Reasons to be fearful - Blair McPherson

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Reasons to be fearful

Blair McPherson

Published Date9 Years Ago - 1310 Views

There is never much sympathy for senior managers from the rank and file who view the higher ups as detached, over confident and over paid. If the general public have a view on the reduction of management posts in the public sector it is probably that there were too many in the first place and government ministers have picked up on popular disapproval of large redundancy payments for senior managers who then reappear in another top public sector post. The usual examples are from the NHS and local government. 

 

Five years of austerity with no end in sight has prompted a wave of earl retirements amongst senior managers. In March large numbers of experience senior managers will leave the public sector, in some organisation like my former employers all bar one of the much deplete directorates management team will go. In many local councils whole senior management teams will have changed as well as reduced during the last 5 years. (The local authority I previously worked for has had 3 chief executives in 5 years).The new smaller teams will face further budget cuts , service reductions, redundancies and reorganisations. These will be even more controversial than the library closures, withdrawal of support to older people and removal of grants to voluntary organisations that have taken place to date. All that's left is deeply unpopular and controversial decision which will impact on other organisations and strain partnerships.

 

Too things strike me about this situation one is that so much interagency and partnership working is dependant on the personal relationships built up over a number of years. Two is that the political skills of senior managers will be severely tested as local councillors try to achieve budget targets whilst not upsetting too many voters. The loss of so many senior managers in such a short period of time should give us reasons to be fearful.

 

Blair McPherson author and commentator on the public sector www.blairmcpherson.co.uk 

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