It is always difficult to talk about civil service issues as if the service is a single, homogenous entity, so when I think about what civil servants might want from the next government, I try to keep it simple. I have three issues that I believe need to be addressed: recognition, reward and resources.
Many civil servants feel quite bruised from their experience over the last few years. They have experienced cuts in their pay, pensions and staffing – and at the same time, unforgivably, some ministers have been quick to question the professionalism of staff. No chief executive or chair would expect to do so whilst retaining a motivated workforce, but those closest to ministers describe being thanked in private and criticised in public. From behind-the-scenes undermining of individuals and public criticism of whole swathes of the service, to bureaucratic performance management systems that fixate on small numbers of top and bottom performers but do nothing for the majority of staff, there are many factors undermining trust between civil servants and politicians.
The value of the civil service’s talented individuals – many of whom have dedicated their lives to serving the public good – must be recognised; and with that should come a commitment to developing the skills and competencies that the civil service needs for the future. Attracting talented people, and retaining those already within the civil service, is increasingly becoming a challenge.
In part, the answer is to offer the right rewards. Currently, senior and specialist pay is woefully behind any meaningful market comparison. Staff at senior levels are being priced out of living within a reasonable commute of Whitehall, and increasingly the attraction of doing good work in the public sector is playing second fiddle to the need for a decent work-life balance – with the result that good people are leaving. What’s more, the problem is spreading out from London as the economy picks up.
This government inherited rather than created the mess that is civil service pay arrangements, both in delegated grades and the SCS, but has shown no appetite for addressing it. Instead, it relies on its mantra of austerity to put off until the next Parliament any serious consideration of the issues.
Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of time. Today’s serving and aspiring ministers might not have been here before, but we in the FDA have. When Tony Blair was elected in 1997, departments had been subject to pay controls for some years; and as the economy picked up around 2000, staff began to exit in droves in search of higher pay. Departments panicked, throwing ‘non-consolidated’ allowances at increasing numbers of people in a bid to keep them. The result was inequities and anomalies that took years to resolve, meanwhile creating suspicion and resentment over the opaque allocation of these extra payments.
We must do better this time: the civil service needs to plan now for a stronger jobs market, and ministers need to face up to the realities created by the market forces that they champion everywhere except in the reward arrangements for their own staff. Pay rises for public servants rarely win many votes, but reform is long overdue – and the longer it is deferred, the bigger the challenge will be. Better to address it now, commit to reform, and plan for the longer term with those that are prepared to engage in sensible dialogue.
Perhaps the biggest challenge for the next government will be matching resources to commitments. Over the period of this Parliament, we have witnessed almost unprecedented cuts in resources and staffing. The civil service, at its smallest now since the Second World War, is almost guaranteed to see cuts of a similar scale over the next Parliament, regardless of who wins the election. Yet the ‘low-hanging fruit’, to use that irritating phrase, has all been picked.
There is no right size for the civil service. One of its strengths is that it copes with boom and bust, and keeps delivering vital public services. But there comes a point when what is being asked of it simply does not stack up with the resources allocated to deliver.
That is never an easy judgement, and nobody wants to be the SRO saying ‘No minister’. Civil servants instinctively try to deliver the government’s agenda; it’s in their DNA. So the responsibility lies not only with civil servants to be clear about what can and can’t be delivered, but also with ministers to take a reality check. The civil service is not simply the gift that keeps on giving to an austerity chancellor. As we are increasingly seeing – in fields such as border controls, passport renewals and welfare reform – choices need to be made between the government’s priorities and the resources allocated.
So there it is. Recognition, reward and resources. Surely even a politician could remember that.
Dave Penman is the general secretary of the FDA Union