Disbelief at £29m. rise in States expenditure
Saturday 8th May 2010, 2:30PM BST.
BUSINESS leaders and deputies reacted with disbelief yesterday to the news that States spending last year increased by 10%.
Despite a policy of at or below RPI rises, expenditure went up by £29m. last year and an extra 171 staff were employed.
Pressure is growing on the worst-offending ministers – Health’s Hunter Adams, Social Security’s Mark Dorey and Bernard Flouquet of Public Services – to consider resigning.
Deputy Adam (pictured) said he would not go but former Board of Health president Bob Chilcott described him as clueless and said he had to.
The other ministers were unavailable for comment although Carol Steere says that Education’s extra 50 staff at an estimated cost of £1.7m. was largely down to a change in contracts from part-time to permanent.
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Deputy Brehaut came up with the answer on the radio on Friday…..’We’ll have to think seriously about raising taxes’ !
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Whilst all this is going on trott and brown are slumming it in washington no doubt flying business class and staying in swanky hotels
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Just dont mention Govt pensions!
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If a business manager’s company expenses rose by a figure even approaching the States £29m his/her board of directors would demand their instant resignation. The States of Guernsey need politicians who are qualified and experienced business personnel to manage the ever increasing complexities of these departments. Amateurs can never do an efficient job.
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Ray
Maybe at some point in the not too distant future people will look back from Guernseyshire and remember when it was an almost independet place!
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’We’ll have to think seriously about raising taxes’ !
There’s another one that can resign then. Won’t save so tax? Brilliant!
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Deputy Brehaut couldn’t be further off the mark. While I accept that the States needs to raise more revenue, islanders have been telling the States for some time that we don’t want more taxes imposed until we can be certain that the States have eradicated all waste and curtailed spending. That’s patently not happening.
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Trott should make a quick detour to Greece where he could pick up a few pointers on cutting expenditure.
Could anyone shed light on whether or not civil servants, once having served time as a teacher, still maintain school holiday entitlements when moving on to other appointments.
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Steven,
In my experience any teacher moving to a civil service post moves to civil service pay and conditions, including CS holiday entitlement.
There used to be a few people who were employed as advisory teachers. These individuals were based at the Education Dep’t rather than at a particular school and so might seem to be civil servants. You would need to contact the Dep’t or a one of the Deputies on the Education board or PSRC to confirm the current position.
I hope this helps.
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A few suggestions…
Stop over spending now and sack anyone who has deliberately ignored the States expenditure policy.
Sack anyone who continues to over spend.
Start making cuts in public spending immediately. We might as well take the pain now rather than getting ourselves deeper and deeper into debt – that will only make matters worse in future.
Hurry up and sort out the zero ten debacle so we can start earning revenue form that source.
Get our Chief Minister to put his international promotional activities on hold and focus on the problems at home. If he is not prepared to do this then sack him too.
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Sean
I don’t think you are correct. A teacher moving to an admin role in Education has a continuation of employer and so is entitled to the same 12 or 13 weeks holiday that they had as a teacher. Its a scandal and results in more admin staff being employed to cover the holidays. And I doubt if too many teachers make outstanding administrators!
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David
My recollection is that you are correct on both points
Teachers moving into office jobs still getting their teacher holiday entitlement through continuation of employment terms.
However, if the ex teach now clerk moved to civil service terms then they lost the entitlement to the extra holidays. Not surprisingly, not many turkeys voted for Christmas!!
David It would be a surprise to you if you knew the number of teachers and lecturers, whose classroom times are reduced, because they are engaged in low level clerical work (at high levels of salary, of course)
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So there we have it. I thought I smelt a rat and there was one. No doubt this is not the only example of money wasted by the establishment to the benefit of people working for it.
As we hear in the news, Greece has a major problem with it which is threatening to blow over into the rest of the eurozone where it will then have major implications on Britain and sterling.
They have been told that they must reign in the costs of administration. And as we have witnessed, the administration is revolting.
Mind you they probably always were but it has taken this to expose it.
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David,
Thanks for the clarification. Upon further investigation it seems that some admin. staff do retain a “continuity” element in their conditions of service. TUPE legislation does not apply in full here but individuals who have been transferred into admin. posts appear to be able to benefit from different arrangements than those who apply for a “new” post.
Perhaps the rapid growth of admin. staff at Education has highlighted concerns in this area. Presumably the Dep’t has ample evidence to demonstrate that education standards have risen in line with the increase in backroon office staffing.
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Stephen John
Its actually worse than that. If an admin vacancy arises in the Education Department, it is a requirement that the vacancy is first advertised to other Education Department staff before being advertised outside the Department. Therefore, a competent and experienced administrator from elsewhere in the civil service, being on say 6 weeks annual paid leave entitlement, is far less likely to get the job than a teacher on 12 or 13 weeks paid leave who fancies moving into administration with no reduction on their paid leave entitlement. No wonder the admin department at Education employs so many ex-teachers.
Not only do turkeys not vote for Christmas – in this case the turkeys are able to control whether Christmas happens or not!
You really couldn’t make it up!
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Does this mean that there are admin staff at education who are working normal civil service hours and have normal holiday entitlement (4 weeks i think) – yet others transferred from teaching posts getting 3 times that holiday entitlement?
If true this is totally scandalous ……. but i am thinking of retraining as a teacher. If you cannot beat ‘em then join ‘em!
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Molly
I think Sean (who I gather is a teacher) has basically confirmed that to be the case.
Its an outrageous state of affairs, but I doubt if too many of us are surprised by it. Those same individuals also have final salary pensions as well.
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Maybe Carol Steere could inform us (not on here, good grief she’s above this sort of thing, but in the press) of how many ex teachers are employed in admin, and even more interestingly how many are on license.
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Sean
Someone needs to discover who exactly allowed “individuals who have been transferred into admin. posts appear to be able to benefit from different arrangements than those who apply for a “new” post”
I trust you comment “Presumably the Dep’t has ample evidence to demonstrate that education standards have risen in line with the increase in backroon office staffing” is tongue in cheek.
What is realistic is that there is considerable scope for savings to be made in educational administration, across all of the system, not just at the Education office. It is a total waste to pay teachers and head office refugees from the classroom, to do low level administration, that could be carried out by clerks, on much lower salaries.
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Steven
Perhaps the Press could even arrange for a reporter to go out and ask Carol Steere those very questions OR BETTER YET get Gary Burgess of Radio Guernsey to grill her on live radio
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David,
I have now ceased to be a teacher and am a full-time Deputy for the Castel.
Stephen,
I will seek further clarification of the protections seemingly afforded those you identify.
I sought not to be “tongue in cheek” so much as to ponder the justification of additional administrative staff during a period of supposedly more careful spending decisions. The published States of Guernsey Accounts for 2009 include the following sentence as part of the narrative accompanying the Education Dep’t entry :-
“Pay costs increased in 2009 by 4.7% compared to 2008 due to the employment of additional administrative staff in the Secondary Schools, support staff at the education Office, caretaking and cleaning stafff for the Baubigny Schools, incremental increases and the full year effect of the 2008 pay awards.”
You will be aware, Stephen, that the annual pay rise was nowhere near 4.7%.
I take your point about the relative cost of providing clerical services. Unsurprisingly, I would wish to see Pupil-Teacher Ratios in the schools defended in the interests of real local education standards.
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David
That is incorrect. If a Civil Service admin post comes up at the Education Deapartment, then it is circulated internally in the entire Civil Service for any member of staff to apply for it. If it is a Civil Service post, then the person appointed to the post will be appointed on Civil Servant terms and conditions, not teaching conditions.
Anybody appointed to a Civil Service post, will work under CS terms and conditions. This does not preclude them from working part time which can mean term time only but they will only be paid pro rata for the hours they work, albeit this is spread out over 12 months. They will receive a pro rata allowance in lieu of holiday entitlement according to the hours they work and they do not get any annual leave during term time.
What it comes down to is whether or not the post is a ‘Civil Service’ post or a teaching post and for the majority of staff at Education, they are Civil Service posts and therefore working under Civil Service conditions, not teaching conditions.
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VQ
Many thanks. Its very clear therefore from my reliable sources then that the policy to which you refer is being and has been very regularly ignored or is being “misinterpreted” by several who are taking advantage of it.
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VQ
No one has any issue with civil service clerical jobs at Education.
The issue is when teachers are translated to Education in the Grange, and frequently carry over their teachers holiday entitlement.
Whilst these jobs might be advertised through the civil service some of the “adviser /consultant jobs will not interest the occupants of Custard Castle.
The poor teachers moving to office jobs in the Grange will have to juggle with the advantages and disadvantages of moving. They might remain on terms that retain their teachers holidays, but if they switched to civil service terms they would lose holidays, but be blessed with better final pension benefits. Really is a tough life!!!!.
As David says many of us can show where the ignore the rules,misinformation, misinterpretation examples are hidden.
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