New measures that would see senior civil servants receiving performance-related pay are to be piloted, the government has announced.
Cabinet Office minister John Glen, speaking at the Reform think tank annual conference in London today, said performance management would be the focus of the plans, with the aim of attracting the best from the private sector.
The FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, rejected the changes, with general secretary Dave Penman saying they were a further example of “fiddling while Rome burns”.
Under the plans “milestone-based” pay – where certain senior civil service (SCS) staff would be rewarded for delivery of pre-agreed milestones for projects they manage – will be trialled.
The aim is to ensure that pay and reward are more closely aligned to how staff are performing and delivering for the public, said Glen.
The minister praised Reform’s Making the Grade report which stated that “Attracting the best minds and most skilled individuals is essential to ensuring Whitehall is up to this task”.
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The paper by the think tank – a Conservative-founded body that specialises in public services policy – “rejects the implicit assumption that all civil servants should be treated the same, regardless of how capable they are”.
It proposes a new approach to support recruitment in priority areas – and would make reward packages more attractive to potential new hires, without increasing basic salaries to ensure public resources are spent carefully.
The changes announced today aim to encourage SCS staff to remain in post for the whole of the project, helping to tackle Whitehall churn at senior level, and ensuring that there is full accountability for a project’s long-term results.
Glen said the new system would be piloted from this summer.
He also announced a review of the external-by-default recruitment policy for SCS roles, which is designed to ensure that all senior roles are open to external applicants unless there is a genuine reason not to do so. The Civil Service Commission will monitor data on SCS recruitment, to ensure the policy is being implemented and that any exceptions are properly justified.
Building on plans unveiled in January to tackle poor performance, the minister announced that work to improve the performance management system for SCS staff was well under way and would conclude in June.
Penman, speaking at the FDA annual conference, said ministers were failing to address the problem of low pay in the civil service compared with the private sector.
“Once again, we have ministers fiddling while Rome burns,” he said. “Rather than address the fundamentals of a broken pay system, with pay rates for existing civil servants – half of what they could get in the private sector – we have ministers focusing on the micro-management of the civil service and widening the gap between external hires and internal staff.
“Root and branch reform of the pay system is needed and ministers need to have the political courage to say so and then deliver it,” he said.
Stability
Penman called on whoever is in power after the general election to “give the civil service the stability it craves. Clear objectives with the right resources and crucially, the freedom to manage them. Fair reward to recruit, retain and motivate committed public servants.
“Then rightly, hold the civil service to account for the outcomes it’s committed to delivering – but no more micromanaging and no more trashing the brand.”
Glen said he was interested in “broadening management span and flattening organisational structures” in government. He said senior civil servants tended to line manage too few people, leading to issues such as micro management – and that there was too much hierarchy in the civil service.
Work had also begun on gathering data and insight on the current performance management situation across the civil service to establish where changes are needed, said the minister.
Glen’s announcement builds on measures set out by chancellor Jeremy Hunt last year to increase government efficiency by capping civil service headcount and reducing staffing numbers to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the next spending review.
The minister also announced that work to automate recruitment processes had shown “promising” results, with more than 2,400 working hours saved since some pre-employment processes were automated. More identified to be automated in the next 12 months.
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