The Cabinet Office has launched a voluntary-redundancy programme aimed at cutting up to 400 jobs with the aim of creating a "smaller, clearer structure" to deal with reduced budgets in future years.
Proposals announced to officials by permanent secretary Cat Little include some current Cabinet Office responsibilities being moved to "other places in government where they can be best delivered".
The planned headcount reductions also include not replacing staff who leave their jobs. They follow briefings earlier this week that up to 10,000 jobs across the civil service may go as departments strive to deliver 5% efficiencies over the course of the next Spending Review period.
Civil service unions reacted with concern at the latest announcement. However one Cabinet Office insider told Civil Service World they expect "no shortage of volunteers" for any voluntary exit plan because of low morale across the civil service. They said a similar programme at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office had been massively oversubscribed.
The Cabinet Office said its business case for the voluntary redundancy programme envisaged up to 400 exits, with targets for the headcount reductions being decided as part of the Spending Review process.
That process was formally launched this week by chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to set out multi-year spending plans for 2026-27 to 2028-29 next summer.
The Cabinet Office said planning for the department's "reorganisation and restructure" was expected to complete during the 2025-26 financial year so that "new structures" can be embedded in 2026-27.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "We are reforming the way the Cabinet Office works, moving to a smaller, clearer structure.
"Our strategic plan will remove duplication and unnecessary bureaucracy, empower teams and individuals to be creative and innovative in their work and improve the delivery of Cabinet Office core activities. We will create a smaller, more effective Cabinet Office that can coordinate delivery across government under the Plan for Change."
The Cabinet Office's central department currently has a headcount of 6,315 full-time equivalent employees. A further 1,045 Cabinet Office staff work in agencies and another 3,145 are employed by the Cabinet Office but deployed in other departments – such as fast streamers and commercial professionals.
Fran Heathcote, general secretary of PCS, the civil service's biggest union, said cutting Cabinet Office jobs before restructuring the department was "topsy turvy management".
"How can the government shed jobs before knowing which jobs are needed in the future?" she asked.
"Ministers are putting the cart before the horse. After a week of unacceptable civil service-bashing from members of the new government, this announcement is extremely disappointing."
Heathcote said people had voted for change in July's general election, "not for a continuation of damaging plans to cut civil service jobs".
She added: "We expect better from a Labour government and our members deserve better than to be told, just before Christmas, they might be losing their jobs in the new year."
Steve Thomas, deputy general secretary of the Prospect union, said the Cabinet Office announcement would be a cause of concern for officials – including those whose workloads may increase as a result of the proposals.
"Prospect will be aiming to engage constructively with the government as it seeks to improve the operation of the civil service through reform and working to ensure that these reforms recognise the value and contribution of the hardworking public servants who will be critical to delivering the government’s missions," he said.
Thomas added that the union welcomed confirmation that the Cabinet Office is "looking solely at voluntary redundancies" and said it would be seeking reassurance that this would continue to be the case.
Last week Cabinet Office perm sec Little told members of parliament's Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee that "a number of departments" had already launched voluntary exit schemes.
She was asked how departments could be sure they weren't losing precisely the staff they wanted to keep hold of through such drives
"We have definitely seen that in the past," she said. "There are things we can do for eligibility to those schemes; say if you are rated as high-performing or exceeding your objectives, we can say you are not eligible for the scheme, so there are ways to do it.
"In my experience – having run several of these restructures and schemes – it is all down to line managers knowing what skills they need and being very clear about their long-term structures and what they are trying to achieve."
Last month, Ministry of Defence permanent secretary David Williams told members of parliament's Defence Select Committee that he expects his department's headcount to shrink by about 10% by the end of the decade – equating to a reduction of more than 5,000 staff. Williams said no plans for redundancies, either voluntary or compulsory, had been made.