Unpopular decisions

[Beelzebub3]

19 hours ago, Numbnuts said:

Your right ,sadly , but the messages our esteemed leaders send out are totally at odds with the seriousness of the situation. 
I would start with banning any new recruitment into CS post till a full appraisal has taken place of existing posts. Apart from really necessary posts of course , ATC and the likes. The 53 suggested posts in HR should be massively put on hold and pushed into a corner. Yes I know doing a root and branch assessment of staffing is fraught but has to happen. The CS and the likes need to get the message that the cash cow has gone. Burroughs Stewart need to be binned off as do any other pet operations that are to cosy with Government. Also HR department would be my first port of call for assessment as it’s clear they have no clue as to what’s required in any staffing recruitment. Spake anyone ! Senior management in all departments need to be called in together ,the only CS gathering I would approve, and the reality spelt out to them that we cannot continue like we have been doing.  Budgets need to be adhered too and supervision of any project will need to be overseen strictly . We have to get away from zero accountability otherwise we really are doomed. Nobody I know thinks that this latest setup with MDC is not doomed to fail as nothing changed in the way it’s structured. The DOI has cost the people of the IOM multi millions and the end result is mostly substandard and at a premium . The IOM is now seen as a soft touch I’m sure by organisations  and nothings changing anytime soon unless they face up to what the situation is before it’s too late. Cannan has been a total failure with lots of speak but no end result. He still has a chance to rescue his reputation . Will he or can he. If he tried he would have most of the public on board . They cannot continue rinsing the person in the street to pay for there own incompetence and failings. And the MHK’s who say they are working in the background to make a difference are the first that need to go. Totally cop out ! Ohhh and the number needs to reduce. Having 24 MHK’s that most offer nothing to the party has to stop. And don’t get me started on MLC’s . It’s a shit show but not to late….I could go on lots but I think you get the idea. Lots won’t agree with my ideas , some will , but whatever we are all surely in agreement something urgently needs to be done.  
footnote. I know this all will take time and won’t be easy. Ego’s will take a battering and they will be casualties but if nothings done it will be far worse.

The CS is out of control as there is no one person capable of breaking down the large "empires" that most CEOs Directors etc. have built up within each department, not to mention the "hired help" ie consultants brought in to make decisions about an Island they know nothing about or the way the place works. The CS is oversubscribed with management and that is the problem there are not enough foot soldiers to carry out the services that the public need, how many managers are there at Manxcare/DHSC DOI DfE DEFA CO as opposed to actual staff on the ground providing a service to the public an example Government offices counter services? how many staff are available to speak to regarding any queries you may have? DHSC try getting to speak to someone regards an illness is nigh on impossible unless you ring everyday and hound the department you require and even when you do get to speak with someone they send you an appointment for 12 months away if you are lucky. What IMO needs to happen is offices/departments need to be stripped of non productive staff whether they have been there for 20 years or not if they are not productive get rid or find them a position that is benificial to help the public ie the people who pay their taxes and expect to get a service they contribute to with every contribution they make. It is long overdue for a good clean up within the CS.

[Josem]

Term limits for civil "servants" may help to improve much of this.

Injecting people from high accountability cultures (eg, businesses) would be a breath of fresh air for the civil service and might help spark some more fundamental reforms.

[P.K.]

1 hour ago, Beelzebub3 said:

The CS is out of control as there is no one person capable of breaking down the large "empires" that most CEOs Directors etc. have built up within each department, not to mention the "hired help" ie consultants brought in to make decisions about an Island they know nothing about or the way the place works. The CS is oversubscribed with management and that is the problem there are not enough foot soldiers to carry out the services that the public need, how many managers are there at Manxcare/DHSC DOI DfE DEFA CO as opposed to actual staff on the ground providing a service to the public an example Government offices counter services? how many staff are available to speak to regarding any queries you may have? DHSC try getting to speak to someone regards an illness is nigh on impossible unless you ring everyday and hound the department you require and even when you do get to speak with someone they send you an appointment for 12 months away if you are lucky. What IMO needs to happen is offices/departments need to be stripped of non productive staff whether they have been there for 20 years or not if they are not productive get rid or find them a position that is benificial to help the public ie the people who pay their taxes and expect to get a service they contribute to with every contribution they make. It is long overdue for a good clean up within the CS.

Org Charts can be very informative. If those for the CS/PS show the traditional outmoded, slow, cumbersome, over-layered pyramid structure then clearly it's ripe for "streamlining" or "rightsizing" as it's called.

It did make me laugh when after the pandemic organisations started to instruct their staff to stop working from home and come back into the workplace. Of course it had nothing to do with effectiveness or productivity or whatever but had everything to do with a lot of management layers who were feeling uncomfortable about effectively having nothing to manage!

Every first step in an organisation overhaul should be a recruitment and pay freeze targetting areas of the business that don't have specialised skillsets. You save them until last because they obviously need specialised knowledge to do the assessments. Of course this will precipitate a great deal of dripping and moaning by those affected by this which will immediately highlight the massive weakness in the whole IOMG setup.

Namely that the CS/PS are the biggest political lobby group on the island...

[code99]

Every 5 years, when the next General Election comes around, our politicians make promises to their potential voters, knowing full well that as ‘independent’ politicians they will, in practice, most likely not be able to keep any of their promises (DINO - democracy in name only). The only ‘promise’ they will tend to keep though is to increase the number of civil servants – not just front line public service workers, but inevitably expensive managerial desk jockeys. After all, the Government is the Island’s largest employer!  We all know what teachers, nurses, engineers, etc. do, but does anyone know what the Director of Communications, or External Relations Director and similar job titles in each Department do, and what value do they add to the Island’s wellbeing?

Putting aside those events which are outside of our control (e.g., Brexit) and focusing on what is within ‘our’ control, the Island could aim to have a more successful, more cohesive community. We have gotten away with a low-tax jurisdiction for many years and we may get away with that combination for a few more years, but if the Government keeps making a stream of bad financial decisions that nirvana will quickly come to an end. Who knows how many big-ticket items are in the proverbial pipeline, e.g. how much will the electricity Interconnector to the UK cost and how will this be funded?

The risk is that tax rises to bolster the Treasury’s coffers could tank the IOM economy, and that would make the politicians very unpopular indeed. I suspect that significant population growth is now the only game in town for our politicians. It is hoped that the additional residents will (if they can find transport to get here) earn substantial private taxable incomes, pay lots of tax to the Treasury and that these additional taxes will more than offset the public costs (infrastructure, etc) associated with these people settling here.

Sadly, the Island is now in a bind of its own historical political making. The years of plenty have enabled our successive Governments to make mistakes and not pay much of a political price for doing so. This has led to a culture which tolerates unaccountability and incompetence. It will be a very difficult task to rectify this problem.

[Two-lane]

25 minutes ago, code99 said:

I suspect that significant population growth is now the only game in town for our politicians.

A system that relies on continuous expansion to survive is a pyramid scheme. Eventually it will fail catastrophically.

[Max Power]

What I really struggle to understand is how the CS managed about 40 or 50 years ago, we had a population of c.65k so 20k less than today, but a much smaller PS sector, all working without a centralised database and all the accoutrements of today's working environment. I don't believe that we had a lot of the issues which we have today with long waiting lists, poor service and over inflated departments and management? Things seemed to get done much more efficiently and cost effectively, but maybe I'm imagining it? I know we didn't have a lot of the functions under government's umbrella, such as buses, entertainment etc, although it seems that they have willingly jumped into these things rather than let them find their own level, or provide a subvention to an operator. What would entice a private operator to compete in these areas when the government could bankrupt you if you became too successful?  

[Jarndyce]

3 minutes ago, Max Power said:

What I really struggle to understand is how the CS managed about 40 or 50 years ago, we had a population of c.65k so 20k less than today, but a much smaller PS sector, all working without a centralised database and all the accoutrements of today's working environment. I don't believe that we had a lot of the issues which we have today with long waiting lists, poor service and over inflated departments and management? Things seemed to get done much more efficiently and cost effectively, but maybe I'm imagining it?

I don’t believe that you’re imagining it.   In the early 1990s, if I recall correctly, the HR (or Personnel!) function for the hospital was being carried out by a single person, with a bit of secretarial help.   I don’t recall anything like the current/recent issues - and I don’t believe it’s a case of rose-tinted specs.   If anyone remembers better, please post!

[Spyk3r]

25 minutes ago, Jarndyce said:

I don’t believe that you’re imagining it.   In the early 1990s, if I recall correctly, the HR (or Personnel!) function for the hospital was being carried out by a single person, with a bit of secretarial help.   I don’t recall anything like the current/recent issues - and I don’t believe it’s a case of rose-tinted specs.   If anyone remembers better, please post!

I cant comment on the 90's or 00's. I think service delivery overall has been hindered in the past 5 years. 

 

Pre Covid - We had mail and parcel deliveries on Saturday from IOM PO, waiting lists weren't nearly as long for anything - I even managed to secure access to a NHS Dentist for my family of 3 - and we only waited about 5 months to get the placement. Amazon delivered very quickly, especially if you were lucky enough to get a royal mail delivery - that would quite often be next day. (Mail plane...)

Post Covid/Brexit - delays and waiting lists due to backlogs, and 2 years on, they haven't really seen a big reduction. 

I'm only skimming the surface, I'm sure there is a lot more. Still dont quite understand why we have both the DHSC and Manx Care (looks like they are both doing the same thing - but two separate management structures with bloated salaries at the top for both)

[Numbnuts]

19 minutes ago, Spyk3r said:

I'm only skimming the surface, I'm sure there is a lot more. Still dont quite understand why we have both the DHSC and Manx Care (looks like they are both doing the same thing - but two separate management structures with bloated salaries at the top for both)

This ! It’s a con and very very wrong. Management in recent years in DHSC has always been over the top but with the additional setup it’s not sustainable . Who’s going to be released . My guess is nobody as it doesn’t lend itself to the 15k increase in population that there aiming for . Despite the duplicated operation the service if anything is worse . All gone quiet on waiting lists. Mine I believe is down to 4 years now. I’m 70 , what comes first , me dead or the operation !. 

[Non-Believer]

1 hour ago, Max Power said:

What I really struggle to understand is how the CS managed about 40 or 50 years ago, we had a population of c.65k so 20k less than today, but a much smaller PS sector, all working without a centralised database and all the accoutrements of today's working environment. I don't believe that we had a lot of the issues which we have today with long waiting lists, poor service and over inflated departments and management? Things seemed to get done much more efficiently and cost effectively, but maybe I'm imagining it? I know we didn't have a lot of the functions under government's umbrella, such as buses, entertainment etc, although it seems that they have willingly jumped into these things rather than let them find their own level, or provide a subvention to an operator. What would entice a private operator to compete in these areas when the government could bankrupt you if you became too successful?  

Stu Peters reckons that the increase is all down to back-covering and fulfilling FOI requirements....

[Andy Onchan]

5 hours ago, Josem said:

Term limits for civil "servants" may help to improve much of this.

Injecting people from high accountability cultures (eg, businesses) would be a breath of fresh air for the civil service and might help spark some more fundamental reforms.

I have said this for several years. A time limited appointment of say 6-8 years max for a CEO with a bonus at the end of the contract for meeting targets set by the CO/Tynwald. 

[Banker]

Have your say, increased taxes etc are coming 

[Josem]

11 hours ago, Andy Onchan said:

...a bonus at the end of the contract for meeting targets set by the CO/Tynwald. 

Yes: this is super important!

Genuine expertise is achieved by doing two things:

1) Giving people skin in the game (rewards for doing a good job, and being held accountable for a bad job)

2) Repeated practice with good feedback.

This is why carpenters, pilots, basketballers, and surgeons can become experts. A pilot will do a huge amount of practice (often in a simulator) before being allowed to fly an airliner, and will (often) die when they crash the plane. This downside threat of crashing the plane is (usually!) very effective at discouraging pilots from crashing planes.

This is why politicians and bureaucrats cannot become experts: because they are not held accountable, and because they don't have repeated practice with good feedback. But in the civil service? Did anyone do any practice on Liverpool landing stage, or the Prom? Was anyone held accountable? No. So, we have poor outcomes delivered by fake experts.

[WTF]

7 hours ago, Josem said:

 

 A pilot will do a huge amount of practice (often in a simulator) before being allowed to fly an airliner, and will (often) die when they crash the plane. 

 

nope, they only die once, 

[Holte End]

 

8 hours ago, Josem said:

This is why politicians and bureaucrats cannot become experts: because they are not held accountable, and because they don't have repeated practice with good feedback. But in the civil service? Did anyone do any practice on Liverpool landing stage, or the Prom? Was anyone held accountable? No. So, we have poor outcomes delivered by fake experts.

What are you talking about, Politicians are always accountable, The liverpool landing stage and the promenade has already seen off two Ministers at the last election.  There is always plenty of feed back, your party leader just got some. But if it is experts in Life, the Universe and Everything, Lib Van can always provide the all knowing fountain of knowledge Peter Karran.