An audience with Charlie

Monday 08 April 2019

Workers from across the public sector are being given the opportunity to grill Chief Executive Charlie Parker on the progress of his major ‘OneGov’ overhaul one year after it was first announced.

Three sessions will be taking place on Thursday 25 April at the Opera House, involving a presentation from Mr Parker followed by a Q&A session.

On stage, he will be joined by Andy Bell, who is leading the government’s £3.5million ‘Team Jersey’ programme, which aims to embed a new culture, values and behaviour in workers across the public sector. 

Pictured: The sessions will take place at the Opera House.

Mr Bell will present the findings and recommendations arising arising from a series of focus groups, workshops and mass consultation sessions termed ‘Big Conversations’ by officials. 

The sessions were announced last Thursday in an email signed off by Mr Parker.

It read: “Dear colleague, 

“A year ago, I announced my One Government proposals to modernise the public service. I promised, at the time, to come back a year later to provide an update on progress to politicians, employees, stakeholders and islanders.

“We’ve published a One Gov – One Year On report today [Thursday 4 April, ed.] and I would like to invite you to an event at Jersey Opera House on Thursday, 25 April. It’s an opportunity to highlight what has been achieved across the organisation over the past year and outline the priorities for the rest of 2019.”

Pictured: Mr Parker's email invitation.

He concluded the message by urging recipients to “please make every effort to attend”, adding: “I look forward to seeing you there.”

Published last week, the ‘OneGov – One Year On’ report listed what had been done to date to “modernise” how the government operates.

Achievements included reducing the number of departments from 11 to nine, the introduction of new spending arrangements making Mr Parker the Principal Accounting Officer for all public service finances, and the creation of a ‘One Front Door’ hub allowing islanders to visit a single location for multiple queries. 

It also outlined Mr Parker’s priorities for the coming year, such as upgrading the government’s IT systems, enhancing the governance of arms-length organisations, and improving the quality of social housing and key worker accommodation.

Pictured: The 'OneGov - One year on' report.

However, it remained silent on potential increases in public sector workers' pay - a topic that has dominated conversation for many months now as the battle for wage increases in line with rises in the cost of living between union members and the States Employment Board continues to rumble on.

Most recently, the government declined to amend its 2018 or 2019 offers, but pegged on 1.3% plus inflation for 2020. This has been accepted by some unions, but rejected by others.

Frustrations over the apparent stalemate have exploded into strike action on several occasions this year, with civil servants and teachers staging mass rallies. As recently as last week, teachers warned that they would be stepping up their efforts by refusing to provide cover classes - something that parents were warned could disrupt their children's education in emails sent out on Friday.