How much should chief officers be paid?

摘要

To the question 'how much should chief officers be paid' the response is another question, namely, 'how long is a piece of string?' The days of rigid senior management pay scales bearing little relation to an employee's performance or local conditions are long gone. Local authorities have slimmed down management teams and need talented directors to steer their councils through extremely challenging budget cuts. So I read the Government's response to the CLG select committee inquiry into chief officers' pay this week with particular interest. There is an air of unreality about both the committee's report, which came out in September, and the Government's response. The sector has gone through cuts of 30% and above. Senior management teams have been slashed along with layers of management below them. There is a dire shortage of children's services directors because no one wants to see their reputations and careers trashed in the media. The key skills demanded from chief officers are flexibility, working pro-actively with partners, innovation, risk taking, ability to juggle several portfolios at once, ability to manage relationships with councillors and do more with less. Finding such staff is not easy for this generation of managers who have grown up during times of plenty, while private sector executives are put off by lower salary levels and the novel experience of dealing with councillors.