11 May 2007
Senior Whitehall managers this week warned that they have 'unfinished business' with the government's reform agenda — and called on the next prime minister to slow the pace of change just hours after Tony Blair confirmed he is to step down.
As Public Finance went to press, senior civil servants gathered on May 10 at the annual conference of the FDA union, which represents high-grade staff up to permanent secretaries, amid growing concern over the impact of the government's reforms.
FDA general secretary Jonathan Baume was due to say that mandarins 'expect [Chancellor] Gordon Brown to be the new prime minister'.
But Baume was to warn Brown against hasty reforms, particularly widely leaked plans to overhaul the Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry. 'Chopping and changing departments simply to massage a political ego is probably the worst excuse for reorganisation, but we all know it happens and too frequently.'
Baume was also due to call on future prime ministers to 'commit to comprehensive engagement [with staff] about the next wave of public sector reform'.
In advance of the conference, other delegates raised concerns over Whitehall's ability to manage 84,000 civil service job cuts by 2008 and the break-up of their departments through wider use of privatisation, executive agencies or the voluntary sector.
FDA president Martin Fletcher said that 'change is a good thing'. But he outlined areas of 'unfinished business' and warned ministers that he considered discussions over the outsourcing of services, the mass relocation of civil servants across the UK and a new pay regime as 'works in progress'.
'I prefer to work in a world where proper time is allowed for ideas to be fully tested and developed, and only the sensible ones are implemented…
'If employers continue to implement change programmes that do not build in proper consultation, not only will they incur the wrath of the FDA, but they will be implementing changes that are second-best.'
A letter from Baume to FDA members separately warns that the £21.5bn annual Whitehall efficiency target, which must be achieved from next year, meant that departments were already 'under-resourced' and that senior personnel 'often shoulder the extra work, generating rising workloads and longer hours'.
He criticises Brown's 'blatantly unfair' 2% annual pay cap and, after a series of ministerial attacks on the competence of civil servants, calls for a Civil Service Act to codify Whitehall independence.
But Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell was due to tell the conference that the pressure to reform Whitehall would intensify. He was expected to say: 'The civil service is going through, and will continue to go through, major changes and the old way of doing things is not an option. As [civil service] leaders, it is up to us to find the way through.'
PFmay2007
