Well I was hoping to get out into the garden this morning, but instead I have had to satisfy myself by taking photographs of my newly opened prize lipstick pink peonies in the rain.
Today’s sense of gloom has not however been stimulated by the terrible weather, but by my activities yesterday. It proved to be a day absorbed by back to back meetings, first at Babergh (the Human Resources Board), and later at Sudbury CAB (Business Plan Working Group).
Matters considered included the following: Before lunch: Panel Work Plan, the Organisational Development Plan, Corporate Staffing Indicators, the Stress at Work Policy and the Health and Safety Annual Report. After lunch: Budget Projections (potentially two scenarios), Audit requirements, Community Client Profiles, Staffing policy for 2009 to 2011, Community Needs Assessment, Bureau Risk Assessment and SWAT analysis, and Client Satisfaction Survey.
All of these requirements and reports, which somehow manage to transform what is actually quite interesting material into something mind bogglingly uninteresting, contribute towards fulfilling various demands from Government or from funders (usually, in the case of the CAB, also the Government). Time taken up by five Councillors and four Officers in the morning, and four trustees and one manager in the afternoon, amounted to roughly five hours in all.
I know that much of the ground covered by this work is necessary, but I can’t help feeling that the level of bureaucracy is now reaching a point at which progress towards any goal at a reasonable speed is nigh on impossible. The Business Development Plan at the CAB for example would have taken about a week in the commercial world. In the ‘public and third sector’ world it is likely to see the light of day sometime in 2009. If this is the situation in other organisations (and I have little doubt that it is) no wonder that the public purse in the UK is nigh on empty with very little to show for the expenditure.
I do hope that the return to Power of the Conservatives will mean less Government, less control, and yes more muddling through, and more room for inspiration and common sense.
