JERSEY’S public sector had more than 1,000 unfilled “unfunded, aspirational” vacancies earlier this year, which have now been scrapped, the Chief Minister has revealed.
Deputy Lyndon Farnham was responding to questions at a Scrutiny hearing about why the new government – which last month announced a nine-month recruitment freeze for civil servants earning £66,000 or more and a curb on engaging consultants – judged the public sector was too large.
Meanwhile, government chief executive Dr Andrew McLaughlin said the issue was less about size and more about improving the effectiveness of the civil service.
Deputy Farnham told the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel that the 1,000 vacancies were in addition to the 8,000 people employed by the government, describing the unfilled posts as “unfunded, aspirational positions” and calling them “unrealistic”.
“Some of them had been on the system for many years and, as long as they were on the system as a vacancy, then the management team could automatically recruit. It’s just an example of what set alarm bells ringing,” Deputy Farnham said, adding that the posts had now been removed.
The Chief Minister described the discovery of the vacancies as “the catalyst” for the government’s action to try to limit the extent of the growth of the public sector, which he said currently employed around 8,000 people.
“If, suddenly, there had been a demand for jobs and several hundred of those vacancies had been filled, we would have seen a significant increase in the public sector and that would have happened before we’d had a chance to get a handle on it,” he said.
Dr McLaughlin told the panel that the issue was less the size of the public sector – comparable with other jurisdictions, he said – but rather its impact and effectiveness.
“That’s why we were raising expectations and not meeting them, and that’s why we were carrying lots of cash over every year because we couldn’t actually spend the money that we’d gone and asked for, so it’s much more about the effectiveness,” he said.
During the quarterly hearing, it was also revealed that the recently confirmed voluntary redundancy of eight senior civil servants had cost £330,000 and would deliver £552,000 of ongoing savings. But panel member Deputy Jonathan Renouf challenged the Chief Minister and his team over whether a scheme that relied upon voluntary offers of redundancy could be as effective as one which targeted job cuts in areas judged most effective.
Asked by panel chair Deputy Helen Miles whether further departures from the executive leadership team were expected, Assistant Chief Minister Deputy Malcolm Ferey replied: “The focus is on all positions which are on grade 11 and above – that’s roughly £67,000 – so it is likely that there will be more departures from those grades and upwards.”
Pressed by Deputy Miles on whether this included the executive leadership team, he responded: “Those things are possible.”
