As the debate on senior managers' pay rumbles on, those of us facing the twin challenges of reducing our organisation's wage bill, while making sure we have the best people around us are faced with making some difficult choices.

Of course we're focusing on reducing layers of management while protecting – if we can – frontline services.  Councils all over the country are saying goodbye to hundreds of managers as they merge services, try different models of service delivery and partner with others to share services.

So what of those of us who are left?  These days, we're asking our best senior managers to take on more, lead more effectively, manage radical change in their services and deal with a new landscape that calls for very different ways of working.

Let's be a bit braver about those who are left.  Directors of children's' and adult social care should have their salary details published on our websites (as everyone earning over £50,000 does) but that salary should reflect the enormous responsibility they carry for safeguarding our most vulnerable.

The radical, innovative managers who are regenerating our towns and cities and bringing jobs to places that need them should be rewarded for their work, as we wish to retain them and not see them lured to the enhanced salaries of the private sector.

Finance and resource directors, doing far more than their town hall treasurer predecessors ever dreamt possible, deserve pay that reflects the demands we now place on them.  The future must be about high performance, consistently delivered in what will continue to be a challenging context – and never about salary levels just because of the position or length of service.