City

I discussed the application of Parkinson's principle to Bristol City Council's hiring decisions in a previous post. Well, recruitment continues apace to fill the slots in our local bureaucracy.

The brand name for the new recruitment campaign is "Tomorrow's Bristol" (or maybe it's "Evolving Bristol") and as with the previous recruitment campaign for Chief Executive, there's a posh web site.

Today, either at "Tomorrow's Bristol"(Bright lights, big city), "Evolving Bristol" or on the Council's job site, you can apply for any of the following positions (two senior managers, and nine strategy plebs):

• Strategic Director of Resources
• No Salary range published

To provide the managerial leadership and vision that will enable the development and implementation of innovative, flexible and community focussed approaches to service delivery in [...] Strategic Finance, Strategic Commissioning and Procurement Corporate, Strategic Human Resources and workforce Strategy.

• Strategic Director: Children, Young People and Skills
• No Salary range published

take a strategic lead to deliver agreed city wide outcomes and to contribute to the strategic direction of the City Council / work in partnership with other agencies, business sector and the community to deliver outcomes, / strategically commission resources and activities to deliver agreed priorities and outcomes, / take a “one Bristol” corporate approach with other colleagues on the Strategic Leadership Team to deliver an organisational transformation programme through focussing on delivering quality services and value for money in a timely and interpreted manner, / drive through cultural, organisational improvement in customer and community focus, performance, productivity, budget, managerial efficiency and workforce changes to deliver improved outcomes for the people of Bristol, / support elected members in undertaking the roles as community leaders and ward members,/ lead, direct and performance manage specific services, build a valued, confident, developed, empowered and innovative workforce/ promote and ensure that the City Council's communications, equality and health, safety and welfare objectives are met.

• Service Director Communications and Marketing
• Salary: £71,479 - £80,396

  This role is central to the transformation of our organisation. The service director will be in a position to shape the 'one council' communication strategy and will drive the development of our internal and external communication channels. They will also provide the strategic link into the inter partnerships communication strategies.

  This is a strategic role that will directly impact upon the reputation of the Council and the City.

• Service Director Economic and Cultural Development
• Salary: £71,479 - £80,396 (Perm)

This role will play a crucial role for the City Council in contributing to developing the city to its full potential to sit alongside the very best in Europe.

The new service director will be the leading player in oiling the wheels of economic investment in an already very prosperous city, tackling some areas of long standing worklessness and deprivation and developing to the full the cultural offer which the city provides to its residents and visitors

• Service Director Information Communication and Technology
• Salary: £81,098 - £89,205 (Perm)

A radical and rapid increase in our Corporate ICT capabilities will be a critical success factor for our transformation ambitions. You will have extensive experience across core ICT disciplines obtained in a wide variety of provider and client roles and your ability to work with delivery partners will be critical to your success in this role.

• Service Director Landlord Services
• Salary: £81,098 - £89,205 (Perm)

Bristol City Council manages 29,000 homes and this exciting job is to provide leadership to the services that support these tenancies. The Landlord Service Director will be responsible for a budget of approximately £100m, including a £40m capital programme, and 750 staff. The responsibilities cover the full range of landlord services, including the in-house contractor from 1 April 2009. This is a demanding job requiring excellent leadership and management skills. Our intention is to provide excellent services to customers within two years, whilst maintaining a sustainable business plan.

• Service Director Older People's Services
• Salary: £71,479 - £80,396 (Perm)

This post will help the health and social care directorate team and will require focus and imagination to drive the personalisation agenda in Bristol.

The Older People's Services Service Director will be one of two new joint appointments with the PCT reflecting our ambition to ensure seamless commissioning and delivery to older people in Bristol. Responsibilities include commissioning a range of services to older people, safeguarding, locality and hospital teams.

• Service Director Portfolio, Programme and Projects
• Salary: £63,376 - £71,479 (3 years)

Our portfolio of transformation programmes and projects is already extensive and will grow fast during 2009. To match this, we expect this role to create and lead the necessary governance and support essential for the successful delivery of our portfolio of programmes. As a seasoned programme management professional with a demonstrable track record of programme delivery and with extensive governance experience you will work at the highest level in the organisation to support the leaders of our transformation programmes. Naturally you will be well versed and experienced in Managing Successful Programmes (TM) and Prince2 (TM) methodologies.

• Service Director Putting People First
• (yes, that really is the job title)
• Salary: £63,376 - £71,479 (2 years)

This post will help the health and social care directorate team and will require focus and imagination to drive the personalisation agenda in Bristol.

The Putting People First Service Director will lead Bristol's implementation of the Putting People First agenda. We have made an excellent start and need someone to lead and manage major cultural and system changes, to work with all stakeholders, to lead on work to achieve excellent outcomes and performance standards across all service.

• Service Director Shared Transactional Services
• Salary: £71,479 - £80,396 (Perm)

  The creation and leadership of a new centre delivering high quality and value for money Finance, Procurement, HR and Facilities transactions to all Bristol City Council employees is at the heart of this role. Fundamental to our transformation vision, the Service Director, Shared Transactional Services will be a high visibility member of the Council's wider leadership team, with equally high expectations of rapid and successful delivery.

• Service Director Transport
• Salary: £71,479 - £80,396 (Perm)

We’re looking for the leader who will help us build the partnerships and attract the investment to significantly improve our city transport offer, making us among Best in Class. From encouraging cycling, walking, rapid transit, and state of the art public transport – you’ll be working to develop a transport system worthy of Bristol’s emerging reputation as a leading European 21st Century city.

Even ignoring the costs of employment and pensions for these chaps, this is a minimum spend of over a £1,000,00 per annum on salaries, or approximately £5 minimum for each and every council taxpayer in the city of Bristol.

Looking at the job descriptions, I'm struck by the fact that the top tier of officers - the Strategic Directors as opposed to mere Service Directors - seem to be exercising what I would regard as the political functions of the Executive. I'm inclined to think we could save ourselves a lot of money locally by simply guillotining the top row off the Council's organisation chart.

The following document was presented at the full meeting of Bristol City Council on 1st April 2008. It is not - and I have checked - an April Fool's Jape.

Report of the Members' Renumeration Independent Review Panel

[Para 6] Allowance for Leader of the Council

6.1 At its meeting on 19 June 2007 the Full Council accepted the Panel’s recommendation that the Leader’s remuneration package should be no less than £50,000 per annum – to be implemented via a stepped approach over a 4 year period (indexed-linked from 2007/08 values). In order to achieve this recommendation the Panel recommends the following annual increases for the Leader of the Council’s SRA:

• 2008/09 - £10k + indexation year 1 x 25%
• 2009/10 - £10k + indexation years 1- 2 x 50%
• 2010/11 - £10k + indexation years 1- 3 x 75%
• 2011/12 - £10k + indexation years 1- 4 x 100%

Sorry, what was that?

"The Leader's renumeration package should be no less than £50,000 per annum".

Right. So we've just had another inflation busting increase in Council Tax, for which we get our rubbish collected every other week, an average police service, and an achingly PC fire service [who spend 28 pence of every pound they receive on gold-plated public sector pensions]. We're in the middle of a credit crunch, after ten years of profligate tax and spend politics by London government, and with everyone looking to tighten their belts.

Yes, clearly this is the time to give a 25% per year pay rise to someone doing a job that previous generations would have regarded as a bit of part-time voluntary work. Fantastic.

[Para 7] Annual Indexation

7.1 Members of the panel endorse their original recommendation that the following indexation should be applied:

• Basic Allowance, Special Responsibility Allowances, Dependent Carers’ Allowances and Co-optees’ Allowance: index to annual officer pay increase – this percentage increase is nationally negotiated and related to what local government can afford and also treats Officers and Members equally for annual increase in remuneration.
• Mileage Rates: maintain indexation to Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP or Inland Revenue) rates.
• Subsistence Rates: continue to index to Officer rates, except where relevant elements are booked directly by Members’ Services.

Even better, there is now a formal link between councillors' allowances and the salaries and benefits of council officers in another inflation-happy positive feedback cycle.