When asked why they want to be a manager in local government candidates most often respond by saying they wanted to make a difference to people’s lives. May be they do but public sector management is very different these days. For starters it is hard to spot the difference between what we do and what goes on in a commercial organisation. Public sector managers these days are concerned with increasing income, competing for business, promoting the organisations brand, marketing services, procurement and outsourcing. They could just as well be selling baked beans.
Does it matter that the public sector has adopted many of the business methods of the private sector if as a result the public sector is better managed and more efficient?
Does it matter what the product is, who the customer is or who the employer is?
If the cost of baked beans goes up fewer people may eat them if the cost of home care goes up some people will receive less help. This will not result in a loss of independence or dignity for the beans. The beans won’t spend all night in an arm chair because there is no one to help them into bed nor will they sit for hours in soiled incontinence pads.
What those in the front line increasingly resent is the way public sector leaders no longer appear concerned about who provides the service. Today’s senior managers see outsourcing as a business solution. It doesn’t matter who provides the service or that they are in it to make money.
The prevailing view is that people don’t care who empties their bins. Well this may be true but that doesn’t mean they don’t care who runs their children’s school, who cares for their elderly relative and who calls the shots at their local Hospital.
The public sector was created because some services could not be left to the market. Managers in the public sector aren’t just concerned with competition, choice and efficiency they are expected to promote independence, dignity and effectiveness.
Blair McPherson author of Equipping managers for an uncertain future published by www.russellhouse
