Think tank calls for 'significant' hike in spad numbers – plus higher pay

Francis Maude's "extended ministerial offices" should also be revived, Reform report says

By Jim Dunton

13 Nov 2024

Whitehall needs an influx of  more highly-skilled special advisers to give ministers the advice and support they need – and bring the UK government into line with global counterparts, according to a new report by think tank Reform.

The paper says the roughly 100 spads who work in the UK government is just a fraction of the 600 politically appointed staff in the Canadian government, while France has around 500 and Australia 400. Reform argues that the UK government's current arrangements are failing to give ministers appropriate policy, parliamentary and communications help.

Reform's proposals also include changes to the way spads are recruited, and an immediate 10% pay rise for spads including increasing the ceiling of the top pay band for advisers to £208,100 – a hike of more than £60,000 on last year's upper limit. That move would put top spads' pay on a par with that of permanent secretaries in SCS Pay Band 3.

The think tank argues these - along with other changes around performance management and accountability structures, would help to create "professional, experienced and skilled teams supporting minsters".

Historically, the number of special advisers in the UK government has been limited to two per secretary of state. However, last week's update of the ministerial code removed the theoretical cap on spad numbers.

The Reform report says there should be a new model of political support. "This means significantly increasing the number of politically appointed staff – whether to political or non-political roles – and thereby the money spent on these advisers," it says. "It also means focusing on bringing in more specialist expertise and deeper experience, and prioritising getting talent into private office."

The report says the size of a department's political team should be determined by its workload and that a chief of staff should be created in ministries with larger political teams, such as those with at least three spads.

It also calls for changes to the way civil servants are recruited to private offices, and for diary managers to be appointed at HEO or SEO, rather than administrative grades, to reflect the importance of their role.

Diary managers, it argues,  perform an essential time-management role and increasing their base grade would "be a low-cost way of seeing an outsized improvement in the efficiency and potential impact of new ministers."

The report also suggests that departments should be "talent spotting" for high-performing private secretaries who can be promoted  to ministers’ teams as well as overseeing managed-moves of capable civil servants from other teams into private offices.  "This kind of succession planning is second nature to how high-performing organisations in other sectors operate  – staffing the CEO and other c-suite offices with the best and brightest – and government departments should use the same methods," it says.

Report authors Charlotte Pickles and Patrick King argue it is "patently absurd" that UK ministers are not given "every possible support" to execute their roles.

"Strengthening political support should not be seen as in tension with maintaining an impartial civil service, it is about making government as effective as possible," they said.

"It has become the norm to see political appointees as a form of necessary evil, to be limited wherever possible, rather than as valuable assets that support the delivery of promises made to the electorate.

"This has all led to an unhelpful environment where new administrations promise to curb adviser numbers, only to find this is counterproductive, and they need to break those early pledges and hire more people."

Pickles and King said that unlike in high-performing organisations in other sectors and governments of comparable countries, Britain's politicians had significantly limited powers to shape the teams around them.

"It is the equivalent of tying one hand behind a minister’s back," they said. "With Britain facing multiple era-defining challenges, now is the time to shed the hair shirt and build a political support system around ministers that will actually enable them to deliver for citizens. This is a small price to pay for a higher-performing government."

In addition to spads permanently based in a department, the report calls for No.10 to maintain a pool of spads with specialist skills – such as legislation, data or technology – who can be flexibly deployed to relevant departments at short notice.

Reform suggests that at least two spads should be available to support each of the new government's "missions", who should be based in the lead department for that mission but work across all departments who are contributing to the agenda.

In return for better pay and greater presence in government, the think tank argues that special advisers should be more accountable and subject to a greater degree of  performance management. Part of Reform's planned regime includes pairing new spads with a mentor who can help them navigate Whitehall for their first six months. It also proposes a "core curriculum" for spads that includes a baseline of technical information they are expected to know.

Elsewhere, the report calls for new model of ministerial support similar to coalition government era minister Francis Maude's "extended ministerial offices", which it badges as "integrated ministerial offices".

EMOs were permitted by 2013's update of the ministerial code, which laid the groundwork for external appointments to work together with a traditional private office team. Only five departments chose to adopt the model and EMOs began to be wound down in 2017.

Reform says its vision for integrated ministerial offices, "akin to the short-lived EMO", should be the standard model for ministerial teams and should be reintroduced into the next version of the ministerial code.

It says the move would make clear the expectation of a more substantive, expert and unified team supporting ministers. The report says IMOs should be jointly run by a secretary of state’s chief of staff, where there is one, and their principal private secretary, and be staffed by a mixture of spads, policy fellows and private secretaries.

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