27 February 2004
One in five civil servants will face the sack unless they significantly boost their performance under reforms that sound the death knell for the career mandarin.
The culling of the weakest 20% of officials is just one of the measures set out by Prime Minister Tony Blair this week designed to transform the civil service from a mass of 'Sir Humphreys' into a 'delivery focused' organisation that searches for talent beyond the confines of Whitehall.
The changes will see senior civil service postings limited to four years and officials encouraged to broaden their development by working or volunteering in other sectors. Entry to the civil service will be made possible at a variety of levels and there will be a strong emphasis on finding people who excel at corporate skills such as financial management, IT and human resources.
Launching the reforms, Blair urged the civil service to 'loosen up' and be more adventurous and entrepreneurial. Referring back to the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, he said it was the armed forces' contribution, not the civil service's, that had been vital.
'[The armed forces] were allowed to take risks,' Blair said. 'If something failed, they didn't waste time with a committee of inquiry; they tried something else. They had a remorseless focus on delivering the outcome.'
The reforms also indicate that Blair is behind the central thrust of Sir Peter Gershon's Efficiency Review. If the leaks of the review's findings are borne out, 80,000 jobs will be cut, saving up to £15bn each year.
Blair said he expected more government departments to follow the example of the Department of Health, which is cutting its headquarters staff by 38%. 'If we can get this right, there is a double dividend: less unproductive interference in the day-to-day management of public services and more resources freed up for the front line,' he said.
The senior civil service union, the FDA, said it was important to ensure reforms were implemented without undermining staff. General secretary Jonathan Baume added: 'Changing attitudes to risk within the civil service will rely implicitly on achieving similar changes at ministerial level.'
The Public and Commercial Services union warned that reform should not be used as an excuse to slash jobs. General secretary Mark Serwotka said: 'We grow increasingly worried that ordinary civil servants, many of whom deliver essential frontline services, are being caught up in a game of who can cut the most between the government and the Tories.'
PFfeb2004
