Speaking in an interview with CSW before his retirement last month, Treasury solicitor Sir Paul Jenkins – the permanent secretary diversity champion since 2010 – was positive about progress on gender equality. However, he noted that progress on getting ethnic minorities into the SCS has “stalled, and it is now getting worse.” Those figures “are quite frankly disgraceful, and we are struggling to make any improvement at all,” he said.
Jenkins called for the publication of a new civil service diversity strategy, replacing the one allowed to lapse in 2013. “I believe very strongly that if as a civil service we care about this, we need to have a single, coherent approach across the whole of the civil service. It’s not good enough just to say we aspire to look like the population we represent, because that’s a far, far off aspiration,” he said, calling for metrics to “show us how we get there, through milestones or whatever.”
Last July’s ‘One Year On’ update to the Civil Service Reform Plan, Jenkins noted, promised a new diversity strategy by March 2014 – but “that won’t happen. I don’t think it’s been mentioned yet, but it won’t.” His team has produced “various versions” of a new strategy, but progress has been repeatedly stalled – first to await the Civil Service Capability Plan, and then whilst the Cabinet Office commissioned research into gender equality issues.
If it’s finally published in the summer, said Jenkins, “it will be nearly two years since the Civil Service Board first thought that it was a good idea to have a new strategy... That can’t be anything other than a profoundly disappointing space to be in.”
Jenkins has been replaced as Treasury solicitor by Jonathan Jones (see Arrivals, moves & departures), and as diversity champion by Foreign & Commonwealth Office permanent secretary Sir Simon Fraser. Head of the civil service Sir Bob Kerslake wrote a blog earlier this month that praised Jenkins for his “strong legacy”, while noting that the outgoing diversity champion “was clear that there is more to do on diversity and the work needs to continue after his departure”.
Fraser, Kerslake added, will “support me in delivering a new diversity strategy for the civil service” over the “coming months”.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “To win the global race we need the best civil servants regardless of their background. The proportion of civil servants who declare that they are from an ethnic minority background has increased significantly over the past few years. We want to see more talented people, whatever their background, reach the very top roles.”
See also: Our full interview with Sir Paul Jenkins, which also discusses shared services and law in government
Our Editorial: Even silence sends a signal