Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Can anyone explain what this job is for?
Christmas is coming for someone at Haringey Council – can anyone explain what benefit this job could be to anyone other than the person who gets it, and why it could be worth £50,000 plus p.a?
Could 'democratic services manager' mean 'find new ways of holding public meetings and then ignoring what anyone says'? Or is it just an invitation to bullshit for Britain?
Tags for Forum Posts: council services, haringey council, local politics, waste
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
-
It's the person responsible all the formal decision making (committees, Cabinet, Council and so on) and they manage elections in some local authorities
-
Permalink Reply by Nick Rider on
-
Responsible for all formal decision making? Sounds like a czar, so very important. Can't councillors do any of that themselves? From your reply it looks like you are yourself a member of the functionary class, for whom £50K must seem fair-to-middling.
What caught my eye is all this guff about democratic scrutiny. Public meeting organised by Haringey are in my experience occasions for managing democratic opinion, not listening to it.
-
-
Goodness me Nick, you're very quick to judge people you don't know! You asked a question and I happened to know the answer. At the moment I'm a retired bloke having a break from cleaning the kitchen.
-
-
Apologies for indulging in the web-chat fault of instant judgmentalism. But, the language of that job ad is just a classic example of the kind of vapid waffle-producing consultancy and bureaucratic culture the first objective of which is to schedule the next meeting and serves very little practical purpose for the rest of us.
And I'm sure that in your initial reply you said something about £50K being on the low side for local authorities (so we should be grateful?) – though that comment seems to have disappeared. But if it is so piddling for potential candidates, this only goes to add to the impression that the functionary class live in a different world, certainly from the self-employed.
-
-
Apology accepted. Yes,I did say it seemed on the low side (I look at jobs in the Guardian too and have seen similar jobs to this paying 50-70k, every local authority has one of these people, whatever job title they give them) but I didn't have anything to back it up so I deleted it. I wasn't making a judgement if it was good or bad value.
-
-
PS. One here in Hounslow paying almost 70k
http://www.lgjobs.com/jobs/head-of-governance-r0001335/from/nxesve5...
-
Permalink Reply by Sarah on
-
I would say it's very important that the job be done by someone apolitical, for the very reasons you outlined.
Anyone managing people will earn at least that much.
-
-
I would be surprised if that role was not deemed 'politically sensitive' & therefore you are not allowed to campaign for any party or to run for any kind of political position. My job is deemed politically sensitive and I'm only a contacts manager for a council (not haringey).
-
-
Yes, that was my response to Nick's suggestion the councillors do it themselves.
I also work for the London Borough of NotHaringey, in a role that is not deemed politically sensitive but which requires a high degree of political sensitivity nonetheless...
-
Permalink Reply by Lauren on
-
No idea what the job is but £50k is barely enough to be able to afford a reasonable standard of living and possibly support a family here. I'm not on that before anyone starts on, but with cost of living so high here £50k gets you what £30k will get you elsewhere, which I don't think is unreasonable.
-
-
From what I understamd this role is similar to that of company secretary in a private sector organisation. Wrangling board members/councillors, board meetings/council meetings, arranging for reports and board papers to be distributed etc, publishing coumcil decisions to the website and dealing with the governance of the organisation. I expect you could probably find the job description & person spec on the council website if you wanted.
-
-
I should obviously apologize again for even questioning the value of such a clearly eminent and terribly valuable official post, from my position of deep ignorance outside the public administration.
But, leaving the money aside (and repeat for most people in self-employment £50K p.a. plus ample holidays, away days, time by the water cooler, opportunities to pull a sickie etc etc is cloud cuckoo land, so show some respect in this direction too) –
One of the buzzwords of modern council speak is 'transparency'. The way this ad is written is in no way transparent to anyone outside a certain world, and so adds to the very strong impression that attempts to be transparent, communicate, etc are just guff.
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
