Women's success rate in recruitment competitions for the most senior posts in the civil service has soared this year.
The Civil Service Commission's annual report and accounts, published last week, shows that women were much more successful in commissioner-chaired competitions – those for posts of director and above.
There were 235 commissioner-chaired competitions in 2023-24. Where declared, women made up 30% of applicants, 46% of shortlists and 64% of appointable candidates.
This is a much higher success rate than in 2022-23, when women, where declared, also made up 30% of applicants, but 42% of shortlists and 40% of appointable candidates in commissioner-chaired competitions.
The report also shows that external candidates faired better this time around: out of the 235 competitions chaired by commissioners, 65% of appointed candidates were existing civil servants, compared to 82% the year before.
Candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds and those who reported having a disability continued to have a low success rate, with a particularly stark difference between applicants and appointable candidates for the former group.
Where declared, ethnic minortiy candidates made up 27% of total applicants, 12% of shortlists and 9% of appointable candidates, and those reporting having a disability made up 8%of applicants, 10% of shortlists and 7% of appointable candidates.
The report also found that the competitions produced a higher proportion of recommended candidates that were rated "outstanding or very good" (57% in 2023-24 compared to 52% in 2022-23) and a slightly higher percentage of competitions with more than one appointable candidate ( 59%, up from 57%).
Fifteen competitions produced no appointable candidate (6.4%), compared to 12 in 2022-23 (5%).
For recruitment below SCS2, the report found a drop in the proportion of recruits from ethnic minority backgrounds (down from 21% to 17%), where declared, and in the proportion of recruits declaring a disability (down from 10% to 7%).
In total, 98,328 officials were appointed to roles in 2023-24, compared to 90,251 in 2022-23 – up 9% – the report found. Of these, 91,351 people were recruited through fair and open competition, compared to 80,889 in 2022/23 – up 13%. And 6,977 staff were appointed by exception, compared to 9,362 in 2022-23 – down 25%.
The commission carried out a review in the autumn following in response to concerns about high-profile appointments of officials with links to the Labour Party shortly after the general election. It said it was “largely satisfied” with departmental processes to make appointments by exception as the number of these appointments made in July and August was “considerably lower” than in previous years.