Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Economics, government & businessLatest News

Conservatives denounce shaming of public sector workers

by Michael Millar 5 Sep 2006
by Michael Millar 5 Sep 2006

The Conservative Party has called for an end to shaming public sector workers and a new “partnership with the professions” to boost performance levels.

A report, The Wellbeing of the Nation, adds that the amount that the public sector can learn from private businesses has been overstated.

This is a departure from previous Conservative doctrine and is prompted, the report says, by the recognition that: “The new Conservative generation values the public services both for their contribution to economic growth and for their impact on the wellbeing of every individual citizen.”

The study claims that “a private corporation which publicly shamed its employees in the way that government has done in recent years would not long survive” and that public sector workers “have sometimes been made to feel like helpless pawns in a giant system, rather than the focus of the professional endeavours of a team of dedicated people”.

“Improvement in services will only be achieved if the professionals, on whose skill and knowledge the public depend, are themselves motivated by a sense of public trust, and inspired to give of their best through the freedom to exercise their professional skills in an appropriate framework of accountability,” the report says.

It acknowledges that there has been too much regulation of professions such as medicine and teaching by both Conservative and Labour governments.

“Stronger accountability was seen as something ‘done to’ the professions, rather than being a challenge to which the professions themselves responded”, the report concludes.

It calls for a new partnership based on two things:

Recognition on the part of policy-makers that professional people will be better motivated and will deliver better service if they have more confidence that their professional skills and commitment are respected by their employers

Recognition on the part of the professions that any move to release professional people from the constraints under which they currently work will need to be accompanied by stronger structures within the professions to enforce the principle of professional accountability.

Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell has been targeting skills and performance levels in the civil service with initiatives which include departmental capability reviews, a new civil service code and a “leadership qualities framework”.

Avatar
Michael Millar

previous post
Working mothers: a benefit or a burden?
next post
Standard Life scraps retirement age

You may also like

Sharp rise in firms offering enhanced parental leave...

11 Aug 2022

Working in a heatwave: what should employers consider?

11 Aug 2022

Zero-hours contract benefits ‘can outweigh negatives for workers’

11 Aug 2022

Nearly 14,000 whistleblowing reports of furlough fraud received...

11 Aug 2022

Skills passport and new qualifications for care workers...

11 Aug 2022

Uber has more drivers than ever as worker...

11 Aug 2022

Royal Mail strike: Union urges it to ‘get...

10 Aug 2022

Supporting non-binary and transgender staff: four key steps...

10 Aug 2022

Personnel Today Awards 2022 shortlist: Health and Wellbeing...

10 Aug 2022

Train conductor unfairly dismissed after ‘black privilege’ comment

10 Aug 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+