Introduction
Public sector bodies have a responsibility to ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely and that public funds are used to employ people in jobs that are of real value to taxpayers. Unfortunately, there exists a vast web of state-funded bodies engaged in unnecessary activism, from police forces promoting “equality and diversity” to NHS Trusts training staff in critical race theory.[1]
This gives rise to a multitude of non-jobs that can range from questionable administrative roles to positions that are simply created to promote political causes. Non-jobs are not only a waste of taxpayers’ money; they can also crowd out more productive activity that offers greater value for money. In many cases, scarce financial resources are being spent on jobs that are of little or no benefit to frontline services. It is estimated that over £7 billion of taxpayers’ money is spent annually across government on politically motivated campaigns.[2]
Unlike recent reports which have concentrated on estimating the total cost of non-jobs in the public sector, this note aims to provide examples of job titles from each organisation surveyed.
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Key findings
- 1,110 non-jobs were identified across 232 public bodies that provided data. These include 682 jobs in equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), 263 in sustainability, 33 in race and 132 in culture. (Table 1).
- Equality, diversity and inclusion roles were the most common non-jobs found in the organisations investigated.
- Universities had the lion’s share of non-jobs, with 685 overall including 373 EDI roles such as ‘Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Advisor’ and ‘Pro Vice Chancellor of Culture, Equality and Inclusion’
- Race related roles were identified in all types of organisation sampled, including NHS trusts which employed a ‘Race Matters Project Midwife’ and a ‘Community Nurse for Ethnicity and Culture’.
- Every police force reported at least one equality, diversity and inclusion role.
Table 1: non-jobs across 232 public bodies
|
Key term |
Number of roles |
Total |
||
|
NHS |
Police |
Universities |
||
|
Equality, diversity and inclusion |
219 |
90 |
373 |
682 |
|
Sustainability |
54 |
5 |
204 |
263 |
|
Race |
5 |
1 |
27 |
33 |
|
Culture |
46 |
5 |
81 |
132 |
|
Total |
324 |
101 |
685 |
1,110 |
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[1] Somerville, E., Black Lives Matter training among new diversity courses offered to NHS staff, The Daily Telegraph, 19 September 2021.
[2] A report by the Conservative Way Forward (CWF) think tank found that £7 billion is being spent every year on unconscious bias training, quangos and equality and diversity officers. See CWF, Defunding Politically Motivated Campaigns, https://bit.ly/3YCU2aX (accessed 21 December)