Minister embarrassed over 90 extra staff
Friday 7th May 2010, 2:29PM BST.
GUERNSEY’S Health minister has admitted he is embarrassed not to be able to answer questions about his department paying for the equivalent of an extra 90 staff last year.
Health and Social Services officials have spent the last two days working to substantiate their claim that the figures, revealed in the States’ annual accounts today, are ‘misleading’.
However, Deputy Hunter Adam (pictured) was yesterday still unable to provide an explanation for Treasury’s statement that 90 more ‘full-time equivalents’ were paid than in 2008.
That added approximately £3m. to the payroll when all departments were being urged to cut costs.
‘We are still trying to find out where this figure of 90 came from,’ he said. ‘I do not have a flaming clue.
‘Finding out about 90 extra staff through the Guernsey Press – I obviously feel very embarrassed.’
- To read Guernsey Press stories in full click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.
Campaigns
Voice For Victims
Voice for Victims is a campaign aimed at promoting the rights of those affected by child sexual abuse.
This is Guernsey
Guernsey Press
This is getting more ridiculous by the minute. A Health Minister that doesn’t know what his staff are doing and a Treasury Minister that can only ask politely of the departments not to go over budget.
The control of the coffers are in the hands of the civil servant departments’ COs. They are either being negligent or arrogant in their total disregard for the Boards and the taxpayer. Either of which scenarios calls for immediate sackings.
The system is weak and broken. And clearly the government is not in control of its staff or budgets. Absolute pathetic state of affairs.
Report abuse
What? The minister is expected to know exactly how many staff are employed at any instant? The exact number of locums, temporary staff, agency staff, people covering maternity leave, newly created posts, posts unfilled due to retirement, people covering those on long term sick leave…
Really? Give the poor man a break. He’s not omniscient, and a big employer like HSSD is always going to have a complex system of employment.
Last week people were having a go at him for “failing to employ enough staff to cope with the new child law” and “cutting child and adolescent mental health services to the bone”, and now it’s all his fault that HSSD has employed a few extra people.
By all means criticize him for having introduced a policy or strategy you don’t like – that’s his job. But this criticism is unfair – it’s not his job to micro-manage the headcount.
Report abuse
James
He doesn’t need to micro-manage, but a quarterly report summary and breakdown of staffing numbers is something that should already be available to him automatically, and if it isn’t then it certainly ought to be! I suspect he will now be ensuring that he gets it!
Report abuse
>Really? Give the poor man a break< Er, no I won't. Mr Parkinson said in a GP quote 'it's difficult to get out of the states the numbers of those employed'. We do not have an elected governmnet, we have a weal Chancellor who can only politely ask departments not to overspend and Boards that apparently stick two fingers up to any form of restraint knowing that there is zero censure.
Either the Boards are failing or the Chief Officers hold the political boards in total disregard knowing that the politicians are temporary, toothless and amateurish; and that their own positions are unasailable.
This is a total disaster and the 'Chancellor' is impotent. Our system of government has been broken for years and under the current way we are goverened there is zero possibility of this ever changing.
HSSD should resign as should Treasury and their respective COs.
Absolutely pathetic bunch of amateur monkeys.
Report abuse
I would think this is a very complicated department to run as stated above. Over the last couple of years there have been major changes i.e. the childrens board have joined HSSD whereas before they were a separate department – perhaps this has not been taken into account. There was also the extra money to be found for off island treatment which used to be paid for by social security i think? There is a high turnover of staff in HSSD and it is HR that has to keep tabs on things. As others have said short term agency staff are employed to plug gaps in services which would affect direct services – and also cover for long term sickness. Why are people off on long term sickness – this should be looked into.
The new computer system is also taking a lot of staff to set up and is an expense that Guernsey could perhaps have got cheaper (by the time it is up and running properly it will probably be out of date)! £3million for 90 staff seems a lot of money – so could be agency staff (who earn about double a contracted nurse) or it could be senior staff? Non-local public sector staff earn extra as they are entitled to relocation packages and rent/mortgage allowances and legal fees paid to help them buy a house if they want to and payment of storing furniture etc. What this island should be trying to do is encourage more locals to come and work in the public sector and start asking why we have so many non-local senior staff in very important positions – most of whom have little idea of how Guernsey plc works and are trying to turn us into a bureaucratic little England. The hospital used to run with a few admin staff – now there are corridors full of them. The new bloke in charge must be wondering what he has come into!
Be interesting to find out the truth about what is going on – if we ever do. What is clear is that the public need to tell their politicians what they expect from public services – we have a great health service but perhaps if waiting lists were to increase and charges increased then the books would balance – but the public would complain. These are hard times and we have to cut our cloth accordingly. Are our public accounts available for the public to view? Deputy Adam is never going to win is he – he is accused of not providing a good enough service i.e mental health, child health and waiting list problems then being told to cut costs even more!
Report abuse
Surely he is in a position to demand that sort of basic data from his management team on a monthly basis?
Mr Hunter, when you’re sitting on the top bench gazing at your navel at the next States meeting take a look around the Chamber.There will be about HALF the number of people present compared to the number of extra staff you didn’t know you had
( especially when several Deputies have bunked off on a Thursday afternoon )
Report abuse