The civil service has grown in size for five consecutive quarters for the first time this decade, but government workers have also got older and a higher proportion of civil servants now work at senior grades, the annual Whitehall analysis by the Institute for Government has found.
The think tank’s Whitehall Monitor report found that staff numbers had hit a post-second world war low of around 384,000 in June 2016 but moved to just over 392,000 in September 2017, with numbers rising due to Brexit, although employment in senior posts had begun to rise before the referendum.
Although current employment levels still represent a fall of 17% since the Spending Review in 2010, they have never fallen to the 380,000 anticipated by then Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude’s Civil Service Reform Plan by the end of the 2010-15 parliament
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Gavin Freeguard, the IfG’s associate director and author of the report, said departments that had increased in size included the Department for Exiting the European Union and the Department for International Trade, as well as ministries expecting high Brexit workloads such as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
“We’re also likely see further recruitment – we know that the Home Office is going to recruit immigration staff,” he highlighted.
Although junior civil service posts have continued to fall until 2017, there have been increases in the numbers at some more senior posts since 2012, according to Freeguard. This has changed the grade profile of the civil service.
“We’ve got a slightly higher concentration at more senior levels,” he said.
Indeed, the report found that the numbers in the Senior Civil Service, which consists of permanent secretaries and other senior officials down to deputy director level, have now returned to their 2010 levels, while the number of civil servants at grades 6 and 7 have increased by 13% since 2010, from 36,630 to 41,370.
By contrast, the most junior grade – administrative assistant and officer – has seen numbers fall by 39% since 2010. It remains the only grade where employment is still falling.
This shift has also changed the age profile of Whitehall, with the median age of civil servants now 46, up from 44 in 2010, while 40% of civil servants are over the age of 50, up from 32% in 2010.
“This ageing workforce is likely to have been driven by younger civil servants not being recruited to replace the jobs lost as overall staff numbers were cut from 2010,” the report concluded.
It found that large delivery departments such as the Ministry of Defence, Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs and the Ministry of Justice drive the Whitehall age profile and have a higher average age. DExEU and the Treasury have a much younger workforce than any other departments, with median ages of around 31. Only the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (36), the Cabinet Office (37) and BEIS (38) also have median ages under 40.
Freeguard highlighted that the "older" departments tend to be getting older, and the "younger" ones younger, and that the Senior Civil Service within each department tends to reflect its age profile: 62% of senior civil servants at MoD and 61.5% at HMRC are over the age of 50, while 55% of senior civil servants in the Treasury are under 40. DExEU had no permanent senior civil servants above the age of 50 in March 2017, according to the review, although the department’s permanent secretary Philip Rycroft, appointed last September to replace Oliver Robbins, is over 50.
Lack of diversity at the very top
Freeguard found that women are in the majority in lower grades, but for each step up in grade, the proportion of females falls. Freeguard highlighted that there have been increases in the proportion of women at all the more senior grades, and said that 41% of senior civil servants being women was a record high, but said diversity still wasn't reaching the very top.
“Five women currently lead Whitehall departments and in 2017, as many went to women – two – as went to men with the surname Rycroft [Matthew Rycroft was also named DfID permanent secretary].”
The picture is less positive when looking at diversity more broadly, he added. There has been a plateau in ethnic diversity at senior levels and although the number of people with a disability is growing, it remains below the proportion in the general population.
“Although the percentage of civil servants from an ethnic minority continues to increase (to 11.6%), it remains below the UK population as a whole (14% in 2011). Progress has stalled in the Senior Civil Service – 7% at this level and equivalent who have declared their ethnicity are from a minority group,” the report stated.
“The percentage of disabled civil servants also continues to rise: 10% of all civil servants are disabled, up from 7.6% in 2010 (where disability status is known). The representation of disabled civil servants at senior level has improved slightly: 5.3%, up from 4.7% in 2016. Across the UK population as a whole, 21% of people are estimated to have a disability (18% of the working-age population).”
However, Freeguard also highlighted that the civil service takes improving these figures incredibly seriously.
“The civil service leadership clearly cares about improving the situation; as well as the latest strategy, it has introduced the Talent Action Plan, diversity champions at a senior level and diversity objectives for permanent secretaries,” the report stated.
“But there has been relatively little progress on improving the ethnic minority and disabled presence at senior levels. The new strategy pledges to build a dedicated ethnic diversity programme and ‘ramp up’ the existing disability inclusion programme to make the Senior Civil Service more diverse, and to set and monitor civil service-wide targets from April 2018.”
The report also warned that political turbulence and ministerial turnover – particularly at junior levels – risked disrupting the government’s preparations for Brexit.
Freeguard highlighted that 85 of the 122 ministers across government are new in post since last June’s general election.
“This year’s Whitehall Monitor finds that the civil service is growing considerably in size although it still needs to be more diverse,” he said. “New ministers will need to get up to speed quickly to face the challenges in public services, major projects and Brexit.
“Essential information, like how departments spend their money, remains more difficult to find than it should be. Government needs to be more transparent.”