This week’s Guardian treasure-trove comes up with a gem of a non-job.  Charnwood borough council has advertised for a ‘director of change management’.  Paying this non-jobber £69,000 a year for ‘change’ not only means constant change within the council but highlights that something isn’t right in the first place.  If they couldn’t get things right at the first instance, what makes them think they’ll get it right with this new non-jobber complete with public sector pension, running costs and a bureaucracy to call their own?  Councils should focus on service delivery and not pointless reoganisation leading to more waste and inefficiency.  So, for your displeasure, the non-job of the week:

"Director of Change Management

£65-69k

Don’t just live through change.

Shape it.

Based Loughborough, Leicestershire

It’s easy to be the person who merely points out the shortcomings of the status quo. But what marks you out is your ability to go further, to envision a fundamentally changed future; to challenge, to persuade, and to achieve tangible results that surprise and inspire those around you. Charnwood BC has moved rapidly towards setting the benchmark in the planning and provision of innovative quality services. But the next phase is critical. The senior position is designed for ambitious, results-focused strategic managers who nonetheless have a good grip on the realities of excellent daily service delivery.

You’ll provide clear direction, listening to the business and identifying new opportunities for effective working. Encouraging new thinking and driving change for the better, your influence will be felt across the organisation, on all corporate and operational matters relating to the Council’s aims and objectives. You’ll also be responsible for a high-performing, multi-disciplined directorate which underpins the Council. With an all-rounder’s perspective (but possibly a talent for people or policy issues), your background is less important to us than a track record of delivering practical but ambitious change programmes, where your influence and skill made the decisive difference."

Something’s happening at Bradford council.  Usually when we trawl through the Guardian every Wednesday we find a job that shocks and leaves us shaking our heads wondering what fool came up with such an unbelievably pointless job.  But it’s only ever one job from one council here and there.  This week Bradford council splashes out for 14 jobs, the total salaries of the jobs on offer (without factoring in pensions and operating costs) amounting to over £1million, the highest being a ‘Strategic Director of Regeneration’ going for £120k a year.

But our non-job among the plethora of jobs offered at Bradford council is the following:

“Assistant Director Cultural Services

Up to £75,000

A highly motivated individual, you will have the vision and ambition to deliver and develop cultural services across the district of Bradford.  Our Cultural Services will improve the quality of life for all our citizens, contribute to our place shaping programme and attract visitors and investment into the district.”

…and that’s just from the Guardian.  The full job specification can be found here and the personnel specification can be found here.  As you can see, aside from a four line advert in the Guardian, Bradford council lays out 10 pages of waffle about a non-job costing the taxpayer a ridiculous amount of money. 

As this goes on, as our essential frontline services such as the police and health services fall short of the funds needed to keep us safe and healthy, councils still find hundreds of thousands of pounds to squander on ‘cultural’ services.  This forms yet another sad example of the bizarre priorities in local government.

Recently we published a report on Green Jobs in town halls exposing just how much taxpayers’ money is being wasted on green bureaucrats.  Islington featured prominently, as well as Tower Shamlets, in taking taxpayers’ money and wasting it on green gesture politics.

So, true to form, Islington council yet again advertise for a job wasting more of your money.  This week we give you our Guardian non-job of the week:

“Recycling Education Officer
30 Hours Per Week
£28,536 – £30,030 Pro Rata

Based at the i-recycle centre, our innovative and award winning, interactive recycling education centre, you will assist the Recycling Education Centre Manager in achieving national and local objectives in reducing and recycling waste by establishing and delivering a programme of continuous learning for all schools and residents in Islington.

You will have a minimum of one year’s experience of working with young people or a teaching qualification.  A minimum of one year’s experience of working in a waste/recycling environment is desirable.

You will also be inspiring, motivated and full of ideas and will form part of a larger team that prides itself on its record on recycling and waste minimisation.”

We don’t decry moves to increase efficiency and recycling as long as it gives taxpayers value for money.  Having more binmen on the frontline sorting through rubbish for recyclable goods is a way of directly solving the problem on the ground.  Placing more recycle bins in the community so people have easier access to recycling facilities is also another way of enabling recycling.  But Islington council’s insistence that scarce council funds go from frontline services and be diverted to employing more bureaucrats draining taxpayers’ money is bizarre in the extreme, especially when faced with practical alternatives.

This week we turn our gaze away from Tower Shamlets and the other one party states of East London and cast our watchful eye on the South West for our non-job of the week.  Gloucestershire County Council has applied for a spin doctor for their waste department.  Yes, rubbish needs PR.  In their advert they laud their “excellent” status in waste management – so they have to spend thousands of pounds of your money telling everyone how great they are.  So, from the Guardian jobs page we give you our non-job of the week from Gloucestershire County Council:

“Community Liaison & PR Officer (Waste)

£22,293 – £28,221 per annum
Waste Management Unit, Shire Hall
Full-time: 37 hours per week

You will not find a better time to join our waste management team. Judged "excellent" by the Audit Commission, waste is seen as one of the authority’s highest priorities. We have an ambitious change programme focussing on diverting waste from landfill, increasing recycling and composting, changing householder behaviour, and the delivery of new waste infrastructure in partnership with our district council colleagues.

In order to deliver our programme it is vital that we communicate and consult extensively with a wide range of organisations including the local and national media, community groups, elected representatives, and residents. That’s where you come in. You will be self-motivated and enthusiastic, with excellent communication skills and a determined approach to getting your point across.

You will be educated to at least degree level in a relevant subject, and will be able to demonstrate experience gained in a marketing, community liaison, PR, or journalism role.”

We have often wondered where all those Environmental Science graduates that new universities are so good at producing find employment on graduation.  The answer, it seems, lies in the Guardian Society supplement, which, every week advertises pages of non-jobs in local councils that all seem to require environmental or earth sciences degrees.

One such job that stands out, from Buckinghamshire County Council, is our non-job of the week:

Natural Environment and Green Infrastructure Manager Planning and Environment Service
£32,697 – £37,278

Leading a team of professionals engaged in HIS, Landscape Characterisation and Biodiversity work.  You will need to produce a Buckinghamshire Green Infrastructure Strategy and ensure that the Buckinghamshire Environmental Character System (BECs) and its various components are integrated into a single resource, and made available as a one stop GIS system.

Two things stand out in this week’s non-job.  The first is the proliferation of ‘welfare rights’ advisors and other local government apparatchiks who are paid generous amounts to explain to people how to claim benefits.  This raises the question of whether councils are actively pursuing take-up of benefits and that when people do need to go on benefits, the system is too complex to give essential relief to those in greatest need.

A simple system of benefits, such as in Charles Murray’s plan to give each taxpayer a lump sum to deal with their own welfare, would erase the need for employing bureaucrats to ‘manage’ welfare provision.

To add insult to injury, Salford taxpayers are funding a bureaucrat to only deal with a minority of the community.  How is that for value for money?  Salford taxpayers put into the pot to pay for services they all expect.  Yet when the council decide on service provision they use taxpayers’ money to fund extra services for the Urdu and Punjabi community.  This isn’t an attack on minorities, but it is a severe condemnation of liberal-left do-gooders wilfully wasting taxpayers’ money and dividing communities.

So, with all the anger and disgust generated from this week’s Guardian Society pages, we give you our non-job of the week from Salford Council:

“Welfare Rights Linkworker (Urdu/Punjabi)
Welfare Rights and Debt Advice Service

£18, 450 – £24, 708 p.a.

You’ll provide welfare rights advice and case-work together with advice/practical assistance to the Urdu/Punjabi speaking communities in Salford in accessing local services.  This would include telephone advice, home visits, advice sessions, talks to local groups and general benefit take-up work.

A knowledge of the basic rules for means-tested, non-means tested and disability benefits as well as tax credits is essential.  The ability to communicate sympathetically and effectively in Urdu, Punjabi and English is also essential.  A detailed knowledge of the social security system, an ability to represent at social security tribunals and beyond, an ability to train and an understanding of local authorities, health services and adult social care in particular would be a significant advantage.

You should be able to work on your own, as well as part of a team, whilst being committed to the promotion of anti-poverty and social inclusion work.

The post carries an entitlement to an Essential Car User’s Allowance”

If you’re outraged at this waste of money, then get involved!  You can write to the local Salford Advertiser expressing exasperation at the constant waste of taxpayers’ money going on in our town halls.  The address for their letters page is:

Letters Editor
The Salford Advertiser and Salford City Reporter
30 Church Street,
Eccles,
Salford,
M30 0DF,

Or you can email a letter in to: [email protected]

It’s time we stood up and made our voice heard against these non-jobs.  Do get involved so people know there is a movement out there standing up for lower taxation and responsible, better government.

It’s that time of the week again.  Our weekly trawl through the Guardian Society pages never fails to surprise us with their banal array of jobs on offer.  Our pick this week is from the London NHS.  They’re advertising for a doctor.  No, not the kind of doctor who saves lives but a spin doctor – employed by the taxpayer – to save reputations.

In advertising for a ‘communications media manager’, the London NHS needs a hack to place good news in the press and rebut the bad.  This is £42,054 of your money on a spin doctor.  Compare that with the pitiful £17,000 nurse’s starting salary and it’s enough to make you feel sick.

Our non job of the week:

“Communications Media Manager
Band 7 Salary £33,146 – £42,054

We are recruiting a communications media manager who will have day-to-day responsibility for ensuring NHS London’s voice is heard in the media.  We need someone who is a good operator with a proven record in placing positive stories and rebutting bad news.  The successful applicant will have excellent oral and written communications skills.  They will work in a busy office, often giving advice to communications teams in London’s 71 trusts and PCTs.  The postholder will receive an allowance for being part of an out-of-hours on-call rota.”

You can always expect a green, taxpayer-funded non-job in the Guardian Society pages every week.  Over the weeks the proliferation of adverts for "climate change officers" and their lackeys is clear to the eye.  And it’s worrying too as we’re the ones paying for them.  They mean well, yes, but the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

If you are a climate change officer at Guildford council you may think you can save the world, but you can’t.  Instead you’re using up our money just to appease the guilt-ridden consciences of establishment politicians.  If you want to help, join the bandwagon to get India and China to lower their carbon emissions and don’t use taxpayers’ money just to appease liberal guilt.

So, our non-job of the week is the "principal climate change officer" at Guildford council:

"Principal Climate Change Officer
Hours: Full Time
Salary: Grade B/C £28,286 pa – £36,130 pa with possible progression to £38,801 pa

This is an excellent opportunity for somebody to take the lead role in managing, implementing and reviewing the Council’s Climate Change strategy.

You should have broad experience of dealing with sustainability issues and full understanding of how this relates to services provided by local authorities. You should be educated to degree standard in a relevant subject area and will need to manage the works of other highly motivated staff whose workload includes environmental issues and project delivery, including an ongoing programme for schools of promoting energy efficiency and use of renewable technology.

We need you to be self-motivated and flexible with excellent presentation and communication skills. The post will occasionally involve working irregular hours."

Annoyed?  Frustrated?  Then let the Surrey Newspapers know about the waste going on at Guildford Council:

Letters Editor
The Surrey Advertiser
Stoke Mill,
Woking Road,
Guildford,
GU1 1QA,
United Kingdom

Email: [email protected]

This week’s non-job is rather sobering.  Given the anarchy sweeping the UK, with gangs attacking children and other innocents, the political classes recognise the crisis on our streets.  Calls for more police are one thing.  People recognise that police on the beat cut crime.  A police presence makes our most vulnerable feel safe and secure; free to walk the streets they have every right to be on.  Yet no one is calling for more “community safety coordinators”, bureaucrats with fancy titles whose good intentions feed inaction and ineffectiveness against the scourge of crime on our streets.  Every penny siphoned off to town hall apparatchiks fighting crime with bits of paper behind a desk is one less penny put to frontline policing.  That’s fewer funds to train and employ new police who can fight crime.

Our non-job of the week therefore comes from Hackney council:

“Community Safety Co-ordinator

£32,961 – £35,593 p.a. inc.

Hackney Community Safety Team

Hackney Council works in partnership with the local community, the police and other partners to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.  The Council’s Community Safety Team has an excellent track record of partnership work and crime reduction achievement.

We are now looking to recruit a temporary neighbourhood based Community Safety Co-ordinator to further the successful implementation of the Crime and Disorder Partnership’s crime and disorder reduction programme and to develop the community safety activities in one of our busy neighbourhoods.

Through the Local Government Pension Scheme, the Council offer a generous and competitive final salary scheme”

Tell Hackney residents that they should join our calls for the authorities to fund police not overly generous public sector pensions and bureaucrats.  Write to:

Letters Editor
The Hackney Gazette
138 Cambridge Heath Road,
London,
E1 5QJ,
United Kingdom

Email: [email protected]

And

Letters Editor
Hackney Today
Room 83,
Town Hall,
Mare Street,
London,
E8 1EA,
United Kingdom

Email: [email protected]

This week’s non-job has been fed to us by a supporter, Donald Grant.  Epping Forest District Council is advertising for an ‘overpayments officer’.  Mr. Grant made an interesting comment in the email he sent us: ‘why don’t they just get it right in the first place?’  It’s one thing that the council admits to handing out benefit overpayments, but it adds insult to injury when taxpayers have to subsidise an officer just to oversee reclamation of benefit overpayments.  Let’s face it; anything they do get back won’t even come clear to covering the cost it takes to employ an overpayments officer.

Here’s the non-job of the week advert from Epping Council’s website:

“Overpayments Officer
£18,735 – £20,364

A vacancy has also arisen for an Overpayment Officer to work as part of a team concentrating on the recovery of overpayments of Housing Benefit.  You must have experience of working either within a Benefit Section or in a revenue collection capacity and preferably have a good knowledge of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit legislation.  For both posts, it is essential that you have good computer skills, excellent communication skills, a conscientious and methodical approach to work and a commitment to delivering a quality customer service.  You should have at least 5 GCSEs at grade C or above or equivalent, including English and Maths, and have a good standard of written English”

Clearly the need for these jobs shows how complicated the tax and benefits system has become.  If councils are getting it wrong in the first place, what makes them so sure the overpayments department are going to get it right second time round.  We clearly need a simpler tax and benefit system.  Join the campaign and write to the Epping Forest Guardian about this non-job and the wider campaign for a simpler, lower tax system:

Letters Editor
The Epping Forest Guardian
8 Simon Campion Court,
High Street,
Epping,
Essex,
CM16 4AU,
United Kingdom
You can send in the letter electronically on their website here.

Last week Tower Shamlets council was exposed by the Centre for Social Cohesion for stocking its PUBLIC libraries with Islamic fundamentalist literature.  Not only was taxpayer’s money spent on books by Abu Hamza, the convicted fundamentalist, but that there were disproportionately more fundamentalist texts than moderate books.  So you’ve got to laugh when Tower Shamlets council advertise for our non-job of the week: a “Hate Crime Policy and Partnership Manager”.

Tower Shamlets council ‘prides’ itself on equalities and community cohesion yet stocks its libraries with books aiming to set one community against another.  Perhaps the library fiasco has compelled the council to recruit someone to “further develop our hate crime strategy”.  I doubt it.  In a borough so wrapt in political correctness, they daren’t challenge (or offend) the real forces of hate brewing beneath the surface that, as the Centre for Social Cohesion found, are having their propaganda publicised with taxpayers money.

So our highly paid, taxpayer funded, ineffective non-job of the week, straight from the Guardian, comes from Tower Shamlets council:

“Hate Crime Policy and Partnership Manager
£39,738 – £42,231

Tower Hamlets is a distinctive, unique London Borough that is home to a diverse, vibrant, multicultural community.  The Council has a strong commitment to equalities and community cohesion, having achieved level 5 of the Equalities Standard and Beacon Status for promoting racial equality and community cohesion.  We are working hard to make the Borough a better place for living safely, with a strong partnership approach to reducing crime, anti-social behaviour and fear of crime.  We have taken an integrated approach to tackling all forms of hate crime which is a priority in our Crime and Drugs Reduction Strategy.

We are seeking a committed manager to further develop our hate crime strategy.  You will have a clear vision for building a coordinated response to all forms of hate crime, comprehensive working knowledge of legislation, policy and best practice in the field of equalities and hate crime, a proven track record in designing and delivering partnership projects and strategies with diverse communities, political sensitivity and strong communication, influencing and leadership skills.

If you have the skills, experience and determination to make a difference and want to work in a mature partnership environment with a strong commitment to tackling hate crime and building community cohesion we look forward to hearing from you.”

Is it just me or are they talking about a completely different place?  Tower Shamlets is a mismanaged borough where the authorities haven’t a clue what’s going on.  So let the people know, let the lions governed by donkeys know what is going on, that the council turn a blind eye to Islamic fundamentalism whilst spending taxpayers money on the wasteful gesture of a job advertised above.  Write to:

Letters Editor
The Tower Hamlets Recorder
182 – 184 High Street North,
London,
E6 2JD,
United Kingdom
Email: [email protected] (specify that the letter is for the Tower Hamlets Recorder letters page)

And the leader of Tower Shamlets council, Denise Jones, at:

Cllr. Denise Jones
Leadership Office
Mulberry Place
5 Clove Crescent
London, E14 2BG

Tel:  0207 364 4993
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Our non-job of the week is yet again another politically correct post in local government the British people could easily live without.  Rather than putting our taxes to essential services, Lincolnshire County Council want not one but TWO – yes, Laurel and Hardy – diversity officers for its public sector pay roll.

If that wasn’t an incentive enough for Guardian readers, the advert also explains how the County Council is negotiating a new pay grade, hiking the salaries of each of these non-jobs to £27,000 a piece. 

So, our non-jobs of the week from Lincolnshire County Council:

“2 Diversity Officers

£23,164 – £26,928

1. PURPOSE OF JOB:
The postholder is responsible for leading on all aspects of policy advice, performance and monitoring in respect of the promotion and development of equality and diversity within their respective directorates.

2. MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES, TASKS & DUTIES
i. To be the lead officer providing advice and guidance to designated directorates on meeting their responsibilities under the Corporate Equality Policy and Scheme.
ii. To work closely with managers and employees within designated directorates, and external stakeholders, to ensure delivery of key objectives and targets arising from the Corporate Equality Policy and Scheme.
iii. To lead directorate steering groups, providing guidance and ensuring delivery of key messages and targets.
iv. To manage directorate information required for assessment of the Equality Standard for Local Government and publication of the Corporate Equality Scheme, and others as required by legislation.
v. To develop new policies and systems within their directorates on existing and emerging areas of equality and diversity legislation and best practice.
vi. To manage and develop projects that achieve results/improve performance.
vii. To facilitate relevant learning and development opportunities within directorates, whether for managers, employees, elected members, trades unions, consultants and contractors.
viii To provide leadership and support to internal and external networks that promote and develop partnership working and community involvement in order to promote equality and celebrate diversity.
ix. To provide advice and guidance on relevant policy, research and analysis, including trends, statistics and demographic information.
x. To help maintain a high quality, regularly updated and consistent corporate equality website.
xi To represent the Diversity Manager in appropriate meetings and events, as directed.”

Value for money?  Nah!  So let Lincolnshire’s taxpayers know they are being ripped off!

Write to:

The Lincolnshire Echo
Brayford Wharf East,
Lincoln,
Lincolnshire,
LN5 7AT,
United Kingdom
Email:  [email protected]

The Lincolnshire Free Press
Priory House,
The Crescent,
Spalding,
PE11 1AB,
United Kingdom
Email:  [email protected]

If you know of any other popular local newspapers, then do post them in the comments section.

Keep up the fight, folks!