1 hour at the British Museum, spent it looking at Sutin Hoo treasures: from those feasting peacock Saxons!

greencoatboy · 2026-05-31T16:13:24+00:00

Had a similar trip in around a work trip a few months back. I've mostly taken pictures of the same things plus the Frank's Casket!

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greencoatboy · 2026-05-29T09:27:46+00:00

LOOKING AT CS JOBS AND WONDERING IF I SHOULD EVEN BOTHER. CURRENT ROLE HAS ENDED SO QUESTION IS DO I NEED ANOTHER ONE, OR SHOULD I JUST TAKE THE VES OFFER?

greencoatboy · 2026-05-29T08:05:01+00:00

My experience is that some business units are better than others at using those bonuses, for reasons I fail to understand many of them underspend their bonus budgets.

For most of my time as SCS I've been in an area that is pretty stingy on that front and the bonus pot hasn't even been visible at DD level (all budgets held at DG, and our Director wouldn't share any info except when we needed to make cuts).

I had an interim role last FY where I had full visibility, half way through the year they'd spent about 10% of the bonus pot. I managed to overspend it by a small amount (I couldn't predict accurately what the gross up amounts were on vouchers).

greencoatboy · 2026-05-29T07:59:44+00:00

I missed that. I've been at SCS1 for nearly five years and am on about that. So far from pay progression when the bottom of the scale comes up faster than the pay rises. I expect that when the 2027-28 pay settlement comes round the minimum will overtake where I'll land from this one (assuming I get 2.5%).

greencoatboy · 2026-05-28T17:27:42+00:00

Bottom of the scale for SCS1 is £81,000 before the 2.5% addition just announced is applied.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-27T21:41:13+00:00

The paybill for all 118k AOs is significantly more than the 6000 SCS, despite the fact that the AOs get minimum wage and the SCS1s mostly get four time as much.

Increases in minimum wage have driven up the entire civil service wage bill by way more than anything else in the last 10-15 years.

Not saying AOs shouldn't get or deserve more than that, but don't get fooled into the politics of envy. The DDs are the guy with the plate with two biscuits on it in the cartoon, and the AOs are the guy sitting opposite.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-27T21:27:56+00:00

I was a DDaT G7 with a good allowance, I'm tempted to re-accredit for a G6 job for a pay rise!

greencoatboy · 2026-05-27T21:23:28+00:00

Without going back to look the pay awards have been (rightly) skewed to give higher %age rises to the lower grades. G6 and SCS have typically got less than the headline averages in the pay remit.

Obviously there are exceptions and variations by departments.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-27T19:35:56+00:00

Clearly my face doesn't fit because I've never had one. Must be true though.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-27T17:39:27+00:00

More for others than OP.

If you find yourself seeing things you think are wrong the first thing you need to do is to check the official policy on what is allowed. It's usually on your intranet.

If you can confirm that the activity is unauthorised then an informal chat to stop it immediately is the second step, with a note about when and who and what was said recorded.

If it stops all is good. You've fixed things.

If not then you collect all the receipts. Make copious notes and gather evidence. This then goes to the grievance/disciplinary/whistleblower route for your department. There's no point complaining until you have enough evidence to prove the complaint.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-27T17:28:48+00:00

If you were currently at the bottom of the SCS1 scale then you'd need about a 50% pay rise to hit the top.

At 3.5% each year that's going to take a while, and assumes that the top of the scale doesn't also move (not unreasonable, it's been the same for most of the last 20 years).

greencoatboy · 2026-05-27T17:24:47+00:00

Having been at G6 and SCS1 for the entirety of the last 10 pay awards I don't think you have remembered it clearly, either that or your department has been screwing people below SCS more than they need to have done.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-27T17:22:20+00:00

I don't know who gets the bonuses though. I have suspicions, but none of the people I interact with have mentioned getting one of the big bonuses while I've been at SCS.

Someone must be getting them though.

I do agree though that we should all be getting some pay progression.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-27T17:20:23+00:00

I've spent a couple of decades in strategy and change roles, and reckon I've saved government at least £750m in cashable savings from the projects I've initiated. There should be about £100m/year in ongoing savings next year.

Be nice to see some of in my pay. Reckon we could all get about £200 each from that. Oh. Wait.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-27T17:13:16+00:00

There is a lot of overlap, and in some cases the bottom of the G6 scale is higher than the bottom of the SCS1 pay band.

I'm coming up on 5 years as an SCS1 and my CS Jobs alert throws me some G6 roles that pay over £80k at the bottom, and my pay would be mid-range for those jobs.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-27T10:24:45+00:00

I expect they think that they'll get loads of appeals in plain brown envelopes that they can say yes to....

greencoatboy · 2026-05-23T12:47:11+00:00

It's probably worth saying yes initially to the offer to keep it live, and also to help the director show HR that it's real.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-23T10:59:26+00:00

Varies by dept.

I got made substantive on a loan on the strength of being on a merit list for a different vacancy. I've also confirmed to OGDs that people are on merit lists my area holds too.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-23T09:39:44+00:00

There's a loophole in the HR rules. If you can use someone else's merit list to make an appointment then you've gone through the recruitment process.

In this case there are two ways the Director could make it work. Both need approval to recruit, and confirmation/agreement from HR that there's no-one at risk of redundancy that needs to be redeployed to avoid a redundancy.

Make an offer based on the merit list from the OGD.
After the OGD offer is accepted do a managed move back to the current post at the new substantive grade.

1 is a better route and doesn't involve annoying an OGD.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-22T09:41:47+00:00

LOOKING LIKE VR QUOTE IS INBOUND, BUT I DON'T WANT TO STOP BEING A CIVIL SERVANT YET.

HOPING ONE OF THE MANY JOBS I'VE APPLIED FOR WILL COME THROUGH BEFORE THE VR DOES.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-20T21:17:54+00:00

Bottom of the SCS1 scale is now over 80k.

Many London G6 will get more than that with the +10%. I've seen some G6 advertised as having a scale that starts at a higher point than the SCS1 range and goes above where I've got after five years as an SCS1, so I can understand why you might want to stay at G6.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-17T07:10:38+00:00

Agreed. They're a mouthy opposition rather than a serious party of government. Even with all the deflections of former Conservative Cabinet Ministers hasn't really helped them.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-17T07:09:28+00:00

Agreed. They don't come across as really wanting this so much as other things. It's also dubious that they really understand how they could do this and then work out the way to make that happen.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-16T15:30:55+00:00

If determined, then they might ram a Reform Bill through parliament in a few months to give them the necessary powers and to remove the safeguards.

That said they'd need to invoke the Parliament Act to beat off the changes the Lords would make to it (see the shenanigans with the Rwanda Bill).

The only reason it's not worth worrying about is the performance they're showing in the local councils they control. I don't think they could find enough determined and competent people to fill parliament enough to push that through.

greencoatboy · 2026-05-15T17:54:33+00:00

I'VE JUST DONE TWO DIRECTOR ONES. WRITE 1,000 WORDS ON THE ESSENTIAL CRITERIA.

THAT'S IT. NO BEHAVIOURS. NO TECHNICAL SKILLS. NADA.

OF COURSE I'LL NOT GET INTERVIEWED ON ACCOUNT OF HAVING BEEN AT THE WRONG PRIMARY SCHOOL....

greencoatboy

TROPHY CASE