John Whitehead, the Secretary to the Treasury, has kick-started a debate on the value of public services. Not before time – though I do wonder why it’s Treasury not the State Services Commission leading on this. The Treasury recipe for the 21st century public service has a very retro feel. Belt-tightening (though not at Treasury, where they are enjoying a 10% baseline increase), lots of privatisation, plenty of counting, measuring and monitoring, and a thorough restructuring of the state sector. Very 80s and 90s.
The PSA agrees that we need innovative and responsive public services. But we have a very different view of what will take us there. So here’s our list of 7 Things That Need to Change:
- taking privatisation off the agenda
- a moratorium on restructurings
- giving citizens a voice
- listening to front line public sector workers
- getting the best from public sector workers
- respecting the professionalism of public sector workers
- having more effective and efficient bargaining of pay and conditions for public sector workers.
The Treasury recipe failed in the past and there’s no reason why it should work now. We need to try something different. Engaging with public sector workers and listening to our communities would be a good start.
natsecpsa.wordpress.com 
July 22, 2009 at 5:41 pm |
You are nothing more than a Labour party mouthpiece …….. hang you heads in shame.
July 22, 2009 at 9:23 pm |
My Ministry has imposed a pay freeze except for those between 85 % – 95% of their band.
As the market rate was not followed last year, everyone is now 6.29% behind the median.
The Ministry managed a $11 million surplus – Enjoy it Bill.
July 23, 2009 at 9:48 am |
I agree with you bullet point four, but it should NOT just be front line public sector workers who are asked for their opinion on how productivity can increase. As a member of the ‘core’ public service my views are completely ignored, and the work we do is run down every day. In addition to this, where there is restructuring (as in my organisation) appointments are made based on personal politics (cronyism) and not based on effectiveness and productivity.
While we all understand that reducing outgoings is the driver for reform in the public sector – it needs to be done right. Simply listening to the frontline, or allowing senior management to make changes in the ‘core’ without considering what/who works then we will spiral down further and further and reinforce the calls for the public sector to go.
July 25, 2009 at 12:45 am |
I wonder if Mr Whitehead is or ever was a member of the PSA