Chief minister 'encouraged' despite 'small increase' in public service headcount

Quarterly workforce report shows trend towards more frontline roles

There's been a small increase in public service headcount over the past three months, according to the latest workforce report from government.

Since January, the overall number of full time equivalents has increased by just over 40 - largely through recruitment to critical frontline roles. 

Including the core departments and Manx Care, the number of FTE's in the public service stands at 7,842.3.

Of the new recruits over the past three months, there are six additional school staff and 17 trainee police officers.

Manx Care recruited two additional nurses for cardiac and stroke rehabilitation services, 20 residential support workers converting from a casual / bank basis, four social care workers and three support workers.

Meanwhile, sixteen port security staff were transferred to the Department of Home Affairs (as part of government's 'Securing Our Island Strategy') from the Department of Infrastructure which overall reduced by 22.92 in the quarter.

Over the same period the number of people working in the Treasury, the Department for Enterprise, and the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture, have dropped.

As per government's 'Recruitment Control Framework', introduced in January, 130 job roles have been put under review.

Chief Minister Alfred Cannan, says: "This government has committed to publishing workforce figures each quarter to ensure that changes in the size and shape of the public service are transparent and subject to scrutiny.

"I note there has been a small increase in the total public service headcount over the last three months.  

"I am encouraged however that this is driven by investment into our critical frontline services to ensure they are adequately staffed. 

"We have seen more police, more nurses and more care workers recruited, and I am also encouraged to see other Departments reduce in size but also add caution in that with an organisation of this size, there will always a level of natural movement each quarter.

"It is important to bear in mind that at any given time a large number of public service jobs are vacant.  

"The ebb and flow in the total headcount does not necessarily mean that new roles have been created or that the public service has grown in overall size.  

"It is more likely that vacant jobs have been recruited to.  

"Nonetheless, it is imperative we remain vigilant in scrutinising the creation of any new posts and ensuring roles are reviewed when they become vacant and not automatically re-advertised."