That Passport furore

WHICH ELEPHANT, WHICH ROOM?

There are a lot of arguments flying back and forth at the moment about the Passport Office and the apparent inability to cope with the level of demand from the UK public.  Cameron has now owned up to there being a problem and ordered the recruitment of additional staff to sort out the crisis.  Whilst having it pointed out to him by the PCS union that they'd forecast these difficulties when staff numbers were severely cut....

Obviously those cuts came about as plans created by the senior management of the organisation.  What doesn't seem to get mentioned is who these people are.  When the Passport Office (then IPS) took over the government department I used to work for ten out of the eleven board members had been brought in from private industry, with only one career civil servant amongst them.  Maybe that's changed since then, maybe not.  But at the time what became quickly apparent was the very different management style they brought to bear.  Gone was the public service ethos which is at the heart of effective government services, to be replaced by a more profit driven, money-oriented mentality.

Public services are all about delivering value for money.  Which is definitely not the same as delivering for the smallest possible amount of money.

Just saying.