Monthly Archives: December 2009

Mediocrity is not good enough, by Rod Aldridge

21 December 2009 | Rod Aldridge

Ofsted released a short report last week about gifted and talented students (those in the top 5%-10% of their school year) in 26 schools.  The sample may have been small but the findings were very interesting. Read more...

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Who would be a Section 151 officer now? By Damian Dewhirst

18 December 2009 | Damian Dewhirst

In the ordinary course of events we would have seen a Comprehensive Spending Review during 2009. But, as in 2006, it has been postponed – this time it’s because there’s an election looming and the government does not want to show its hand. However, despite this, we all know that public spending is under the greatest pressure in a lifetime, local government spending included. Last week’s Pre-Budget Report and November’s Queen’s Speech give us the only indications to date as to where this pressure might lead. Read more...

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Shape shifting, by Keith Leslie

17 December 2009 | Keith Leslie

The dilemma of achieving top performance while simultaneously taking billions of pounds of cost out of the civil service and local government is at the heart of Deloitte’s new report: New shapes and sizes: reshaping public sector organisations for an age of austerity. Its conclusion, essentially, is that the public sector’s reactive cost cutting is already affecting public service delivery at the frontline and will stifle staff motivation and prove harmful in the long run, pushing public bodies into a spiral of decline for years to come. Read more...

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Bank of ethics, by Jim Brooks

17 December 2009 | Jim Brooks

Last week saw the attempted return to normality for bonuses in the banking world. The arguments were superficially persuasive: that these bonuses were an essential part of successful modern banking. These hugely talented people are in such demand that they will be persuaded to join other banks if the million pound plus bonuses are not paid out. The risk was that the public rescue money sunk into these banks would be jeopardised by their inevitable defection. The recovering share price would fall back. A narrow short-term view that some restraint in remuneration was somehow required in misplaced guilt and shame was counterproductive and would backfire. Read more...

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More unequal – but why? By the Institute for Fiscal Studies

16 December 2009 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

It is widely known that income inequality has risen substantially over the past thirty years. During the 1980′s, in particular, inequality rose dramatically – to levels from which it has never subsequently fallen. But what lies behind this increase in income inequality? In recent work, commissioned by the National Equality Panel, IFS researchers attempt to answer this question by ‘decomposing’ changes in inequality into the effects of various different forces. Read more...

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Leitch: three years on, by Mike Bialyj

16 December 2009 | Mike Bialyj

The construction industry, like others, needs a skilled workforce to help it to grow and strengthen so that it is able to compete on a global scale. So how has the recession affected Leitch’s goals for skills training and what needs to be done now? Read more...

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Not so wonderful Copenhagen, by James Close

16 December 2009 | James Close

As I write, negotiations at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen have been suspended after developing countries withdrew their co-operation. Read more...

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The death of PFI… or at least as we know it, by Richard Laing

15 December 2009 | Richard Laing

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If Canada can… By Julian McCrae

15 December 2009 | Julian McCrae

As the dust settles on the Pre-Budget Report, one thing is now clearer – the real tough decisions on how to sort out our fiscal mess are going to wait until after the election. What should we think about this? Read more...

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It’s all or nothing, by Deborah Williams

11 December 2009 | Deborah Williams

The piecemeal approach to public financial management in developing countries doesn’t work: ‘growing’ professionals does Read more...

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