4.6 Negotiating and managing the performance of franchises requires experienced, skilled staff. The Department set up its Rail Group (now the NN Group) with 40 per cent fewer staff than had been employed at the SRA9, carrying out a job-matching exercise to identify which staff it most needed.10 The Department has tried to recruit staff from the rail industry, but has found difficulties competing on salary and because of perceptions of a less innovative ethos than the SRA. Within two years of its formation in 2005, 30 per cent of the Rail Service Delivery Directorate's franchise management staff had left. These posts have been filled without any major impact on delivery to date. Difficulties have also been encountered in recruiting permanent finance managers to support the Rail Service Delivery Directorate, so the Department has temporarily had to fill some of these posts with agency and short-term contract staff.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
9 The Rail Group at the Department covers all staff involved in overseeing the railway industry, not just those involved in the specification, procurement and management of franchises.
10 In April 2007, the Department told us that a sixth of Rail Group staff were still on a 'mark time' arrangement holding their salaries constant until they came within the relevant pay band.