15 April 2005
The government's largest department this week announced it would axe an entire management grade under plans to transform the way it provides pension services.
Senior officials at the Department for Work and Pensions will scrap the higher executive officer grade, a middle management post, at its pension centres as part of its modernisation programme.
Some pension centres have been closed and others merged as part of the DWP's contribution to the government's £40bn total efficiency savings target by 2008. DWP mandarins must slash 30,000 civil service posts by that date.
The Pension Service management announced the move on April 11, claiming it would introduce a flatter management structure that would provide additional efficiencies. The service will remove the HEO grade, apart from a small number in support services.
The DWP was unable to provide figures on the number of posts involved, but a civil service source estimated it was 'a matter of hundreds, not thousands'.
Under the new system, senior executive officers, the grade below HEOs, will be given management responsibilities over up to 15 team leaders, who will themselves be responsible for 15 administrative staff.
The DWP said the changeover would be gradual and supported by improved IT systems. But the Public and Commercial Services union warned that executive officers would be left to manage large numbers of staff, threatening the effectiveness of the service. 'Such ratios would also leave little prospect of promotion for most remaining staff,' the union claimed.
PFapr2005
