NEWS
Public sector leadership less ethnically diverse than private
Local Government are amongst the worst.
Former chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission Trevor Phillips (pictured), chair of Green Park Diversity Analytics, said that taxpayer-funded services
“carry a responsibility to engage the widest possible range of individuals as possible, above all in their leadership and governance”.
There is significantly less ethnic diversity in public sector leadership roles across the UK than in senior roles at FTSE 100 companies, a new study has revealed.
The Public Service Leadership 5,000 survey, commissioned by recruitment consultancy Green Park, breaks down public service leadership by gender, ethnicity and cultural background, and analyses the top two layers of leadership.
There are virtually no employees of black or Chinese/other Asian origin in the top four grades within the Civil Service, the survey suggests.
Ethnic minorities are
under-represented as senior civil servants, relative to the population at large, by a factor of six to one.
The Department for International Development and the Treasury perform best on ethnic diversity in leadership roles, while the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and Department for Communities and
He said: “While our research does find some encouraging trends, such as the presence of women at senior roles in non-urban local authorities, other areas are much more disappointing. Bizarrely, London, the most diverse area of the country with a 40% non-white population, shows a less diverse local authority leadership than the FTSE.”
Although gender diversity is better generally in the public sector than the private sector, women still appear unlikely to break through
the glass ceiling to the top public jobs as they are to the top FTSE 100 roles.
Women leaders are least likely to be found in the most powerful functions – chief officer and corporate resources and finance – and more likely in areas such as children’s services.
Of the 268 people in leadership roles at other prominent public bodies – such as the Bank of England, NHS England and the BBC – just six were not white.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We need the best and brightest civil servants, regardless of their background.
“The Civil Service compares
favourably to many organisations in terms of the diversity of its workforce – but we must do better.”
More on Civil Service diversity on page 15.
Councils must not pay senior staff ‘over the odds’, MPs warn
Councils must seek better ‘market information’ to make sure they are not paying over the odds for their senior staff, the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee says.
Most councils have kept pay down for senior staff recently, after dramatic 75% pay rises for senior council staff in the first decade of this century, the committee says.
But local authorities must ensure there is “no return” to inflation- busting pay increases even as economic conditions improve.
The MPs recommend that the LGA works with local employers’ bodies to fill an “information gap” on regional pay and recruitment trends.
Because many councils have no
robust appraisal systems
for senior staff, they lack an established link between senior officer pay and performance.
Committee chair Clive Betts MP said: “There is no ‘one size fits all’ formula and it is right that councils set pay within the context of their own local needs and priorities.
“But some councils have made pay decisions insensitive to local circumstances. Councils need to look more critically at the pay packages suggested by external consultants and job evaluation schemes to ensure it isn’t possible to secure a good officer on lower pay.”
New approaches, such as councils sharing a chief executive, could cut overall salary bills, the report says. But it does not support merging the posts of leader of the council and chief executive, since each has a distinct role, with the robust challenge between the two posts helping to safeguard effective services for local communities.
An LGA spokesman told PSE: “We
are pleased that the committee has recognised the importance of councils being able to take a local approach to pay. The LGA is already working on improving market data and refreshing guidance on performance pay, as recommended by this report. It
is also pleasing that the
committee recognises staff made redundant through no fault of their own should not be penalised through the clawing back of exit payments.”
Graeme McDonald, director of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers
(Solace), who sits on PSE’s editorial
board, locally” welcomed versus the
committee’s recognition of “local government’s ability to manage pay
centrally imposed dictate.
He said: “The creation of a transparent and flexible market has kept pay under control and led to the wage differential between the lowest and highest earners being kept at the right level.”
On mergers, he said: “The
distinction between political and non-political roles should be clear and unambiguous.”
public sector executive Oct/Nov 14 | 11
© Dominic Lipinski, PA Wire
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