Warrington Council’s advert for a Climate Change Manager may have incensed many of you last week in terms of the role’s validity and the hefty price-tag for taxpayers, but this week the public sector have outdone themselves in terms of just how much money they’re prepared to pay to dazzle the general public...
A supporter kindly emailed over a vacancy we hadn’t spotted from a couple of weeks ago for a ‘Communications and Stakeholder Manager’ role for an unnamed but “high profile government organisation” who stated all the usual requirements and offered an eye-watering £400 per day fee in exchange for spin -services rendered.
Looking at this week’s Guardian jobs site it certainly appears that such contracts with generous daily rates are being proffered more and more regularly by government bodies, mainly to marketing and communications professionals. This week’s non-job is, therefore, somewhat archetypal and recognises this growing (and increasingly costly!) trend:
“City of London (unnamed...)
£140 - £160 per annum (?! We can only assume per day!)
Our forward thinking client is looking for a Communications Executive to develop and manage the implementation of strategies to promote and market Council services. To do this you will have to co-ordinate the production of high quality marketing and publicity material accessible to a range of external and internal audiences. You will be responsible for marketing and communications projects as well as developing, implementing and reviewing effective communication and marketing strategies. Within the role, day to day duties will include producing text, articles and features for the staff magazine. You will be delivering communications projects utilising different techniques such as speeches, newspapers, leaflets, publicity events and conferences. An understanding of Local Government will be an advantage along with experience of marketing to local residents.”
If you were to compile a list of priorities for public cash, after policing, education, defence, health, just how far down would ‘paying someone to write articles for a staff magazine’ feature? Or what about ‘paying someone to remind the general public how great the policing/education/defence/health services are (even/especially if they’re not)?’
Would it even make the list of most rational-minded people? Especially if they were made aware of the state of public finances? Pretty doubtful.
Nevertheless, this is what we’ve got and this is what we’re paying for it. More than your average policeman, fireman, or nurse makes in a day, that’s for sure.