CSW breaks down how responses to the Civil Service People Survey have changed since it was launched 16 years ago
The Civil Service People Survey was launched in 2009, under Gordon Brown's administration, as a tool to support government departments and agencies in improving employee engagement.
Before its introduction, departments and agencies had conducted their own surveys, often with different questions and methodologies. The survey provided, for the first time, a coherent source of information on the experiences of civil servants across government – and over time.
The survey consists of a series of questions, including some that are only asked in follow-up to certain responses. The core questions are grouped into themes and indexes, including the headline engagement index, with a total percentage-score given.
Last year's survey, which 354,962 officials in 103 government organisations took (a response rate of 61%), was the 16th successive civil service-wide poll. However, the survey is currently under review and could be set for reform. Civil service chief operating officer and Cabinet Office permanent secretary Cat Little told MPs in December that the civil service "needs to move more towards live, much more specific, much more data-driven, much more technologically platformed ways of engaging and understanding our staff".
With changes to the survey potentially on the horizon, CSW has crunched the numbers to find out where views from officials have changed significantly over the last 16 years and where they have stayed constant.
Visibility, values and the code: The biggest changes
Looking at the questions that have been asked since the survey started 16 years ago, the five where opinions have changed the most relate to senior leadership, discrimination and the civil service code. All show clear signs of improvement.
They are:
- Two-thirds (66%) of respondents told the 2024 survey that they believe the actions of senior managers are consistent with their organisation's values, up from 38% in 2009 – a 28 percentage-point increase.
- 73% said in 2024 that senior managers in their organisation are sufficiently visible, up from 45% in 2009 – another 28 percentage-point increase.
- Awareness of how to raise a concern under the civil service code has risen from a minority of 44% in 2009 to a strong majority (70%) in 2024, a 26 percentage-point increase
- 56% of 2024 respondents said they have confidence in the decisions made by their organisation's senior managers, compared to 35% in 2009, an increase of 21 percentage points
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76% of respondents to the 2024 survey said they are confident that if they were to raise a concern under the civil service code in their organisation, it would be investigated properly, compared to 57% in 2009 – a 19 percentage-point increase.
Looking at the themes and indexes, “leadership and managing change” – which includes the first, second and fourth questions in the bullet points above – has changed the most in the last sixteen years, rising from 37% to 52% – a 15 percentage-point increase. This means more than half of respondents were satisfied with leadership and managing change in 2024. This score rose steadily over the first 10 years of the survey, rising to 49% in 2019, before shooting up to 58% in 2020 and then gradually dropping over the following four years.
The “my manager” theme score has also changed significantly in the same 16-year period, rising from 66% to 78% – a 12 percentage-point increase – over the 16-year period, meaning more than three-quarters of respondents were satisfied with their manager. The biggest improvements in this area are for questions on whether managers motivate their team to be more effective in their job (up from 61% to 76%) and how considerate they are of life outside work (up from 77% to 90%).
Where having things got worse 16 years on?
Looking at where changing views indicate a decline, two areas stand out: officials' willingness to stay where they are in the long term and the levels of reported disability discrimination.
In 2009, 55% of civil servants said they wanted to stay at their organisation for at least the next three years. This has dropped by 10 percentage points to 45% in 2024. The chart below shows that staying for three years or more has remained the most popular choice for civil servants among the four options for future plans but drifted below 50%.
Disability-related discrimination is the other area of worrying decline. Some 19% of civil servants who said they had been discriminated against in 2024 cited disability as a reason, up from 8% in 2009.
Little to no change
Two questions elicited almost identical responses in 2009 and 2024: civil servants’ interest in their work, and their desire to leave their organisation “as soon as possible”.
In 2009, 89.9% of civil servants agreed with the statement “I am interested in my work”. This has increased by 0.1 percentage points to 90.0% in 2024. Civil servants’ interest in their work peaked in 2020, when 92% agreed with the statement.
Desire to leave as soon as possible has meanwhile crept from 6.3% in 2009 to 6.4% in 2024. The peak flight risk was in 2015, when 8.6% wanted out as soon as possible.
Another question where the 2009 and 2024 figures are almost identical addresses pay satisfaction.
In 2009, 36% of respondents said they felt that their pay adequately reflected their performance; in 2024, 35.5% agreed. However, responses to this question have fluctuated a lot in the last 16 years, reaching a high of 40% in 2020 and plummeting to a low of 26.7% in 2022.
The theme that has changed the least is the "organisational objectives and purpose" theme score, which has risen from 80% to 83%. This theme covers two questions: “I understand how my work contributes to my organisation's objectives” and “I have a clear understanding of my organisation's objectives”. The former has risen from 82% to 85% over the last sixteen years, while the latter has increased from 78% to 82%.
The 'headline' score
The Employee Engagement Index is the survey's "headline" measure, and aims to gauge how committed civil servants are to their organisation and its goals – but it has come in for criticism.
A 2023 report from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee argued that the value of the index is “not clear” and that it draws together responses “on abstract issues such as pride, advocacy, and attachment” and “overlooks more tangible issues such as leadership, learning and development, and pay and benefits, where action could usefully be taken”. Prospect, the union for specialist civil servants, went further, describing it as “spin” and a way to avoid real, underlying issues.
Putting aside its usefulness, the index score has not changed hugely, rising from 58% to 64% in 16 years. Looking more deeply at the five questions that make up the index, we can see a strong rise in civil servants' levels of motivation, inspiration and agreement that their organisation is “a great place to work” – and a lower increase for pride and attachment.
Other kinds of change: Bullying, harassment and discrimination
The survey has been adapted over time, with new questions introduced each year and adaptations made to the number of answers available to civil servants for some questions.
Of the questions introduced later on, one stands out: on action taken in response to bullying and harassment claims.
In 2019, the government introduced a question asking civil servants who responded "yes" to the question "Did you report your experience of bullying and harassment?" whether appropriate action was taken to address the behaviour they had experienced.
Just 16% told the 2019 survey that appropriate action was taken. In 2024, this has risen to 29%, a 13 percentage-point increase. As the chart below shows, this increase happened almost entirely between 2020 and 2021.
The introduction of this question followed a 2018 internal review into bullying and harassment, commissioned by the-then cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood following years of People Surveys in which the proportion of civil servants reporting they had been bullied or harassed remained virtually unchanged. The review, carried out by Dame Sue Owen, found that civil servants wanted clearer evidence of bullying, harassment and discrimination being tackled in their workplaces, and without that did not feel it was worth speaking up and reporting it. It committed to reforms, including improving arrangements for how the civil service addresses bullying, harassment, discrimination and misconduct wherever it is raised.
The review also set a target to increase the proportion of officials telling the People Survey they have reported instances of bullying, harassment and discrimination, with just 36% doing so in 2017. To achieve this, it said departments must increase the visibility of actions to address these behaviours. Progress on this target was swift, with the proportion rising to 40% in 2018 and then hitting 50% in 2019. But this didn't last long, falling to 39% in 2020 and standing at at 40% in 2024.
Changes have also been made to the number of responses to choose from for some questions. Perhaps the biggest impact of this has been the improvement in the recognition of different types of discrimination.
In 2009, a question asking civil servants “On which of the following grounds were you discriminated against?", which allowed them to select one or more options, featured just six choices. “Any other grounds” was by far the most popular pick, selected by 73% of respondents: a clear sign that the poll needed to include more types of discrimination.
A year later, the survey introduced six extra options, including "caring responsibilities" and "working pattern", as well as a "prefer not to say" option – and the proportion selecting "any other grounds" fell to 29%. In 2018, two more options were added and in 2019, a further four were included. Just 10% selected "any other grounds" in 2024, meaning a much smaller proportion of civil servants now do not have their type of discrimination listed.
Action speaks louder
When the survey started, civil servants were not confident it would lead to change, with just 36% of respondents to the inaugural poll saying they believed senior managers would take action on the results. This slowly rose in the following years, and by 2017 just over half of respondents said they thought that senior managers would take action on the survey’s findings. This reached a peak of 57% in 2018, but has since dropped and currently stands at 52%.
Three years into the survey, the government introduced a new question asking civil servants if they think effective action has been taken on the results of the last survey where they work. Just 29% agreed in 2011, and while this has improved, only 37% agree today.
If we’re going to help the government in their plan to “rewire the state”, we need to start asking better questions, to find out where the real problems are – that’s the first step towards fixing them. That’s why Reform and CSW have launched The Alternative People Survey. We want to get under the skin of the biggest issues affecting the civil service, so we can help identify what needs to change, and how to do it. Tell us what you really think: you can fill the survey out here in less than ten minutes