We’ve been publishing our annual ‘Permanent Secretaries’ Round-Up’ in this form for six years now, painting a picture of top officials’ aims, interests and concerns – and this year’s 29-strong round-up is our biggest ever, offering a very broad canvas. The image revealed is a complex one, but there’s a clear narrative arc: since 2008 the civil service has struggled through a painful period of shrinkage and reform, and now it needs physiotherapy to help it regain its strength and tackle its long ‘to-do’ list.
In 2008, most respondents concentrated on policy matters and staff development, whilst expressing frustration with PM Gordon Brown’s endless machinery of government changes. By 2009 they’d spotted the looming grey clouds, and were beginning to consider the tough personnel decisions ahead. During 2010 they got to grips with their new budgets, building the plans and leadership to carry staff through the squeeze whilst maintaining public services. 2011 was the year of cuts and mergers; it closed with an effort to focus on getting policies off the ground, but nonetheless 2012 was another tough year. Whilst perm secs were then starting to see benefits in civil service reform – expressing a new emphasis on skills development and digital capabilities – the year brought further swathes of job losses and organisational changes.
2013’s responses suggest, finally, that the biggest cuts, job losses and mergers are behind us (at least tempororarily: departments’ success in saving money emboldened the chancellor to raid reserves and renew his squeeze in the autumn statement, demonstrating that there’s no end in sight for Whitehall austerity). Meanwhile, 2012’s focus on getting policies airborne has evolved into a race to show progress on the ground before the 2015 election. That means landing these policies – and, having lost so many staff, perm secs’ overwhelming imperative this year was to rebuild the skills, expertise and capacity needed to make policies work on the frontline.
Hence, 14 contributors write about the need to boost learning and development; five name commercial skills as a key area for improvement, and three cite project management. The digital agenda also seems to have come of age, with 14 perm secs enthused by its potential. There’s much talk of shared services and open policymaking – aspects of civil service reform that have moved slowly in previous years – and, unusually, eight people discuss the value of cross-departmental working.
Other aspects of the reform plan – including the professions, open data, property reform and flexible working – receive little attention. But it does seem that, with the most painful period of readjustment behind us and perm secs focusing on skills, there may be an opportunity to realise Home Office perm sec Mark Sedwill’s plea: that we “restore faith in civil service reform” by reminding staff “of the positives reform will bring”.
Our traditional daft seasonal question asked what perm secs would most like Santa to bring and to take away. And there was no overlap in the responses – with one significant exception: five people asked him to remove unnecessarily obstructive processes. Their removal would indeed be a product of effective reform – as would strong personnel development and career opportunities for surviving staff. If our contributors’ efforts to de-layer, streamline, focus and re-energise their structures and people bear fruit, perhaps they’ll finally get a chance to discard their battle-scarred Scrooge costumes and enjoy a rare opportunity to play Santa Claus.
See Round-Up.
Matt Ross, Editor. matt.ross@dods.co.uk