Our expert mulls over whether the consultation paper on CPT’s future explains what it really needs to
I’ve now seen the consultation paper issued by the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) setting out its proposals for a restructuring of the organisation.
What slightly surprised me about the paper was that it lacked any detailed explanation as to why each of the proposals put forward would lead to improvements in the performance of CPT. It lacked analysis.
I’m not saying that the proposals aren’t perfectly valid and I’m not saying that they won’t lead to the improvements that apparently underpin them. It’s simply that the paper lacks detailed explanation and analysis. I expected that a consultation paper would have provided that.
More details are needed
Of course, the CPT is conducting a series of roadshows with members to discuss the proposals, and I have no doubt that it is at these events that this detailed explanation and analysis will be forthcoming, so I don’t want to make too much of this.
I just think that a consultation paper proposing a restructuring of an organisation as important as CPT should be rather more, well, detailed.
One thing does surprise me, however. The consultation paper says that CPT wants to improve its communication with government – which, as I’ve said before, is code for wanting a louder voice at the policy-making table – and that the restructuring is needed to help the industry to meet the operational changes it faces, such as congestion, air quality, autonomy, Brexit and the rest.
Right to review
These are indeed enormous challenges and it is right for CPT to assess whether its current structure is fit for purpose or not. But I was surprised to see that under the proposed new CPT structure, the current post of Director of Policy Development will cease to exist and be downgraded to a mere Policy Manager.
It seems to me that in order to better support members in meeting the operational challenges that they face – which are hardly trivial matters – this is not the moment to downgrade the organisation’s policy capabilities, especially when current post-holder Steven Salmon has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the policy landscape.
In fact, I would venture to suggest that his knowledge is almost unrivalled in the industry. I can see that the ‘big five’ bus operators can manage policy issues within their own organisations, but what of the smaller operators who, as I understand it, rely heavily on CPT for policy advice?
Policy capabilities
And if CPT wants a louder voice at the policy table, then it definitely needs a very strong policy capability. Whitehall will expect no less. In dealing with government and politicians, you can’t have one without the other.
Of course, the new Chief Executive, when he or she is appointed, may well have strong policy credentials. But he or she will have a whole organisation to run, and they will also be the Director of External Relations, as I read the consultation paper.
So I can’t see how the new Chief Executive will have the bandwidth to be the lead on policy development if he or she also has to lead on external relations – and run the organisation.
A bright future in store?
Of course, I’m probably jumping the gun. I’m sure that all of this has been thought through in fine detail, so my anxieties are almost certainly misplaced.
But that takes me back to where I started: The consultation paper itself lacks detailed explanation and analysis of how and why the restructuring will lead to the improvements that have been sought. Certainly, if I was one of the officials in the Department for Transport responsible for bus policy, or even the buses minister, I would want to understand how this was all going to lead to an improved CPT.
I’m pretty sure that they won’t get that understanding from the consultation paper itself, so I hope they will be fully briefed at some point soon. But I’m in danger of teaching grandmothers to suck eggs. I’m sure that this is in hand and that, as I say, everything has been carefully thought through. If the proposed restructuring is approved, I wish it every success and I hope that CPT goes from strength to strength as a result.
