‘Deleted’ – two senior civil service posts
TWO roles in the civil service’s strategic leadership team have been dropped, saving more than £350,000 a year.
This information was given to Sasha Kazantseva-Miller in the answer to one of nine written questions she put to Policy & Resources president Peter Ferbrache relating to the reorganisation of the senior civil service.
The questions followed the sacking of former States chief executive Paul Whitfield and the news that chief information officer Colin Vaudin is to leave.
As well as saying that two of the leadership team roles had been ‘deleted’, Deputy Ferbrache said that no new roles had been created.
‘There are also a small number of changes being made to the roles and responsibilities of the strategic leadership team,’ he said. This included the appointment of Mark de Garis as interim CEO.
Following the reorganisation, Deputy Ferbrache said there would be an overall reduction in pay costs.
He said that as part of the organisational target operating model, committee secretaries would lead the policy development function at the same time as fulfilling their secretariat and governance responsibilities for the principal committees.
They would be line-managed by the director of policy and strategy who would report to the strategic lead for place policy.
The policy and strategy team was already supporting the principal committees.
The director of policy and strategy would have 10 officers reporting to them directly once the changes are in place.
Deputy Kazantseva-Miller also wanted to know what consultation had taken place ahead of these changes, including with the States’ Assembly and Constitution Committee.
Deputy Ferbrache said that the principal committee presidents had all been briefed and it would not be usual practice for internal changes to the civil service structure to be consulted upon more widely.
‘However, consideration of the future structure will form part of the review of the machinery of government which is about to commence.’
The final question involved governance and performance management arrangements and how they would work for civil servants at the committee secretary level up to the leadership team who were part of the same household and worked closely together.
Deputy Ferbrache said it was established practice that if a situation arouse where one member of a household reported directly to another, ‘the line reporting and performance management responsibility [would be] moved to another officer at the same level’.
