Growth in public sector jobs since 1997 has been primarily in providing frontline education and health services and not administrative staff according to a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research. There has been little increase in the employment of central or local government administrative staff. The report also shows that there has been very little change in the overall balance of public to private sector employment since 1997 and that public sector employment remains a significantly lower share of the total than in 1992. The relatively rapid pay growth seen in the public sector in the last few years was largely a ‘catch-up’, following a period of pay restraint in the 1990s, and this growth is now likely to end.Analysis of new data on staff vacancies in health, education and public administration found problems not just in the South East but in Shropshire, County Durham, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, Birmingham and Solihull. To address this issue the ippr advocates pay supplements at local, rather than regional levels to recruit and retain key public sector workers.
Teachers’ TV, a new digital television channel will launch early next year and it will form a key part of the Government’s drive for personalised learning. The channel is an innovative method of using television to raise standards in the classroom, and is being funded by the Department for Education and Skills. Teachers’ TV is Europe’s first channel dedicated to those who work in schools.The channel is editorially independent – and will carry programmes on training and development, resources for the classroom and education news. The channel will be on air 24 hours a day, and will be supported by an extensive website and interactive service.
Poor people management presents the greatest threat to downsizing Whitehall departments to meet Chancellor Gordon Brown’s pledge to reduce the civil service by over 100,000 jobs in the next three years. This includes 84,000 jobs in England and a further 20,000 in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. An additional 20,000 jobs will be re-located from London to the regions.In the light of this scale of downsizing the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has called for the current approach to reform to be remoulded so that people management is put at the heart of the reform process by shifting from a command and control style of management to a high performance model based on autonomy and trust. The Institute argues for a reduction in the number of centralised targets and giving managers more discretion at local level over pay-setting.
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