Muffin top

The drive to reduce the number of "senior managers" in the BBC is creating a new bulge in layers below. The "SM" grades ("2" used to mean company car, "1" used to mean company car with free petrol) have been cut by 195 posts so far, but it looks like many of their functions are being transferred to a new management cadre at Band 11, with a significant number of those being paid more than than the salary roof. Indeed, the average salary for Band 11s is above the salary roof, which surely renders the roof either leaky or meaningless.

 
So let's take stock of the situation. In 2010, there were 610 staff graded SM1 or SM2. There are now 415. In 2010, there were 638 staff graded Band 11. There are now 734.  Take, if you will, the three grades together, and the wider management population maybe cheaper, but it has only been cut by 99 posts.

On his arrival as BBC Chairman, Lord Patten complained there were more senior leaders at the BBC than in the Chinese communist party. He set a target for senior management to be no more than 1% of the workforce by 2015.  Take SM posts only, and we currently stand at 2.1%. Take SM and Band 11 posts, and it's 5.9%. Either way, there's a night or two of long knives coming in 2014.