Reading the thoughts of the great and good commentators gathered by Prospect magazine to ponder Civil Service Reform in last month’s edition brought to mind some essential truths about this ever-present issue.
Firstly, it is important. Although it may not often top the news agenda, people care about it and rightly so. The Civil Service is one of the great institutions of the British political landscape. Secondly, it is cyclical. The same issues have been discussed and debated; the same reforms have been announced and, in many cases, ignored. Indeed, Civil Service reform is one of our great traditions – but it’s largely one of failure. Thirdly, there is no great disagreement over the current need for reform. Most critically, civil servants themselves are impatient for change.
As we have pursued our programme of reforms we have been frank about where progress has been slow. So we absolutely welcome suggestions for action and challenges to our plan, including those featured in these pages. We all share a goal to ensure the Civil Service delivers the best for Britain. But I’m afraid I don’t believe the answer lies in more strategy, more navel-gazing, more analysis. As the Prime Minister said back in June, “This is happening. We don’t need a ‘stop and analyse’ moment.” One of my team of outstanding Cabinet Office civil servants put it well: “delivery is too often the poor relation to policy.” What Mike Bracken meant was that the strategy is the delivery. You change things by doing them, not by talking about them. That’s how he’s approaching the mammoth task of switching Government, the Civil Service and the services we deliver to being digital. So, in this piece I will not set out a lengthy vision. I can tell you what we are trying to do. And then tell you where we are succeeding and where we are not. We will be judged more on our delivery, than our strategy. There is a vision, of course. It’s simple. A Civil Service which is smaller, flatter, faster, focused on outcome not process, more digital, more unified, more accountable for delivery, more capable, with modern terms and conditions, better managed with better performance management and, finally, more fun to work for. That’s it.
No one has seriously argued that any material part of the plan is either wrong or unnecessary – with the possible exception of some trade unions opposing some of the reforms to archaic terms and conditions. And there are examples of where our Civil Service is making great strides. More public services are being delivered digitally and we will see still more switched online, until we are digital-by-default in everything we do. GOV.UK has achieved a rare combination of public popularity and critical acclaim. It is beautiful and useful. It beat off the Olympic Cauldron and the shard to be named Design Museum’s design of the year. It’s not perfect but neither is it intended to be: it’s designed to continually evolve. GOV.UK is genuinely a world leader - open source and now the model that New Zealand has used for its own government domain. Delivered by civil servants it’s something about which we can all be proud.
Sir Peter Gershon first proposed shared services back in 2004. In the last 8 months we have made more progress than in the previous 8 years. I have just announced a deal with a private sector partner that will see the taxpayer own a stake in a joint venture. This is a great example of enterprising civil servants designing and implementing innovative new services at pace. It will mean public services can be delivered at lower cost, but, if this fledgling venture gathers momentum, the taxpayer will share in the profits.
And I’m particularly proud of the savings my Efficiency and Reform Group have helped deliver. Some of these Civil servants have joined us from the private sector; but others have joined the Cabinet Office from all across Whitehall. They helped save the public purse ?3.75 billion in our first 10 months of government, ?5.5 billion in our second year and ?10 billion last year. But the picture isn’t all rosy. I feel frustrated by the pace of some of our reforms. But so do so many civil servants with whom I speak. As Lord Hennessy put it, the Civil Service can all too often be less than the sum of its parts. There are many able and innovative people but the system and bureaucracy holds them back.
Some of this comes down to a classic Catch 22 whereby the very things that need reform are exactly the things that make reform difficult. There is the capability gap, the excessive bureaucracy, the lack of responsiveness to government priorities, poor accountability, policy being designed without reference to its implementation. Civil servants find this every bit as frustrating as ministers do. And it was ever thus. So what do we do? We turn to our strategy, and our strategy will be delivery. This summer, we marked a year since the publication of the Civil Service Reform Plan. We looked at what had worked, what had not – but more importantly, we set out the next set of actions.
We are improving support for ministers. In this country we are less well supported than any comparable country. Even when we look at Westminster-style systems like Canada and Australia we see that ministers there have far more direct support. Ministers need to be able to draw on people of experience and ability. These may be found beyond Whitehall but they can just as easily be career civil servants. What they must be is personally responsible to and chosen by the minister – that is the key to sharpening accountability. We will also strengthen accountability by introducing fixed tenure appointments for Permanent Secretaries. Senior civil servants will be directly accountable to Parliament for delivering major projects. And our designs for stronger corporate functional leadership will deliver higher quality, more resilient support for the business of government.
To deliver the very best for Britain we need to attract the very best talent into the Civil Service. We need to win the global race and stay ahead of the curve and that means that the Civil Service cannot just recruit in its own image. We want people who bring fresh approach and a different mindset – who speak up when they see something that could be done better and are prepared to take an appropriate risk once in a while. I’m all for a few mavericks and eccentrics – it’s a diversity of opinion which will ensure the best possible minds are working to serve their country.
We know there is work to do here. But those that say progress has been stagnant did not have the pleasure, as I did last month, of standing in a room with the first cohort of Civil Service apprentices – those who joined straight from school, with no requirement for university qualifications, bringing a fresh perspective and boundless energy. If they are successful they will be to work their way into the Civil Service at an equivalent level to those ending the graduate Fast Stream programme.
So our strategy for reforming the Civil Service – and overcoming a long tradition of failed attempts at reform – is to not pontificate, to reject extended analysis and to desist from navel-gazing. We won’t compile yet another report on Civil Service reform to sit beside the others gathering dust on the shelf.
We know this won't be easy. Judge us on the delivery.
Francis Maude is Minister for the Cabinet Office
Firstly, it is important. Although it may not often top the news agenda, people care about it and rightly so. The Civil Service is one of the great institutions of the British political landscape. Secondly, it is cyclical. The same issues have been discussed and debated; the same reforms have been announced and, in many cases, ignored. Indeed, Civil Service reform is one of our great traditions – but it’s largely one of failure. Thirdly, there is no great disagreement over the current need for reform. Most critically, civil servants themselves are impatient for change.
As we have pursued our programme of reforms we have been frank about where progress has been slow. So we absolutely welcome suggestions for action and challenges to our plan, including those featured in these pages. We all share a goal to ensure the Civil Service delivers the best for Britain. But I’m afraid I don’t believe the answer lies in more strategy, more navel-gazing, more analysis. As the Prime Minister said back in June, “This is happening. We don’t need a ‘stop and analyse’ moment.” One of my team of outstanding Cabinet Office civil servants put it well: “delivery is too often the poor relation to policy.” What Mike Bracken meant was that the strategy is the delivery. You change things by doing them, not by talking about them. That’s how he’s approaching the mammoth task of switching Government, the Civil Service and the services we deliver to being digital. So, in this piece I will not set out a lengthy vision. I can tell you what we are trying to do. And then tell you where we are succeeding and where we are not. We will be judged more on our delivery, than our strategy. There is a vision, of course. It’s simple. A Civil Service which is smaller, flatter, faster, focused on outcome not process, more digital, more unified, more accountable for delivery, more capable, with modern terms and conditions, better managed with better performance management and, finally, more fun to work for. That’s it.
No one has seriously argued that any material part of the plan is either wrong or unnecessary – with the possible exception of some trade unions opposing some of the reforms to archaic terms and conditions. And there are examples of where our Civil Service is making great strides. More public services are being delivered digitally and we will see still more switched online, until we are digital-by-default in everything we do. GOV.UK has achieved a rare combination of public popularity and critical acclaim. It is beautiful and useful. It beat off the Olympic Cauldron and the shard to be named Design Museum’s design of the year. It’s not perfect but neither is it intended to be: it’s designed to continually evolve. GOV.UK is genuinely a world leader - open source and now the model that New Zealand has used for its own government domain. Delivered by civil servants it’s something about which we can all be proud.
Sir Peter Gershon first proposed shared services back in 2004. In the last 8 months we have made more progress than in the previous 8 years. I have just announced a deal with a private sector partner that will see the taxpayer own a stake in a joint venture. This is a great example of enterprising civil servants designing and implementing innovative new services at pace. It will mean public services can be delivered at lower cost, but, if this fledgling venture gathers momentum, the taxpayer will share in the profits.
And I’m particularly proud of the savings my Efficiency and Reform Group have helped deliver. Some of these Civil servants have joined us from the private sector; but others have joined the Cabinet Office from all across Whitehall. They helped save the public purse ?3.75 billion in our first 10 months of government, ?5.5 billion in our second year and ?10 billion last year. But the picture isn’t all rosy. I feel frustrated by the pace of some of our reforms. But so do so many civil servants with whom I speak. As Lord Hennessy put it, the Civil Service can all too often be less than the sum of its parts. There are many able and innovative people but the system and bureaucracy holds them back.
Some of this comes down to a classic Catch 22 whereby the very things that need reform are exactly the things that make reform difficult. There is the capability gap, the excessive bureaucracy, the lack of responsiveness to government priorities, poor accountability, policy being designed without reference to its implementation. Civil servants find this every bit as frustrating as ministers do. And it was ever thus. So what do we do? We turn to our strategy, and our strategy will be delivery. This summer, we marked a year since the publication of the Civil Service Reform Plan. We looked at what had worked, what had not – but more importantly, we set out the next set of actions.
We are improving support for ministers. In this country we are less well supported than any comparable country. Even when we look at Westminster-style systems like Canada and Australia we see that ministers there have far more direct support. Ministers need to be able to draw on people of experience and ability. These may be found beyond Whitehall but they can just as easily be career civil servants. What they must be is personally responsible to and chosen by the minister – that is the key to sharpening accountability. We will also strengthen accountability by introducing fixed tenure appointments for Permanent Secretaries. Senior civil servants will be directly accountable to Parliament for delivering major projects. And our designs for stronger corporate functional leadership will deliver higher quality, more resilient support for the business of government.
To deliver the very best for Britain we need to attract the very best talent into the Civil Service. We need to win the global race and stay ahead of the curve and that means that the Civil Service cannot just recruit in its own image. We want people who bring fresh approach and a different mindset – who speak up when they see something that could be done better and are prepared to take an appropriate risk once in a while. I’m all for a few mavericks and eccentrics – it’s a diversity of opinion which will ensure the best possible minds are working to serve their country.
We know there is work to do here. But those that say progress has been stagnant did not have the pleasure, as I did last month, of standing in a room with the first cohort of Civil Service apprentices – those who joined straight from school, with no requirement for university qualifications, bringing a fresh perspective and boundless energy. If they are successful they will be to work their way into the Civil Service at an equivalent level to those ending the graduate Fast Stream programme.
So our strategy for reforming the Civil Service – and overcoming a long tradition of failed attempts at reform – is to not pontificate, to reject extended analysis and to desist from navel-gazing. We won’t compile yet another report on Civil Service reform to sit beside the others gathering dust on the shelf.
We know this won't be easy. Judge us on the delivery.
Francis Maude is Minister for the Cabinet Office
