The analysis [which cutting 10% of the workforce], undertaken by McKinsey for the Department [of Health] in March, has been leaked to the Health Service Journal, bringing a panicked reaction on Wednesday from health ministers.

So that’s number (3) on my list of possible explanations. Good to know I was right to be baffled…

The government says it has rejected advice from management consultants to cut the NHS workforce in England by 10% over the next five years.

The plans to close 137,000 clinical and admin posts were proposed by McKinsey and Company to save £20bn by 2014.

Why announce that you’re not making cuts? Why announce that a huge and respected management consultancy believe that you need to make cuts, but that you’re rejecting this advice – which you paid for…?

The very word ‘cuts’ is demotivating to staff. I’ve worked in companies when the management said: “We’re doing everything we can to avoid cutbacks.” The only word that people hear in that sentence is ‘cutbacks’.

So what is the government doing ‘announcing’ this? Some possibilities:

1. It’s all about the political narrative for the election. Labour standing firm in the face of proposed cuts – even when those cuts are proposed by people the government is paying.
2. It’s softening up the workforce, and the public. When companies say “We’re fighting to avoid job cuts”, what follows soon enough is: job cuts. (At least that was my experience…)
3. The McKinsey report was leaked, or was going to be leaked, so the government had to respond forcefully. Even though they’d rather the whole thing had remained private.

I can’t choose between these. All three, perhaps?