Roger Evans: Public Appointments - what the Government needs to do

Roger Evans is the London Assembly Member for Havering and Redbridge

Far from abolishing hordes of quangos in a huge bonfire, the government has kept many and appointed political opponents to run them, as this site reminded us on Saturday. In the Autumn I wrote an article urging Conservatives to apply for these positions but the government needs to take its share of the responsibility too. The whole process needs to be opened up to encourage applicants from all walks of life, not only our own supporters.

Public appointments are filled by competence based assessments. When a post falls vacant the civil servants will create a job description and a person specification which list the skills required to do the job. These documents form the basis of the job advertisement which will attract certain types of candidate. They are used to pose the questions on the application form and at the interview. The process is seen as fair because you get the candidate you specify.

So the job description and person specification are vital, but too often these are just pulled out of a drawer, dusted off and reused with no alterations. This government is filling positions using the same template as the Labour government so it should be no surprise that it is getting the same results.

Roger Evans AM: Would you like a public appointment? Here's a guide to succeeding...

Roger Evans is the London Assembly Member for Havering and Redbridge. Following recent focus on Labour dominance of public appointments he offers some advice to Conservatives on how to successfully apply for public sector posts.

I believe that CCHQ should be encouraging members to apply for public appointments and should provide helpful advice to applicants. In the absence of such help, here are my own thoughts:

Why do people view job seeking as a process over which they have no control, in which they are the victims of others’ decisions and the whims of fate?

As the applicant you exercise considerable power over most stages of the journey. You decide if you should apply in the first place. You write your CV and complete the application forms. You choose how to prepare for the interview and in a professional interview, you should be doing most of the talking.

The decision to call you for interview and the final decision to appoint may seem to be out of your hands, but they are based on your answers to the questions they have asked.

So actually you exercise considerable power in the application process.