According to the Guardian, public managers face "an almost unprecedented level of criticism not just of their organisations but of their own strategies to deal with the cuts. The government's commitment to transparency, and the publishing of its accounts last week, leaves public managers facing a wave of attacks over everything from the growing bill for employing temporary staff – a fairly straightforward result of any recruitment freeze – to the cost of work-related injuries in the NHS.
As commentators have pointed out already that the problem with transparency is that it lays bare prices, without necessarily highlighting the value of what is being bought, and that is not the best way to conduct a discussion about the effectiveness and efficiency of our public services."
Quite. Public Sector Managers are on a thankless and perhaps unwinnable task.
In a way the solution lies in staff recognising how bad the position is, such as showing that the media cannot be win over, all they can do is focus on what they have to do and manage the best they can.
The primary way to improve this situation is to provide the leadership and the training to staff to make them able to cope in the firing line.
Justin Patten
Trainer