Letter: Of councils, diversity and equality…
Friday 19th November 2010, 6:29AM GMT.
Letter: Councillor Liz Parsons’s letter (November 8) defending the Shropshire Council’s employment of a diversity officer illustrates perfectly the attitude of local government towards the cost of employing extra staff. (Read the letter here.)
As soon as a new duty is imposed on the organisation, councils rush to appoint an officer to ensure other employees carry out the new work. It means new bosses do not have to worry about understanding the government imposed requirement.
Councillors and directors have someone to identify as responsible. Everyone is happy – although what the creation of these staff jobs does to line management responsibilities is never considered.
On the other hand a commercial organisation is likely either to trust employees to carry out their duties conscientiously – under the supervision of their bosses – or they might ask someone else to run the new job in with their current duties.
It is only in public sector where a new job can be so easily created – normally secure in the knowledge that taxpayers will provide the funding. Is it any surprise that the public sector has become so bloated and so unaffordable?
No-one disputes the need to treat people fairly. The question is can this be done without someone extra checking on fellow employees.
Our “Champion for Equality and Diversity” is prepared to sacrifice front line services rather than lose the full time paid diversity officer.
Perhaps she would like to tell us which frontline service job, or jobs, should go?
Peter Dunham
Shrewsbury
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“Our “Champion for Equality and Diversity” is prepared to sacrifice front line services rather than lose the full time paid diversity officer.
Perhaps she would like to tell us which frontline service job, or jobs, should go”
Totally agree, Peter. Come on Liz, we’re waiting for an answer.
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Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Come on Parsons, who would you rather lay off?
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There was talk of scrapping the local’meals-on-wheels’ service a while ago.
But hey – what do the needs of poor elderly folk matter when there’s a politically correct gravy train to run?
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I rather suspect that Liz is now wishing that she hadn’t written her letter and realizing perhaps, that she was overconfident in assuming that the wider world would simper to her moral authority regarding diversity in the way that others seem to have done.
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I have no overly strong opinions on this subject. I agree with the need for legislation to ensure Equality and Diversity, for it was such legislation in an earlier form that allowed women the vote amongst other things. Whether this should be a full time position within a local authority or merely be the responsibility for the authority and its employees as a whole is a matter for debate. I write merely to observe how pleasant it is to read Peter’s considered and articulate letter on a subject that could so easily be hijacked by irrational responses.
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Treating people as equals should be the standard practice anyway. There’s no need for an expensive ‘Diversity & Equality’ gravy train.
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It is very unfortunate that we no longer Councillors like Peter, with wide commercial experience and a healthy dose of scepticism.
Sadly, the role of the average councillor has now been sacrificed to the “Cabinet”, and we have no control over the quality of people carrying out these most important roles.
We now have councillors doing non jobs (like being Champions) to try to justify what is now a full time salary for many people in Shropshire. Oddly enough, this is called the “Peter Principle” – but definitely not Peter Dunham!
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Mr. Dunham was our councillor, and I agree with everything Andrew has said.
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