Looking at how the Learning and Skills Council is knuckling down to getting rid of 200 staff at its head office in Coventry, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the quango had a keen eye on new ways to save the taxpayer’s money.
But it seems the LSC is playing musical chairs with its staff, inviting them to rush for a smaller number of jobs in the new streamlined organisation, after matching their skills to the positions that will be left in the new set-up.
Perhaps we should presume that the forthcoming redundancies are part of this outfit’s much-trumpeted attempt to cut the bureaucracy left behind by its predecessor, the Further Education Funding Council, in 2001.
So, what’s happened to the LSC’s staffing numbers since the bad old days of the FEFC? Actually, the number of staff increased from 4,694 to 4,797 between 2001-02 to 2002-03.
When the music stops playing, some of those left without a seat to sit on at the LSC will be wondering why so many people were invited to the party in the first place.