Qualified Administrative Staff in the local Government Service : Their Deployment and Opportunities
| Author | M.R. KINCH |
| Date | 01 June 1965 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1965.tb01608.x |
| Published date | 01 June 1965 |
Qualified Administrative Staff in the local
Government Service
:
Their Deployment and Opportunities
M
.R.K
IN
CH
‘rhiJ article is
an
abridged version
of
an
essay comnrendrd
by
the
:lnJudica/ors
in
th
I
964
Haldane
Essay
Competition.
Mr.k-iruh
is
an
Adtninistrative
Amstant
in the
Clerk’s
Department, II’iltshire
County Council.
‘The
local
government service, unlike the civil service, has traditionally
reserved its most responsible posts for persons with professional or technical
qualifications. The career structure for staff possessing administrative
qualification.. only has therefore tended to be inadequate. It has lieen
apparent for some years that this inadequacy will have to
be
remedied:
the shortage
of
professional and technical staff, together with the increasing
size and complexity
of
the services to be administered, render
it
imperative
to ensure that sufTicient high-calibre administrative officers will
be
nvaila1)le
in the future.
In July
I
961,
the National Joint Council
lbr
1,ocal .4uthorities’ i\clniinis-
trative, Professional, Technical and Clerical Services
(N.J.C.),
which
is
‘the standing body charged provided
by
its constitution with the super-
vision, from a national point of view,
of
all
questions affecting local
authorities’ officers within its purview’,1 issued a Circular entitled
Recox-
nition
of
QualiJcations
for
Administrative
Posts?
This Circular, which
was
sent
to the Secretaries
of
the
N.J.C‘s
associated Provincial Councils and to
the
Clerks
of
all local authorities, stated that inquiries had shown ‘that in local
government the status and prospects of the officer who holds an adminh-
trative qualification
only
are generally more limited than those of his
professional and technical
counterpart^'.^
‘The Circular recommended
local authorities ‘to review the structure
of
administrative
posts
to ensure
the widest
use
of
qualified administrators,
so
as to economize in the use
ot‘
technical specialists
for
administrative work,
and
accordingly ensure
adequate promotion opportunities for administrative
staff.’4
This essay
is
based on investigations which were designed to indicatr
the extent to which this recommendation has been implemented
by
local
authorities, both
in
letter and spirit.
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
In November
1962,
the N.J.C. followed up its Circular by issuing
appropriate additions and amendments to the National Scheme of Condi-
tions
of
Service (the Charter). The most important addition was probably
the following
-
‘Administrative Staffs.
(a) Employing authorities are recommended to examine carefully their
needs in the matter
of
administrative posts and to ensure that in the
case of such posts an equal emphasis is placed upon the necessity for
an appropriate qualification (e.g. the Diploma
in
Municipal
Administration) as obtains with regard to other professional posts.
In the matter of the grading of administrative posts the Council has
decided as follows:
(b)
Administrative posts where it
is
required that the officer shall have
passed the Final Administrative Examination of the Local Govern-
ment Examinations Board, or a recognized alternative qualification
in administration shall be graded at the discretion of the employing
authority, subject to the grading being not less than
A.P.T.
Division
Grade I11 in any instance.
(c) The grading
of
administrative posts where the duties and responsi-
bilities are at
a
higher level than in those cases justifying the applica-
tion of A.P.T. Division Grade I11 is also within the discretion
of
employing authorities.
(d)
A
recognized alternative qualification in administration (see(b)
above) is a qualification
in
administration as may be approved by
the Local Government Examinations Board and the National
Council.’6
A
qualified administrator in the local government service, then, is an
officer who possesses the D.M.A.
or
an administrative qualification recog-
nized by the
N.J.C.
and its associated body the Local Government
Examinations Board
(L.G.E.B.)
as alternative for promotion purposes,
e.g.
D.P.A., A.C.C.S.s
It
is
true that some administrators are ‘qualified‘ by virtue of length
of
service,’ but the sense in which the term will be used in this essay
is
as
defined above.
THE
DIPLOMA
IN
MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION
The Clerical Division Examination, ‘to test suitability for promotion
to
the Clerical Division, Grades
I1
and
111’,8
and the Administrative
Exami-
nation (D.M.A.), ‘designed to serve
as
a qualification for promotion through
the Administrative, Professional and Technical scales to the more senior
administrative were introduced by the L.G.E.B. in
1951
to replace
the former Promotion Examination. (This was discontinued after two years
as being ‘too stiff
as
a test for admission to the clerical grades, (and)
too
174
To continue reading
Request your trial