Yesterday saw the eventual publication of the Beecroft report by the Government (Link) after the Telegraph leaked a copy earlier in the day. The leaked copy (Link) which would appear to be an earlier draft of the report, contains some elements not included in the official report. This has led to claims of political editing by opposition parties and groups and yet again the Government seem to be driven by events rather than driving the agenda themselves. Indeed, the Business Secretary, Vince Cable is not in full support of the report. His statement on the BIS website is clearly distancing himself and the department from the report (Link).

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has today delivered the third budget of the coalition government.

You can read the full budget document here (Link).

I was really disappointed to hear reported in the news this weekend that the Chancellor has a plan to move away from National Pay rates for Public Sector workers: (Link)

My disappointment comes in several forms, firstly that we are living with apparently our first generation “professional” politicians, many of the people in power and in the key opposition positions have never done anything else, stints as SPADs don’t count. With this career history in mind it is my (probably naive) expectation that irrespective of party political persuasion, they are well versed  in the detail of  the history of previous administrations of the 20^th Century. Here’s the second big disappointment, the announcement this morning tells me that there really are no new ideas,  not even in this professionalised group of people. We have been here before. 

Ideas of regional variation have been floated before. It was dealt with by Local Pay Allowances, where certain locations attracted a pay addition that differentiated the National rate.

The government is launching a scheme whereby employers will receive a fee for providing ex-offenders with employment opportunities and then keeping them on for two years or more. (Link)

This will come as welcome news to many in the criminal justice sector, as employment and sustained employment is one of the major hurdles offenders face upon release from prison.

One thing that I truly hope the scheme will provide though is a wide range of employment opportunities for the offenders. Whilst it is true that there are many unskilled and poorly educated men and women within our prison system, this is not true of the total population.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne has today delivered the ‘Autumn statement’

A copy of the full statement can be viewed here: (Click Link)

I watched the recent story about Executive Pay levels with interest. It’s always a slightly inflammatory story, but the current economic context  of public sector cuts, pay freezes, redundancies and a more general story of economic doom, make stories of anyone doing well seem incendiary.

The rights and wrongs of the report and the use of Mean and Median analysis have been much discussed. This story felt to me like an opportunity for a media feeling aggrieved on the part of the general population to target someone to blame. When everyone is struggling, not sure whether to blame government, bankers, economists or whomever, it is a popular message to sell that it doesn’t seem right when individually we feel that we didn’t contribute to economic difficulties that we should have to pay. When Government is promoting a message of shared pain, that there should be any group of people doing economically well seems wrong.

Upon reading the latest reports on the draft proposals to remove the rights of unproductive workers to claim unfair dismissal has left me with a wry smile on my face.

In my mind this is undoubtedly a knee jerk reaction to just one too many difficult conversations with a frustrated  manager bemoaning that it is “impossible” to dismiss anyone, when resources are under increasing pressure, budgets are being cut, everyone is under close scrutiny to deliver more with less. No one wants to be carrying “dead weight”.

Where performance management has been distinctly lacking in the past, I do wonder if this is a reaction to a few chickens coming home to roost.

The Independent Commission on Banking published it’s final report on September 12th 2011.

You can read the full report by clicking the link here: (ICB Report Link)

I read with some interest today the news article on the suggestion that Police Officers should wear their uniform on the commute to work (Link).

There are sound arguments on both sides. It will increase Police visibility and, as the Police Federation point out, will undoubtedly put Police at increased risk.

It wasn’t this part of the story that caught my eye though. It was the underlying theme about uniformed officers doing work that civilian staff could perform.

The BBC news story on 28^th July 2011, about Whitehall being ripped off by large I.T. firms made interesting reading. (Click Link)

Yet again, Government is wondering how they are spending so much money on projects that deliver very little, or in some cases nothing at all.

There is little doubt that the I.T. firms are making money out of Whitehall, but I do question whether it is wilfully ‘ripping them off.’

One of the key factors in the many examples available of I.T. contracts and projects that have gone so array, is the lack of understanding by Senior Managers in the Government on how to negotiate workable contracts, manage projects and set realistic budgets.