers and staff that a light touch approach was not sufficient, and that we needed to do more to reflect their views”. The messages were consistent. “We heard that resourcing levels on the frontline are having a detrimental impact on the well-being of officers and staff [who] feel unable to provide the level of service they would wish.”

The Inspectorate found “little evidence of a cohesive well-being strategy or plan”. They found that “dilapidated buildings – with holes in the roof, water running down walls and barely functioning furniture showed officers and staff… they were not valued by the organisation”.

It was devastating stuff which should alert us to the state of a public service in which we all have a vested interest. But is it, in these respects, any different from other public services of the same standing?

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If the approach of “listening to the frontline” was used to evaluate the state of the NHS or our schools, would the same frustrations emerge – that they are asked to do too much with too few resources in absence of any “cohesive strategy or plan”; or that they can see much of what’s wrong but are not listened to?

Such messages are not unfamiliar but usually they come from the inspected rather than the inspectorate; from unions rather than employers who are, ultimately in respect of these devolved services, the Scottish Government. The instinct of government is to be defensive and in denial.

The consequences of not listening to the frontline go beyond concealing the true nature of the status quo. Instead, it makes matters worse. Faced with realities of the job and their impact on its well-being, the “frontline” increasingly votes with its feet, worn out and fed up with not being heard.

“A key element of what we were told was about a lack of understanding, or acknowledgement, of these difficulties in the workplace”, said the police inspctorate’s report. Police Scotland numbers are now at their lowest since 2008 and, in the words of the Scottish Police Federation general secretary, David Kennedy, “they are leaving in their droves – they have just had enough”. It's not just numbers. Experienced officers cannot wait to get out with a nice pension while young recruits find themselves pitched into frontline experiences for which they are unprepared.

These are scenarios equally familiar in other core public services. At some point, will government reflect on any of this and say: “Maybe we should have listened to the frontline instead of retreating at every opportunity into defensive mode?” Not much sign of it!

The response from Angela Constance, Cabinet Secretary for Justice, to this week’s report assured us empathetically that "police officers do a difficult and demanding job, day in day out”. Yes, we know that, Angela. Then, without a hint of irony, she suggested that "reducing inappropriate demands on policing" might help.

This comes from an administration which has just heaped onto Scotland’s shrinking police force a duty to enforce the Hate Crime Act that might have been designed to heighten their workload, in order to detect a few offences which could have been prosecuted under existing laws, in the even rarer event of there being a will to do so.

If the frontline of Scottish policing had been consulted on this priority or the practicalities of implementation, it seems unlikely ministers would have received the answers they wanted. So don’t ask the questions. Just tell them: “Your problem now. Get on with it.”

If it was beneath them to listen to the frontline of policing itself, perhaps they could have consulted our leading legal eminence, Lord Hope, who opined: “I think it’s unworkable if the police are going to have to administer this, because they have the burden of sifting and recording a myriad of complaints by people who are not really aware of the details of the legislation.”

Lord Hope described the Act as “gesture politics” and called for its repeal. More probably, it will fall into rapid disuse alongside all the other laws which Police Scotland find unenforceable because they do not have the means to enforce them. In other words, a total waste of police time.

Complaints about “resources” normally translate into “money”. However, the neglected value of listening to the frontline in any part of the public sector goes far beyond that, as opposition parties aspiring to government should proclaim before they get there – and then act upon it.

In the case of the inspectorate’s report, under-funding of the police service is a theme that runs through many of issues raised, though, in the main, its recommendations are directed at Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority about how things could be done better through more effective use of limited resources.

At one point, the report says: “Frontline officers and staff reported that supervisors are too busy to listen to them. The door may be open, but the culture remains such that it is rare anyone will walk through it and start a conversation.” Are the doors or minds of politicians any more accessible?

Aspirant ministers should anticipate that “better” will acquire even greater importance than “more” because there’s no magic money tree. So go listen to the frontline – the nurses, the teachers, the council workers, the police officers – in the certain knowledge they will become your most reliable special advisers.