Non-job of the week 3

Andrew Allison Burning Our Money

The council is transforming the way it delivers public services. This is the first line of the job advert for Newham Borough Council’s Change Project Portfolio Manager. Paying a salary of £43,368 per annum, the new recruit “will have overall responsibility for the integrity and coherence of the change projects allocated within the Customer Access Programme.”

Is the fact it needs to advertise it’s transforming the way it delivers public services an admission that it wasn’t very good at delivering them in the past? Or is this an excuse to get on the ‘change management’ bandwagon that seems to be sweeping over councils at the moment? Councils seem to be making staff in lower grades redundant, and then employing managers on higher pay to make the changes that only a few years ago they didn’t think were needed.

In a report last year, we highlighted how councils interpret government legislation in wildly different ways. Although the legislation that has poured down on councils has been great, some have set-up new, mini departments, whereas other councils have taken the legislation on board, but have not found it necessary to employ a battalion of extra staff. For example, Birmingham City Council (the country’s largest council) employs 28 Diversity Officers at a cost of almost £2 million. Manchester City Council (another large authority) doesn’t employ any.

The BBC is in the process of recruiting staff for its new Salford Quays Development, and is looking for a Diversity Talent Executive. This is an eight-month secondment aimed at increasing the number of disabled managers within the BBC. Here is the job description:

You’ll research, create and implement a robust Diversity action plan that will enable Children’s to build and maintain a diverse workforce. You’ll proactively seek new ways in which to attract new diverse talent including:

- Creating new strong partnerships with both internal and external stakeholders in order to source new diverse talent.

- Building upon existing relationships / forums / networks that will maximise our ability to develop and source diverse talent

It is illegal to discriminate against someone because they are disabled – and rightly so. In new, modern premises, like Salford Quays, wheelchair access will not be a problem, so why the need to employ a diversity manager? Political correctness should not get in the way of appointing talented people, and this policy does just that.

Any employer will tell you they want the best person for the job, and I am sure there are many disabled people who will make great managers for the BBC. Equally there will be many women, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, you name them, who will make great managers too. It should be a level playing field, and cream will rise to the top. With so much employment legislation on the statute book these days, non-jobs like this one are not needed.

Andrew Allison

Andrew is the National Grassroots Coordinator, and helps our activists across the country organise campaigns on local issues.

Follow @andrew_allison

Daft_bentley

How can someone whose job title is “National Grassroots Coordinator” moan about so-called “non-jobs”?

Orac54

Because he isn’t funded by the taxpayer.

Roland Gilmore

This is anecdotal but I have been told by someone who works there of a London council who have employed a consultant on a lucrative deal for a little over a year to review and recommend change to their social services department. Recommendation was to cut one job that pays a salary equivalent to a quarter of the fee of the consultant . Money well spent?
The growing army of so called “Change Managers” are mainly be employed by the public sector. They provide the justification for managers who fail to do their job properly and manage and who do not have the inclination to go through the legally required stages and then issue the redundancy notices. It ammounts to redundancy at arms length..bit like a quango.