Pity the poor public sector manager. Pilloried by the press as time-wasting penpushers, the people who plan, run and performance-manage our public services are in the direct line of fire from politicians of all stripes.
In these straitened times, the jobs of frontline staff are, theoretically, sacrosanct. But back-office administrators and ‘fat cat’ managers are increasingly viewed as fair game (see And then there were none...). It’s enough to make these latter-day Reginald Perrins head for the exit door now.
There are plenty who would like to speed them on their way. The Tories’ smaller state plans include shrinking Whitehall by a third and shaving £1.5bn off NHS management costs. Communities Secretary John Denham claims that the government will save £600m from council budgets by minimising duplication. Education Secretary Ed Balls has promised £2bn in savings from school mergers.
Meanwhile the CBI has called for additional £120bn cuts to spending plans, and wholesale outsourcing of back-room functions.
All of which spells curtains for hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs. But how much sense does this cull of managers make? Management costs account for just 3% of the NHS budget, and many roles cross over between management and the front line.
Savings from senior management cuts would amount to ‘pennies and halfpennies’ according to local government expert Tony Travers, particularly when set against the costs of early retirement and redundancies.
And although there are efficiencies to be made from initiatives like Total Place, there are also risks attached to removing management layers.
Managers didn’t get where they are today without contributing something to the greater good. More frontline staff inevitably require more managers.
Two chief executives, head teachers or finance directors for the price of one might sound attractive. But where does that leave managers’ ability to think strategically, or monitor and supervise services?
As King’s Fund chief executive Niall Dickson writes on these pages attacking quangos, regulators and ‘bureaucracy’ makes for easy sound bites. But no-one wants to own up to the need for frontline cuts – for example, to clinical staff.
‘Politicians are not on the whole suicidal,’ notes Dickson. So, for the moment, like Reggie, they’re faking it; pretending to take a knife to public services, without actually drawing frontline blood.
Managers are the short-term casualties. But, unlike the eponymous hero of Fall and rise…, there are no second lives.
