Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell has put aside her campaigning work to answer six key questions for CSW. Innovation, reform and careful planning, she says, will be required to cut costs whilst protecting services
Q. What are the key ways in which the civil service will have to develop over the next
Parliament?
A. We believe the civil service has made substantial improvements in recent years. Above all, it has become more diverse and action-focused. It has responded well to the Capability Review programme, regarding transparency and performance as fundamental elements of the job. But as the Capability Reviews make clear, there is more to do to keep pace with the changing environment. This requires three key improvements: reshaping the civil service; introducing new approaches to performance management and benchmarking; and increasing skills and innovation at the heart of government.
To modernise, the civil service will have to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and management layers, increase staff empowerment and reduce the cost of the senior civil service. To improve performance the civil service should make better use of benchmarking, showing that best practice is not imposed from on high, but is being achieved by colleagues across the country or around the world. Perhaps above all, innovation will be the distinctive asset of the best agencies, departments, teams and individuals. We all recognise that, as citizen expectations persistently increase but budgets tighten, innovation is at a premium. And this will be recognised in changes to the professional development programme, reward systems and Capability Reviews.
Q. How can faster progress be fostered on internal reforms such as the introduction of shared services?
A. We see great potential in shared services. And in the Budget we announced new centres of excellence. So, for example, Department of Work & Pensions Shared Services, which already provides services to 140,000 staff across three departments, will take on four new departments and move to a new corporate structure by April 2011. In addition, the Ministry of Justice will introduce a shared service centre for back office human resources, payroll, finance and procurement transactions, providing services to 81,000 staff. The Ministry of Defence will also study how best it can transform the way its civilians work, freeing up resources that can be deployed to the front line.
Our outside efficiency advisers have recognised the strengths that exist among the best inside the civil service, and with their help we will convene a small team of experts at the centre of government, reporting to the chief secretary to the Treasury, to set new standards for shared services, standardise processes, ensure delivery of savings and explore more opportunities to use private sector involvement to commercialise these platforms further. These centres of excellence can become a new frontier in public administration.
Q. The growth of external recruitment into senior civil service posts has had both
positive and negative consequences. How would a Labour government increase the
positive and reduce the negative outcomes?
A. Clearly, having a diversity of talent in senior roles in the civil service is a positive development, particularly when they bring in expertise that the internal apprenticeship model does not create. In addition, greater mobility between senior public and private sector roles does heighten the employee value proposition of a career in the civil service.
However, it is also important that there is a greater diversity of talent in junior and middle management roles. Perhaps above all, we should aim to have more civil servants take rotations in delivery roles across the public sector as part of their career path. This is more and more popular among civil servants, and over time increases the likelihood that senior civil servants have a better mix of policy and delivery skills.
Q. What mechanisms would Labour put in place to pursue Ian Smith’s relocation agenda?
A. It’s too early to say. Ian Smith’s review has just been published and we have accepted his recommendations. The work begins in earnest after the election to identify how to make this transition
Q. The growth of special advisers, consultants and interim staff in the civil service has provided access to important specialist skills – but on a short-term basis. Do you have a plan for developing those skills within the civil service?
A. Based on feedback from civil servants, we believe that special advisers continue to be an important part of departmental life. In addition to bringing in often very high-level specialist expertise, [their use] has provided clearer boundaries between the governmental and political responsibilities of working with ministers within and across departments.
Clearly, the development of specialist expertise within the civil service is also hugely important. To date this has been a particular emphasis within government professions – eg. the statistics or finance profession. Over time that should extend further. We would be keen to explore with the civil service what the next stage of this agenda should be.
Q. When threatened with budget cuts, large organisations tend to protect their centres and make cuts to frontline services. How could the next government ensure that it protects frontline services, while making efficiency savings by changing central processes and structures?
A. This characterises our entire approach to date. We committed in the pre-Budget report 2009 to the budget protection of key frontline services: the NHS, Sure Start, schools, [services for those aged] 16-19, and police. Protecting frontline budgets is a critical way to support service leaders in confronting the fiscal climate, and also to motivate local staff to find efficiencies.
Our focus on efficiency has sharpened further still. In 2009, after months of extensive work by civil servants and outside experts, we completed the Operational Efficiency Programme (OEP), which increased government’s efficiency targets for 2010-11 to £15bn. We also set out new efficiency programmes that will take longer lead times but will realise £11bn per annum by 2012-13.
It is critical that efficiencies are well thought-through if they are to be successfully completed and not impact upon frontline budgets. As you may know, we have heavily criticised the Conservatives for suddenly announcing a futher £12bn in efficiency plans this year, based on four sides of A4.
We share the view of Gerry Grimstone, Chairman of Standard Life, former Treasury civil servant and OEP Reviewer, who wrote in the Financial Times last month: “Incoherent attempts to deliver efficiencies will not deliver value for money and will damage the services people rely on in times such as these. And we should never forget that change like this has a very real human face. For example, if we move too quickly in the public sector without a proper plan, about 100,000 jobs could be at risk, with all the attendant human and financial costs. But properly thought-out programmes redeploy staff, retrain people and expand rather than close down their opportunities.”