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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Public servants deserve far more than just a pay rise | |
| (5 months later) | |
| Lifting the public sector pay cap would be welcome, but there’s still a huge gap where fresh thinking on services should be | |
| Wed 6 Sep 2017 07.13 BST | |
| Last modified on Wed 6 Sep 2017 11.35 BST | |
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| Hints that Theresa May might lift the pay cap on public sector staff are being greeted as an exhibition of her statesmanship and wisdom. In fact, they are a demonstration of incoherence (has the Treasury really signed up to the wider fiscal consequences?) and previous dogmatism on the part of the government. | Hints that Theresa May might lift the pay cap on public sector staff are being greeted as an exhibition of her statesmanship and wisdom. In fact, they are a demonstration of incoherence (has the Treasury really signed up to the wider fiscal consequences?) and previous dogmatism on the part of the government. |
| For the latter, the editor of the Evening Standard and former chancellor George Osborne carries the can. Either he failed to understand the effects of a blanket restriction on pay or he was carrying through an ideological assault on the state. | For the latter, the editor of the Evening Standard and former chancellor George Osborne carries the can. Either he failed to understand the effects of a blanket restriction on pay or he was carrying through an ideological assault on the state. |
| It is significant that the government now realises what its austerity has accomplished. Here is a chance to address the recruitment crisis in the NHS. Nurses may be persuaded to hold off on their threatened action. If the FDA union is right and a third of civil servants are poised to leave their posts, perhaps a Whitehall implosion will be averted. | It is significant that the government now realises what its austerity has accomplished. Here is a chance to address the recruitment crisis in the NHS. Nurses may be persuaded to hold off on their threatened action. If the FDA union is right and a third of civil servants are poised to leave their posts, perhaps a Whitehall implosion will be averted. |
| Warm words from the prime minister about public sector people are doubtless welcome, echoing the attempt her former adviser Nick Timothy seemed to have made in the election manifesto to scope a new Tory philosophy. | Warm words from the prime minister about public sector people are doubtless welcome, echoing the attempt her former adviser Nick Timothy seemed to have made in the election manifesto to scope a new Tory philosophy. |
| However, there are two big, big caveats. The first is money. Maybe the Treasury has been persuaded to slit the sides of the pay envelope, but you can bet the quid pro quo must be staff numbers. Agencies and departments may be accorded pay flexibility but only within a controlled, still eye-wateringly tight, budget. Better pay for some, translates as fewer staff in aggregate. | However, there are two big, big caveats. The first is money. Maybe the Treasury has been persuaded to slit the sides of the pay envelope, but you can bet the quid pro quo must be staff numbers. Agencies and departments may be accorded pay flexibility but only within a controlled, still eye-wateringly tight, budget. Better pay for some, translates as fewer staff in aggregate. |
| If that’s not what the Treasury is agreeing to, the alternative is incredible. Is Philip Hammond really junking the Osborne spending trajectory and admitting the state has grown dysfunctionally too small? Is the Treasury going to expand borrowing or (even more unlikely in present political circumstances) raise taxes in order to pay for the extra pay costs? | If that’s not what the Treasury is agreeing to, the alternative is incredible. Is Philip Hammond really junking the Osborne spending trajectory and admitting the state has grown dysfunctionally too small? Is the Treasury going to expand borrowing or (even more unlikely in present political circumstances) raise taxes in order to pay for the extra pay costs? |
| The second doubt takes us into a huge empty space – the Tory approach to government and public services. Under Margaret Thatcher and to a lesser extent John Major, the Tories were the party of cuts, but also the party of public management innovation with a keen interest in new ideas. Since 2010, however, it has been impossible to detect any clear threads in how Tory ministers go about their custodianship of the state, beyond their determination to shrink it and push contracting and privatisation. | The second doubt takes us into a huge empty space – the Tory approach to government and public services. Under Margaret Thatcher and to a lesser extent John Major, the Tories were the party of cuts, but also the party of public management innovation with a keen interest in new ideas. Since 2010, however, it has been impossible to detect any clear threads in how Tory ministers go about their custodianship of the state, beyond their determination to shrink it and push contracting and privatisation. |
| It’s not just flexibility on pay that’s needed, but fresh and joined-up thinking about the values and operations of the public sector. The Department for Exiting the European Union, like the Department for Transport, for example, or like NHS trusts, don’t just need to be able to offer excellent people salaries commensurate with their training and potential – they need to be able to assure them that public purpose is uppermost and that their ethos goes beyond the selfish priorities of today’s ministers. | It’s not just flexibility on pay that’s needed, but fresh and joined-up thinking about the values and operations of the public sector. The Department for Exiting the European Union, like the Department for Transport, for example, or like NHS trusts, don’t just need to be able to offer excellent people salaries commensurate with their training and potential – they need to be able to assure them that public purpose is uppermost and that their ethos goes beyond the selfish priorities of today’s ministers. |
| Sadly, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, like the Tories, gave the concept of public sector reform an unpleasant taste. Yet the public sector still needs reform, like it needs more money. Among measures – to be negotiated with the unions – are additional payments in areas of staff shortage, temporary bonuses and golden handcuffs. However, such steps would only make sense if the government were sincerely committed to collective service and its notion of reform embraced expansion and refurbishment of the public realm. | Sadly, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, like the Tories, gave the concept of public sector reform an unpleasant taste. Yet the public sector still needs reform, like it needs more money. Among measures – to be negotiated with the unions – are additional payments in areas of staff shortage, temporary bonuses and golden handcuffs. However, such steps would only make sense if the government were sincerely committed to collective service and its notion of reform embraced expansion and refurbishment of the public realm. |
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