AS MSPs gear up for the Scottish Parliament’s 25th autumn session next week, it’s crucial to reflect on the profound impact of our past, the current state of affairs, and the promising future that can lie ahead for Scotland – if we up the bar of ambition.

The SNP has been in government for most of Holyrood’s lifetime, with significant achievements – not least the delivery of an energising democratic event on our constitutional future in 2014 – 10 years ago this September. What happened – and didn’t happen – once the campaigners on both sides of the constitutional debate packed up their materials has shaped Scotland in 2024.

The next Holyrood election will take place in 21 months and much can happen before then. Labour will struggle to sell a “change” campaign as their UK colleagues tighten devolved purse strings and who knows what the Tory Party leadership “spin the bottle” contests will throw up both north and south of the Border.

In contrast to the confident pronouncement of the previous first minister – time is not on the SNP’s side. As Ferris Bueller said: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

READ MORE: SNP open to working with Alba or Unionists to pass budget, party says

Some former MPs’ and SNP members’ post-General Election 2024 epiphanies are a confused combination of bewilderment and scattergun attempts at blame, with a glaring absence of self-reflection.

It’s disheartening for some of my more attuned SNP pals and others across the independence movement to see that the penny still hasn’t dropped as the SNP approach their annual conference next weekend.

It’s a stark reminder that if your raison d’etre is the fundamental change of independence, power in perpetuity becomes a double-edged sword.

As political events to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2014 indyref pop up across September, we must ensure that independence does not become an industry of faux 21st-century Culloden reminiscence, memorabilia, and what-ifs. Instead, let’s ignite the torch of urgent action for the 10 years ahead of us – to deliver, build and sustain an ambitious, independent country for all of us and those who come after.

Regardless of your constitutional views, healthy debate helps us all better understand opinions and concerns and shape more-rounded solutions. Building a new nation takes engagement across our geographic regions and population demographics to deeply understand who Scotland is in 2024 and what our people need to survive and thrive in our resource- abundant nation.

The current state of affairs regarding “solutions” is perplexing. As budgets tighten across every level of government, the impact on public services is increasingly stark.

The electorate is rightly scrutinising the value for money that governments get back for public funding.

It was hard not to feel sorry for Neil Gray being eviscerated on screen while trying to defend the indefensible on Scotland’s latest heartbreaking drug death figures.

(Image: Andrew Milligan)

Yet I doubt his first course of action was to haul in the handful of organisations that receive around £20 million from the public purse to tackle Scotland’s addiction emergency – announced by fanfare five years ago – and make them account for their funding versus results figures before considering any further funding.

There are organisations in Scotland getting real results that focus not merely on harm reduction but on addiction recovery.

They are primarily small, volunteer-run, solution-focused organisations that care and are underpinned by building caring communities, networking, and continually learning and adapting to the needs of the communities they serve.

READ MORE: Decriminalisation must be on the table to tackle Scotland's drug deaths, say experts

Succesful businesses pilot solutions as a small investment to achieve the desired results and then scale up. Why does the Government pour funding into the top of a problem, leaving it with crossed fingers that solutions will “trickle down” and emerge at the service delivery layer?

I believe Neil Gray and his colleagues sincerely want different results from our drug tragedy but are they willing to go beyond “hope” and listen to communities getting results?

The electorate is also rightly scunnered by media scandals from publicly funded organisations such as the porn-funding Creative Scotland, which has tightened its belts by scrapping the Open Fund for Individuals. What message does the Government think it sends when publicly funded executives can fail in their duty with impunity while the individual creatives are starved of the make-or-break funding?

(Image: Andrew Milligan)

The Government’s “hands-off” approach is starkest in its dereliction of duty to safeguard the access to and influence of Scotland’s children. The revelation that a previous CEO of LGBT Youth Scotland and a co-author of guidance for 13 to 25-year-olds that it uses are convicted paedophiles is shocking.

This charity has received funding from the government and local authorities and has published educational guidance with no apparent oversight of its safeguarding procedures.

As to the parliamentary term ahead, let’s listen more to and invest in those who are getting results for Scotland’s problems.

Stop devolving responsibility to those we have no real oversight over and do the hard work to understand the issues, measure accurate success indicators and be unafraid to admit mistakes.

If we want to be a prosperous independent country, let’s leave partisan barriers aside and work hard to convince Scotland we can be one. My door is open.

Clarification: An earlier version of this article described a convicted paedophile who co-authored guidance used by LGBT Youth Scotland as "staff alumni" of the charity. We would like to clarify that the individual in question was never a member of staff or volunteer with the charity and contributed to the guide in 2009. We apologise for any confusion caused.