This column should probably begin with a trigger warning: the theme is flexible working. Cue strong views, keenly held, on the merits of whether civil servants should be in the office or working from home. But the debate that is needed on flexible working in the public sector is a different one.
Most of the civil service are doing fixed jobs: roles that carry a grade, job title, defined goals and corporate identities. Officials further segment by categories. Generalist or specialist, department or arm's-length body, policy or operational – the list goes on. Yet the business of government is unpredictable as often as it is predictable. For all the core, continuing work that government does, including programme delivery, welfare and national security, there is also a constant array of surprises. Crises emerge with little notice. Prime ministerial or ministerial initiatives demand fresh focus and the rapid repurposing of staffing priorities. As permanent secretaries or senior officials change, so can internal priorities.
Yet the underlying civil service infrastructure is more fixed than variable. Rooting around for staff for crisis work, or for surging into fresh priorities, or to lead ad hoc workstreams is often a challenge. Assembling teams at pace to adapt to changing needs is frequently painful. Directors general or directors may not want to give up good people. Even when staff are identified and available, a temporary project rather than a confirmed slot isn’t always a compelling proposition. All too often the result is a fudge, resulting in fewer bodies than needed, and outsized demands on senior official time to beg, borrow and steal the people and resource they need.
Little wonder that government spends a lot of money on external consultants. The good news, as Sir Alex Chisholm set out to parliament earlier this year, is that consultancy spend dropped from £1.596bn in 2021-22 to £1.187bn in 2022-23. Much of this was due to the relentless ministerial focus then – not least by Lord Agnew – on reducing consultancy spend. Over time parts of the civil service have become better at emergency staffing, rehearsing for and managing crises, building doctrine, and muscle-memory. Some departments have developed advanced systems and processes. These include surge capabilities, crisis rosters or project/flexible resourcing pools.
It has been a slower journey to shift the dial from fixed positions to flexible resource more consistently across departments. Some innovations have persisted. For example, DExEU’s Priority Projects Unit – a flexible policy and operations team that can be surged into high priority work on an internal costed basis. Now in the Cabinet Office, it attracts first-rate staff, is in high demand, and has one of the strongest learning and development offers across government. Others have withered. The Government Consulting Hub, an internal consulting group, was established in May 2021 only to be closed in January 2023. In addition to improving how the government contracted external consultancy services, it was designed to “grow the civil service’s internal capability, including delivering work commonly undertaken by consultants”. The former function has since been passed to the Crown Commercial Service.
“The civil service has accrued an enormous amount of crisis experience in recent years: from Covid to Ukraine, from Brexit to Bridges”
Looking forward, the civil service has accrued an enormous amount of crisis experience in recent years: from Covid to Ukraine, from Brexit to Bridges. The current cadre of civil servants have more applied crisis experience than predecessor generations, as well as the scars and the learning that comes with that. This will likely prove valuable in the years to come, particularly as mid-level officials with lived experience rise to senior positions.
There is a reform agenda that deserves serious and sustained consideration. What could a properly flexible model for the future civil service look like? Should all departments have a flexible “rover” or projects team that can surge into crisis and high priority work, that would be a beacon of excellence rather than a dumping ground for the weakest performing officials? Should the civil service have its own extended internal surge function, as much on policy as on operations? And, most radical of all, should the default for all central policy positions from HEO to Grade 7 be a flexible job role, with only 50% reserved for a specific job description?
There is a balance to be struck between the core, regular business of government and framing for crisis, surge and flex. And there’s a potential double dividend from a more flexible core civil service. Officials could gain a wider array of diverse experience at pace, build deeper networks within and beyond their core directorates, and boost their own applied learning and development. The government could benefit from a more resilient, crisis and surge-ready civil service – and spend less on (often very well paid) external management consultants.
Alexander Evans is a professor in practice in public policy at the London School of Economics and former strategy director in the Cabinet Office