Why are top jobs protected?

For, while Ministers maintain the pretence that “front line” posts will be protected to ensure that standards are maintained, the reality is very different indeed.

Take the National Health Service where unprecedented powers are supposed to be passing, albeit at a slower rate than first envisaged, from quangocrats to GP surgeries to counter the costs of treating an ageing society.

Just three board-level executives have left the NHS in this region – with the vast majority slipping quietly into different roles and, in all probability, at similar rates of remuneration.

It suggests that the interests of senior managers continue to be put before the Government’s intentions, and the views of patients who want greater priority to be given to the provision of care at local hospitals.

However, it is not just the NHS where David Cameron’s reform intentions are becoming bogged down.

The difficulties offloading senior bureaucrats are being replicated across the public sector – even though Mr Cameron came to power promising “a bonfire of quangos” and also decisive action to curtail public sector pay.

Yet, while this approach resonates with the public, the PM’s desire for decisions to be taken locally, rather than in Whitehall, means that few public bodies are taking heed of the need to limit spending.

In many respects, there needs to be a moratorium on the appointment of new people to the public sector who will command salaries in excess of £100,000 – such individuals should be recruited from within local authorities and so forth. That would allow public bodies to replace teachers, police officers and nurses who leave the profession, while trimming the number of managers on the public payroll.

But it is difficult to see how this can be brought about when so many NHS executives, and so forth, are allowed to move sideways – presumably to protect their pension pots – rather than serious questions being asked about whether their role offers genuine value for money.