We don’t need all the bells and whistles
On Tuesday 8 November, the front page of the Guernsey Press had the headline, ‘Care at home services are being cut by 25%’. The classifieds pages of the same edition had a States of Guernsey advert for two ‘communications’ posts. Now of course I know that the care problem is down to recruitment, a fact underlined in the text following the headline. I also know that the jobs advertised in the classifieds pages were not specifically related to any care services (although one mentioned health and education transformation).
It’s funny though, I can’t help feeling that this is a very good indicator of Guernsey’s government thinking that it needs all the bells and whistles of jurisdictions far bigger than us.
Since becoming a douzenier 30 years ago, billets (which were then posted through my door but are thankfully now available in electronic form) have become bloated documents full of unnecessary repetition where committees feel the need to consult with so many people that any accountability is diluted away. The continual recourse to a variety of consultants means that so often, decisions are delayed, and deputies can trot out that well-known phrase, ‘It’s a current workstream’.
I do not feel the need for my government to ‘market’ anything to me. I don’t particularly require colourful and expensive documents in order to be informed of our latest financial situation. Please tell me how things are via an inexpensive press release or by publishing information on gov.gg. Don’t dress things up in the latest corporate speak just because it’s possible to do so.
One of the communication posts was for ‘transforming health and education’. Do we really need communications experts to create elaborate presentations to their fellow civil servants informing them of potential changes to working practices or structures? What has happened to managers who are there to manage and motivate their staff effectively by a process of listening and communicating?
I made some broadly similar comments to several deputies a couple of years ago and they shrugged their collective shoulders and stated that, although regrettable, this was the system and ‘nothing could be done’. Not a whiff of ‘the emperor’s new clothes’ about it – they could actually see the ridiculousness of it all, admitted that it was a real problem and yet were unable to change ‘The System’. There’s me naively thinking that they were in charge – apparently not!
So just who is responsible for our civil service becoming bigger while key coalface positions are lost, i.e. the people who deal directly with members of the public? Perhaps we can’t magic up the required 25% of care positions just like that, but I wonder how much we spend on positions which sound sophisticated but don’t add much value when compared with nurses, teachers, carers, cleaners, porters – you get the idea.
There have been many significant capital projects in Guernsey over the years, and committees would present uncomplicated policy letters to the chamber, sometimes with the backing of another committee with a related mandate. Marinas were built and land was reclaimed. Schools were built (yep, really) and the related policy letters were measured by their content and not by how many pages they took up.
We can blame the pandemic and Brexit for a good deal of our current woes but our insistence on over-complicating those things we have managed to do very simply in the past is our own silly fault.
If you are reading this and nodding in agreement, that’s great. If not, you might just be part of the problem.
ANDRe QUEVATRE
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