I’ve had a hectic week covering both Bucks CC work and PPMA work, so I’m relieved that the week is now over and I can go home to relax (with a glass of wine!).

On Tuesday, I attended a Solace/Alace seminar on the proposed changes to senior officers’ pensions taxation. The consultation paper on the changes makes radical proposals that will impact heavily on senior officers.

My suggestions for those who haven’t yet picked this up are to bring it to the attention of your senior team, suggest that anyone concerned obtains actuarial valuations of their pensions, arrange a seminar on the changes via your pensions administrator and if possible enable senior officers to get access to independent financial advice.

Last night I was lucky enough to attend the annual Association of County Chief Executives (ACCE) dinner in my capacity as President of PPMA. The dinner was held at The Grove (infamous for the leaked England Football Team tapes last week) which also happens to be a couple of miles from my home in Hertfordshire so also very convenient for me. It was a great networking event and I was able to speak to Rob Whiteman the incoming Chief Executive of the IDeA.

I have arranged to set up a meeting with him before he starts his new role in May to talk through PPMA priorities and how we work with the IDeA. I also saw Mike Burton from The MJ who tells me that the PPMA Focus is just about to go to the printers for the conference edition.

So, only 2 weeks to go before I hand over the reigns to Dean and counting down from here!

Have a great weekend.

Gill

Hello everyone, I hope you have been enjoying the beautiful sunshine over the past few days. As I settle into the role of President and find time to plan ahead I Would like to share with you more detail on my manifesto for the next 12 months. There are five key areas I will be focusing on during my year as President which hopefully will touch a nerve or two in your roles:

1. Driving efficiencies out of our organisations, both in HR services and in other services. Shared services will be top of the agenda for most organisations. More and more innovative solutions to cross organisational partnerships functions will be sought as we all try to squeeze every drop of inefficiency out of back office processes in order to protect front line services.
2. Pay in the public sector. We have seen the public outcry in the media over ‘gold plated’ public sector pensions and ‘fat cat’ bonuses in the private sector.  The time has come to radically review reward in the public sector. The pension scheme is not sustainable in its current format, there are too many barriers in place for people to transfer seamlessly between the various public sector bodies and the national pay process doesn’t take sufficient account of local variations.
3. Shaping radical change to the structure and function of public services. Whether we like it or not our organisations need to change dramatically to meet the challenges that lie ahead. No longer will we be the only providers of public services in our areas. The shift to commissioning based organisations will continue, new delivery vehicles will develop as we look to drive public value and stronger partnership working will need to be top of our agendas as we try to join up even more of our services for the benefit of the customer. All this requires radical re-shaping of our organisations and radical re-training of our people.
4. Social Worker Recruitment – a very specific issue but well deserving of our attention. We have a duty to provide the highest levels of care and protection to our most vulnerable people. We have to find new solutions to the image of social work along with sustainable solutions to the attraction and retention of candidates.
5. Leadership development. There has never been a greater need for strong leadership in the public sector. The task ahead is significant and the only way that people will follow is by having a clear sense of what they are trying to achieve, a sense of excitement and confidence in the journey ahead of them and strong and confident role models at a senior level.

Finally, a very long blog post I know but can I also draw your attention to two new publications from PPMA. The first is on the Organisational Development Implications of the Shared Services Agenda, produced by Richard Crouch and Rita Sammons from Solace Enterprises. The second is a thought leadership paper on The Future Size and Shape of our Organisations written by Deloitte in conjunction with PPMA. Both are available to PPMA members for download from the PPMA website.

In the meantime watch out for a special focus on outsourcing in this weeks Sunday Times with contributions from PPMA and for editorial coverage in the LGC this week on pay.

Bye for now

Gill