The
Society of Chief Personnel Officers has welcomed the Prime Minister’s praise
for public sector staff as a much-needed boost to the sector’s ability to
recruit and retain quality employees.
On
25 January Tony Blair said public sector workers produce ‘stunningly
successful’ services.
He
also promised the government will attempt to address recruitment and retention
problems in the sector.
Keith
Handley, Socpo president, said: “We have been saying for some time that local
government’s recruitment and retention problems are having an adverse affect on
our capacity to deliver services.
“At
the same time the government has been putting huge pressure on us to find new
and better ways of supporting our communities, and to attract new kinds of
recruits into the profession.
“It
many be a little later than we hoped, but it is pleasing to see the government
finally recognise that if you want local government to change you have to bring
the staff with you, not beat them over the head with regulations.”
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This
month Socpo has set up a recruitment and retention group to come up with
solutions to the recruitment crisis.
