21 February (Part 1) - Working his passage
Remember Mark Charters? He was the director of various things in Bexley.
Social and Community Services when
old ladies and
children died and Education when Bexley had
fewer outstanding schools than anywhere else in London. He took
a £170,000 salary while paying care worker agencies less than any other London
borough and last year did a runner to the Isle of Man where he now runs their
government’s Department of Health and Social Care.
His departure led to me receiving
messages from relieved Bexley staff; “glad to
see him go” etc. and I have occasionally searched IOM forums to see if I could pick up similar comments. I did, but
one of their newspaper’ websites caught my eye last week. It said that Mark
Charters was going on a fact finding tour to establish best practices. So can we
expect to see him in Bexley soon? After all, he was here for seven years on a fat
salary; did he not achieve something worthwhile here?
Apparently not. Mark Charters is off to New Zealand to see how things are done there.
A little bit of research shows that in recent years New Zealand’s Health
Service has not risen above 40th position in the World Health Organisation
rankings while the UK manages to be consistently in the teens. So why would
Charters choose to go to New Zealand?
Maybe this comment on the IOM Government website offers a clue.
Yes, he has arranged a free trip home.
Now we know what Mark Charters’ principal success was during his seven years
in Bexley. He learned our council’s catalogue of self-serving dirty tricks supremely well.