The Need For A Department of Re-Training And Re-Deployment

What do you think of Charlie Parker's new plan for turning Jersey into a copy of Whitehall?

It all looks very exciting, doesn't it?

It promises to save money and reduce jobs. Well we've never heard that before.

What a steaming pile of bovine faeces that is

Except it isn't in its present form. Instead it is going to be a repeat of the nonsense with Ag & Fish where the department was closed, but the staff continued to go to the same place, sit at the same desk for the same money and pension - and no one knew what to do with them any more until they eventually gave up and they became invisible. I recently asked a civil servant how many people from Ag & Fish were still there being paid to twiddle their thumbs all day and I was told "Not many"

How many years has that been?

To stand any chance of success, the plan needs another department. Let's call it the Department Of Re-Training and Re-Deployment to put these "unemployed" civil servants in.

Why bother with a whole new department? Two reasons:

1. Because Charlie Parker states that 22 senior civil servants are going to lose their positions and that some 3,300 job profiles are barmy and inappropriate. 3,300! That's almost half the official number of the civil service. The last thing we want is them disappearing into the background and getting paid to do nothing We need to keep track of them over time because if we can't fire them, we're going to have to re-train them and re-deploy them.
2. How much is training going to cost? If we're talking about 3,300 needing re-training, that is not a small amount and it needs to be budgeted for - and planned. You know, things like timetables and deadlines.

Do you know who has least faith in this plan? Charlie Parker himself. He thinks that all of this change and re-training is only going to save over £1 million a year. That's a saving of 1/6% of the budget. 4 years ago, Senator Ozouf was promising an annual increase in efficiencies of 2% or 12 times higher

And how long is it going to take to realise that £1 million a year saving? Well the first 2 1/2 years will pay for the pension plan pay-off of the previous CEO. Probably another 1 1/2 years will be needed to pay for all of the consultants we're presently consulting with. Oh that's 4 years of upheavel for nothing to show for it just in time for the next election.