The Society of Personnel Officers in Government Services (Socpo) will become more professional and step up its efforts to influence public policy during 2005, according to its incoming president.
Jan Parkinson, who will take over from Alan Warner as president at the society’s annual conference this week, said that the body would become a much more vocal organisation in public policy matters.
Parkinson said Socpo would ex-ploit its civil servant membership for input into debates on subjects such as leadership, pensions, and the consequences of the forthcoming Gershon report – helping to raise the public sector’s profile.
“People are almost ashamed to say they are proud to be in the public sector, when we should be celebrating it,” she said.
Parkinson said 2005 would be a “big year of growth” for Socpo, but that it must start to think longer term and be more businesslike.
