Where does that leave their quality of life?

I was pleased to see that Local Government FIRST, a weekly magazine distributed to every elected councillor in the UK, has published an article I wrote for them a week or so ago. The 'opinion piece' - "Tomorrow's Service Users" - looks at the lack of organisation among three in four local authorities in planning for their workforce.

As a result, many of the 'baby boomer' staff in local councils will be eligible for retirement over the next few years, whilst the fall in birth rates over recent years leaves a lack of young applicants for jobs.

I won't repeat the piece in full, but to read it click on this link. Suffice it to say, unless we take positive action to compete with other sectors who all need to bolster their workforce, we simply won't have enough staff to deliver our public services in a generation.

We may even find ourselves incentivising our older workers to take advantage of recent age discrimination legislation and stay at work long after they could retire. But where does that leave their quality of life?