Dr Ian C Elliott

Tag: public services

  • Fat Cat Salaries and Gold-Plated Pensions

    Fat Cat Salaries and Gold-Plated Pensions

    What are the benefits of working in the public sector? This is an extended post based on a shorter piece for Prospects magazine.

  • What is an MPA?

    What is an MPA?

    NB: This was originally posted in 2016. As of September 2018 I no longer work at Queen Margaret University. As such some of the links on the below post may no longer work. For information about my current post please go to the About Me section of this website. By Dr Ian C Elliott, Dr Peter Falconer…

  • Training and education for public service workers mustn’t be forgotten

    Training and education for public service workers mustnt be forgotten.

  • SR2013

    Politics vs Economics Less than 24 hours since the Chancellor stood up in Parliament to announce his spending plans for 2015-16 much has already been written about both the style and content of his speech. Needless to say (and despite the Chancellors protestations this morning) this was a highly political speech with the upcoming general…

  • SR2013 and Progression Pay

    Osborne’s attack on public servants won’t work By Ian Elliott, Queen Margaret University George Osborne’s populist attack on public sector salaries made for just the headlines he wanted. He promised to end “automatic progression pay” in the civil service by 2015-16, and to work towards ending it in the education system, the NHS, the prison…

  • Innovation

    Recently I met someone with the word innovation in their job title. This struck me as quite interesting. I wondered, how innovative do they need to be in their job? Do they do all the innovation in their workplace or are others explicitly involved? Now I don’t want to question the work of this particular…

  • Lean Public Services

    I was recently asked by a student to provide a brief account of the advantages and disadvantages of applying lean management systems in the delivery of public services. This is my quick attempt at a brief answer! First of all, what is Lean Management? This is actually a rather difficult question as terms such as…

  • What are Public ‘Services’

    In a previous post I highlighted some of the challenges that are inherent in managing public services due to the nature of being ‘public’. However, there are also challenges that come with managing a ‘service’. These challenges apply across private and public services, and whether delivered by public, private or Third sectors. These issues are…

  • Graduation 2012

    Last week I had the privilege of going to the QMU graduation ceremony. This is always a highlight of the year for me but this year was quite unique due to the presence of Susan Boyle who received an honorary degree. This was publicised across the world (see The Jamaica Observer and The Washington Post) and generated…

  • What are ‘Public’ Services

    What are ‘Public’ Services

    Public service organisations are highly complex for many reasons. As such it is important that any education or training for public service workers is tailored to the public service context. One particular aspect of this complexity is the nature of the ‘public’ who they serve. I was (along with others) really sorry when the excellent…