Last Friday, on the day of the PPMA Policy Board, there were headlines in The Independent newspaper about the loss of at least 20,000 jobs in local government up and down the country. As we lead up to a general election all parties are talking about cut backs in the public sector and we know that because of the nature of our business that means less people employed so the numbers could be higher than those reported.

The board discussed this very serious issue and agreed that we should send out a note asking members what they would like to see from the PPMA by way of professional support. The topics could range from the technical, e.g. how do you downsize? through to planning for the future. The range of issues could potentially be quite wide, so feedback as to what people are seeing as pressing needs will be helpful.

Responses will be circulated to the board, which includes the regional chairs, and we will have to decide on how best we can add value at this difficult and stressful time.

Best wishes

Gill

The following article features PPMA President Gill Hibberd:

1. HR wary on plans for public-sector co-ops published 22nd February 2010 on peoplemanagement.co.uk

I’ve just chaired my last Board meeting as President of PPMA before I hand over the reigns to Dean Shoesmith at the AGM in March. The meeting on Friday was full of ‘meaty’ issues. It was also a meeting with a number of new faces some of whom have recently taken over Lead officers roles and some who were covering for Regional Chairs.

We had a couple of guest speakers at the meeting. The first was Anne Macdonald who runs the national Social Work Task Force Chaired by Moira Gibb from Camden. Anne updated us on the final report of the task force and the work that is now being done on implementation. The Task Force received vital evidence from PPMA and we had a full and frank discussion with Anne about our willingness to be a key contributor going forward into the implementation phase. We look forward to building a strong relationship with the Task Force team over the coming months. A big thank you to Andreas Ghosh for arranging the session.

Next we had a great presentation from Chris Johnson from Mercer. Chris has been working on the next phase of the PPMA’s vision for the future of reward in the public sector. He has developed a set of data that shows trends and facts about public and private sector reward. PPMA will be using this information to start ‘A Big Discussion’ across the regions over the coming weeks about what the data tells you and what you would like to see in the future reward model. This will be an exciting piece of engagement with Members across the Country and an opportunity for you to shape our policy direction for the future. Watch this space!

Finally, the Board also agreed to appoint a new Managing Director for PPMA on an interim basis initially. The post will be responsible for developing the future commercial strategy for PPMA, setting up a national PPMA office and delivering a new Member offering. This is an opportunity for PPMA to really up its game and become a leading commercial and sustainable member association for the future. If you have any views on what we are trying to do please let me know through the blog. I look forward to hearing your comments.

Finally, for all those Facebook addicts out there, PPMA now has its very own Facebook page. Sign up as a fan to link up with other PPMA members and find out the latest on what’s going on in PPMA.

Best wishes

Gill

The following articles feature PPMA President Gill Hibberd:

1. BBC defends its dominance over HR Directors pay published 2nd February 2010 on hrmagazine.co.uk
2. Fit-notes will cause arguments about ’suitable work’ definition published 2nd February 2010 on personneltoday.com
3. Councils search for ways to cut costs without compulsory redundencies published 8th February on personneltoday.com

You may have picked up in the media that the CIPD have recently issued a paper entitled ‘Building Productive Public Sector Workplaces’. The document highlights the inevitable and lengthy period of public sector transformation that we are going through and positions effective people management as an essential prerequisite for success.

The paper goes on to make a number of recommendations for improvement in people management practice across the sector. For those that haven’t seen the document I have arranged for a link to be sent directly to PPMA members in the next couple of days. Although the paper is, in my view, positioned as a policy and lobbying paper by the CIPD, it has unfortunately been translated into a negative portrayal of public sector people management practice by some parts of the media.

Dean Shoesmith was busy responding to media calls with the PPMA view yesterday but we are also interested in hearing your views on the document. Let us know by commenting in the blog if you agree or disagree with the recommendations? Does it represent a fair and balanced commentary on the sector or not?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Gill