28 October 2005
The civil service should be replaced by a new organisation embracing all those involved in the management of the public sector, former top civil servant Sir Michael Bichard has suggested.
'The term “civil service” was coined to distinguish it from the military, so maybe it has now served its purpose,' Bichard writes in an article in the first issue of Solace Foundation Imprint.
The publication was launched at last week's annual conference of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers in Edinburgh.
Bichard, who left the civil service in 2001, having been permanent secretary at the then Department of Education and Employment, put forward his proposal as one of a series of initiatives aimed at changing the way public services are managed. The current reform programme, he claims, is 'falling short'.
He proposes the establishment of a public service rather than a civil service 'so that all those who are employed to provide public services form part of the one system with the greater mobility that will bring'.
He points out that a decision was taken to maintain a unified service when the devolved administrations were established to encourage mobility.
'Why not now extend that to the public service generally?' he writes. 'A post like the ODPM [Office of the Deputy Prime Minister] permanent secretary would then naturally be open to the best in the public service.'
Bichard, who spent 20 years in local government and nearly ten in central government, is rector of the former London Institute, which in May 2004 became University of the Arts London.
He wants more formal outsourcing of policy development and analysis so that the monopoly enjoyed by the civil service is broken. Select committees should be revitalised to enhance their role in holding officials to account and all civil, or public servants, should serve some time in operational or management positions before being considered for senior posts, Bichard suggests.
He adds: 'We need also to articulate a clearer, more coherent vision of reform which is consistently applied across the public service.
'At present, we have a pot pourri of strategies applied, without any obvious rationale, which leaves room for policy conflict.'
PFoct2005
