SOME HUMAN-RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS OF CURRENT TRENDS IN THE PUBLIC-SECTOR

This paper drafts attention to incompatible forces in the public secto r that lead increasing demand for services to be provided from decreas ing resources, The paper draws from the author's experience of traffic calming schemes, which are currently seen as being successful schemes and for which, therefore, there is potentially unlimited demand, This has implications for the allocation of human as well as financial res ources, The author suggests means whereby financial resources can be r ationed so that all requests for service are treated in an equitable m anner, Value for money is discussed with reference to the need to be p roactive in order to find the 'best' schemes, This, however, has furth er implications with respect to the allocation of human resources, Usi ng traffic calming as an example, the author argues that as there are no defined limits to how much work can be dealt with by staff, as staf f generate costs and not usually revenue, then pressure for redundancy among public sector staff will continue, despite increasing workload, The only limiting factor appears to the author to be an 'acceptable' level of stress-related illness among staff.