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Civil Service set for major overhaul

The Cabinet Office Minister has made reassurances that plans to make it easier to sack under-performing staff are “not an attack on civil servants”.

Under new plans, which have been backed by civil servants themselves, the bottom 10% of staff will be sacked if they fail to improve, while ministers are to be given powers to choose who runs departments.

Francis Maude said that many of the proposed measures had come from civil servants themselves, who have previously indicated that they found Whitehall to be “overly bureaucratic, hierarchical and focused on process rather than outcomes”.

Under the new proposals, it is hope that the Civil Service will begin to operate in a more businesslike fashion, with a tougher appraisal system, more accountability and an increasingly entrepreneurial culture.

The announcement has been welcomed by the CBI. Director for Competitive Markets Matthew Fell said: “Measures to remove unnecessary administrative barriers between Whitehall departments will encourage more efficient joined-up working.

“Linking pay to performance and adopting the CBI’s recommendation to raise skill levels in finance, IT and project management will make staff more commercially-minded.

“Opening up public services to competition will deliver the most high-quality, innovative solutions and best value for the taxpayer.

“One specific area where efficiencies are already being made, and performance improved by opening up the market, is in shared services.”

Alongside looking at underperformers, the new system will also identify the top 25% to ensure that good performance is rewarded. All departments will be required to undertake a full review of the terms and conditions of its staff to look at the additional perks workers receive which are not in line with private sector employers.

Ministers will also no longer be restricted to the Civil Service as the only source of policy advice, and will be given permission to commission policy research from outside Whitehall, from businesses charities and think tanks.They will also create a central fund to pilot the new system.

Matthew Fell added: “At a time when budget savings have to be made, central government must standardise the sharing of back office services, like ICT and HR functions, which can deliver both better value and maintain or improve quality.

“To achieve this, the Cabinet Office needs to direct all government departments not already doing so to sign up to existing shared services arrangements in the short term and set out detailed plans to establish independent shared service centres to cater for the whole civil service in the future.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .