UK CIVIL SERVICE REFORM and INTEGRITY

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UK CIVIL SERVICE REFORM and INTEGRITY

• REPORT ON THE ORGANISATION OF THE PERMANENT CIVIL
  SERVICE (1854)
• entry by competitive examination (rather than
  patronage)
• standardised regulation of entry standards
• securing the greatest and most varied amount
  of talent from the labour force
• promotion by merit (rather than by seniority)
• the trustworthiness of the entire body
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UK CIVIL SERVICE REFORM and INTEGRITY

• FULTON REPORT ON THE HOME CIVIL SERVICE (1968)
• too much based on generalist all-rounder
• specialists undervalued
• too few skilled managers (policy advice rated
  more highly than management)
• not enough contact with the community it
  served
• too little attention to personnel management
  and career management
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UK CIVIL SERVICE REFORM and INTEGRITY

• IMPROVING WORKFORCE PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
• Shift from control over manpower numbers to more
  subtle instruments of management
• The Financial Management Initiative (1986)
• The Next Steps Executive Agencies (1988)
• Continuity and Change (1994 and 1995)
• Public Service Agreements between Departments and
  the Treasury (1997)
• Modernising Government (1999)
• Departmental Efficiency Programmes (2004)
  
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UK CIVIL SERVICE REFORM and INTEGRITY

• Improving the employment cycle
• Recruitment on merit on the basis of fair and
  open competition overseen by independent Civil
  Service Commissioners
• Open performance appraisal - pay and promotion
  awarded according to appraised performance
• A Senior Civil Service corporate glue across
  individual Government Departments
• Training from Civil Service College to National
  School of Government
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UK CIVIL SERVICE REFORM and INTEGRITY

• Institutional continuity
• 1854
• subordinate to Ministers.yet possessing
  sufficient independence,
• character, ability and experience to be able to
  advise, assist and, to some extent, influence,
  those who are from time to time set over them
• 1995
• the constitutional and practical role of the
  civil service is, with INTEGRITY, HONESTY,
  IMPARTIALITY and OBJECTIVITY, to assist the duly
  constituted Government (The Civil Service Code)
• 2001
• Ministers must uphold the political
  impartiality of the Civil Service and not ask
  civil servants to act in any way which would
  conflict with the Civil Service Code (The
  Ministerial Code)
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UK CIVIL SERVICE REFORM and INTEGRITY

• Improving Integrity
• No civil service law in the UK codes and
  conventions
• Independent Civil Service Commissioners oversee
  recruitment on merit
• Scrutiny by Parliament Public Administration
  Select Committee
• Scrutiny by Civic Society The Committee on
  Standards in Public Life
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UK CIVIL SERVICE REFORM and INTEGRITY

• The process never ends.
• CIVIL SERVICE REFORM DELIVERY AND VALUES (2004)
• High quality leadership and professional skills
• Smaller more strategic central government
  departments that push out resources to the front
  line
• A Centre of Government that is a cluster of
  centres of excellence in key functions
• Efficiency - a reduction in the 533,000 strong
  civil service of over 84,000 posts
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