Lib Dem plan will mean more work for consultants

In a speech to the Liberal Democrats’ conference, Vince Cable announced a plan to make all non-front line public sector executives earning over £100,000 a year regularly reapply for their jobs to prove that they are still competent enough to do them. If unsuccessful, they would risk being reappointed at a lower salary or getting the push altogether.

OK, Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and the rest of them not going to get into power any time soon but often, what start out as wacky-sounding Lib Dem policies are later quietly stolen and implemented by one of the two main parties. Some Conservatives are already sounding quite enthusiastic about this idea.

The trouble is, though, actually implementing something like this is quite difficult. I know because I’ve done it.

Most of these senior public sector managers will have long enough service to be protected by employment legislation and contractual agreements. A greater proportion than in the private sector are likely to be from ethnic minorities. Any that could prove that their dismissal was in any way based on racial discrimination could be entitled to unlimited damages.

Any selection process would therefore have to be scrupulously fair. Simply interviewing the candidates wouldn’t be enough. Assessment tools such as tests and exercises would have to be used to reduce the element of subjectivity. To do any less would leave an employer open to a rash of claims.

A few of the larger public sector organisations have the expertise to design and run this sort of assessment process in-house but most do not. Usually, when organisations go through this sort of exercise, they call in an external consultancy to do it. A programme of re-assessing all non-front line public sector staff would be a huge undertaking and would require the help of an army of external specialists.

In the same speech, Mr Cable said:

We’ve got to stop the gravy train of management consultancy in government.

But if his plan is ever implemented, it will keep a lot of management consultants in work for a long time.

Vince Cable is a clever chap and one of the few politicians to talk any sense about the recent economic crisis. Somehow, though, I don’t think he’s thought this latest idea through.