One of the peculiarities about the way the BBC runs its finances is that, because 'change' is deemed good, 'restructuring for change' (i.e. making current staff redundant) is centrally funded. It means, fundamentally, that managers have convinced the Board that their workforce isn't up to, or up for, the 'change'; they'd rather get rid of them and bring in a whole bunch of staff 'better-suited' to the new world.
This allows people like Rhodri Talfan Davies to say he's spending the same on regional and local journalism this year and next - the costs of making long-serving and previously-valued staff redundant don't go on his budget line. A better 'value for all' decision would be to save that additional spend, and offer retraining so the existing staff can add new skills to their existing journalistic nous, and keep redundancy for real refuseniks. So next time you see Rhodders, ask him how much dosh he's taken from the centre for redundo....
The same applies to Simon Webb, Head of (Smaller) Orchestras & Choir (just)
Well said! And I assume that the redundancy money for people who don't wish to relocate to the other end of the country when a new base suddenly becomes a Centre of Excellence for what they do, comes out of this centrally funded coffee jar, rather than having to be found by the department concerned.
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