Image caption Willie Rennie hopes to get independence supporters to back his party at next year's Scottish Parliament election

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie has said the police, the NHS and schools have to take priority after the "damaging" independence referendum.

He said that some of those who backed the SNP's cause of independence felt "let down" by its record in government.

Mr Rennie said voters had a choice between boosting health and education over the next five years or another referendum campaign with the SNP.

The Lib Dems currently hold just five seats in the Scottish Parliament.

In his speech at the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference, Mr Rennie offered an alternative to the "targets, controls and top-down diktats" which he said had damaged local health provision and policing.

'Relationships broken'

And he painted a picture of families divided by the independence referendum campaign.

"Last week I met a woman in Anstruther who told me that the relationship with her daughter had broken down," he said.

"It had been like that for over a year. It started with an argument about independence.

"Her family is not alone. An opinion poll found that a quarter of a million people believe their relationship with a friend or family member has been permanently damaged as a result of the independence referendum.

"For the sake of the country, we need to move on from those divisions."

'Yes' voter plea

The Lib Dem leader added: "Nicola, our constitution has had our time. Surely our police, our NHS and our schools deserve our time now."

He warned that national testing in schools would undermine progress and bring in the "destructive teaching to the test".

And he said a targets culture was also damaging nursing and the police.

In an appeal to 'Yes' voters, Mr Rennie told delegates at the Vine Venue in Dunfermline: "I want to make a direct plea to supporters of independence today - if you want to fix the problems facing your local GP surgery, if you want to end industrial-scale stop and search on our streets, if you want to put the treatment of mental ill-health on an equal footing with physical health, if you want all these things, then try out the Liberal Democrats."

'Never more important'

Tim Farron MP, the leader of the UK Liberal Democrats, also addressed delegates.

Mr Farron criticised Prime Minister David Cameron for cutting tax credits for almost 250,000 Scottish families, and Mr Cameron's reaction to the independence referendum result. He also highlighted why Scotland should stay in the European Union.

He added: "The first minister told the SNP conference that she was happy to fight on their record in government - well, we are happy to fight on their record too.

"On health - a GP recruitment crisis, a real terms fall in spending, waiting time targets missed and missed again for thousands and thousands of patients, preventable deaths 20% higher in Scotland than in England and chronic underfunding of mental health.

"On education - class sizes up, college places slashed, literacy for the least well off down, and ever decreasing student grants.

"And across the board, from climate change targets missed to the ongoing fiasco of Police Scotland, the SNP have let Scotland down."