Director Kim Putters of the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) will retire from that position next June. At that time, his term ends, after nine years. Putters made Friday night announced via Twitter that he will not continue; the agency has started the search for its successor.
Putters (48) calls the position of director of the research institute the ‘most beautiful job in NL’. He started at the head of the SCP in March 2013 and extended his term. The fact that he is stepping down in 2022 is in line with agreements that have been made about the transition at top positions within the central government, states the SCP in a press release.
The SCP investigates social, societal and cultural trends in the Netherlands and provides insights into the quality of life in the country. The institute reports on this to the cabinet and parliament, and therefore also evaluates the impact of government policy on the lives of Dutch people. Putters, for example, stated in an interview with . in October of this year NRC Below is a breakdown of the impact the corona crisis has had on citizens’ trust in Dutch politics:
“With social and political trust: a lot. It went like in any crisis: first we helped each other. Then came the contradictions, and you got stigmatized. You had the Asian people who hardly dared to take to the streets. After that, young people had done it, and then the wappies. But there is much more to it. The crisis came on top of problems that were already there: the growing inequality in the economy and education.”
Also read: Kim Putters: ‘Politicians think that the decreased confidence is mainly due to the slow formation. There are many more reasons’
It is not yet known what Putters – public administration expert, professor of Health Policy and Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam and former senator for the PvdA – will do after his departure. In the same recent interview, he stated that his “hands are itching” when it comes to tackling societal problems: “We now have an opportunity to shape society for generations to come. That’s only once every one hundred or one hundred and fifty years.”
Nothing has yet been released about who is in the picture for his succession. Putters himself writes that the General Administrative Service (ABD) is setting up a selection committee that will advise the relevant ministries of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) and the Interior and Kingdom Relations about candidates. Those who are likely to be nominated will be submitted to the Council of Ministers for appointment.
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