The Politics Association

AS Government and PoliticsPowerpoint Presentation - 10

The Civil Service

A Civil Servant -A Civil Servant -

A servant of the Crown (thegovernment) who is employed in acivilian capacity (not a member of thearmed forces) and who is paid whollyand directly from central governmentfunds (not local government,nationalised industries, or quangos).

And the History . . .And the History . . .

• Term ‘civil service’ – possible origin in the East India Company, which ran India for the British government between 1600 and the 1860s.

• ‘Civil’ servant = civilian employee, not a member of the military.

• Before the 19th century – no need for a large government bureaucracy.

• Entry / promotion by patronage.• Northcote-Trevelyan Report (1854) – set up by Gladstone to

investigate the civil service. Recommended grades of civil servant, in-service training, entry by examination, generalists rather than technical specialists, promotion by merit.

Who are the Civil Servants?Who are the Civil Servants?

Broad structure of civil service – based on three basic groups:1. Service-wide groups – general administrators.2. Service-wide specialists – i.e. statisticians, economists.3. Departmental groups & agencies – tied to specific government departments or hived off to an agency i.e. Prison Service Agency.

50% of all civil servants engaged in provisionof public services.

25% employed in Ministry of Defence. 25% divided between Administration Group,

support services and self-supporting services(National Savings, Royal Mint).

4/5 civil servants work outside London.

At the very top –At the very top –five levels of the civil service:five levels of the civil service:

1. Permanent Secretary2. Deputy Secretary3. Under Secretary4. Assistant Secretary5. Various

Role of the modern civil serviceRole of the modern civil service

Role clarified in a memorandum written by the Headof the Home Civil Service, Sir Robert Armstrong, in 1986.

The Armstrong Memorandum (1986)Civil Servants should be –1. IMPARTIAL – to engage in no political activity and to implement policy regardless of who is in power.2. ANONYMITY – to work behind the scenes and to preserve the confidentiality and discretion of their department.3. NEUTRAL - a civil servant may disagree with a particular policy yet he/she must remain neutral from party politics.

Reforming the Civil ServiceReforming the Civil Service

• 1968 The Fulton Report• 1979 Efficiency Unit• 1982 Financial Management Initiative (FMI)• 1988 ‘Next Steps’• 1991 Citizen’s Charter

New Labour & the Civil ServiceNew Labour & the Civil Service

Citizen’s Charters• Citizen’s Charters replaced by ‘Service First’.• No attempts by New Labour to overturn Conservative reforms.• Criticisms of continued politicisation of the civil service.

Next Steps• By 2000, 76% of civil servants worked in executive agencies managed

by Chief Executives.

Private Finance Initiative• Retained by Labour.• Renamed ‘Public-Private Partnership’.• Expanded.• Future method of funding construction of schools and hospitals.

New Labour & the Civil Service (ii)New Labour & the Civil Service (ii)1999 White Paper

‘Modernising Government’‘Better government to make life

better for the people.’Civil servants encouraged to be

innovative.Service delivery to be ‘excellent’.Whitehall to be staffed by more

and more outsiders.24 hour service where demand

exists.

‘ . . . joined up government’.

The Wilson Report•Richard Wilson - Cabinet Secretary, Head of Home Civil Service.•Wilson’s report – Civil Service response to White Paper.•Aim of report – diverse, open and professional civil service. Wilson suggested:

•greater leadership at top of civil service.•more outsiders, more in-service training.•‘performance management’ to be improved.•greater diversity – targets set for recruitment of women, •disabled people and ethnic minorities.

New Labour & the Civil Service (iii)New Labour & the Civil Service (iii)

White Paper / Wilson Report reforms have been implemented.

• April 2002 – 500,000 civil servants.• April 2002 – 3,429 senior civil servants.• Appointments to senior posts – 50% increase in posts filled

from open competition.• 66% of posts filled by outsiders.2002 – new Head of Home Civil Service – Andrew Turnbull,

career civil servant.• Position not externally advertised, other contenders were from

career civil service backgrounds.

New Labour & the Civil Service (iv)New Labour & the Civil Service (iv)

Turnbull’s Reforms

Cabinet Office strengthened with a ‘reform and delivery team’.

Focus for civil servants now, administration – policies left to politicians.

Threat of bonus cuts for Permanent Secretaries who fail to deliver the government agenda.

New Labour & the Civil Service (v)New Labour & the Civil Service (v)

Criticisms of New Labour Reforms• Civil service – ‘too politicised’.• Richard Wilson (before retirement) called for a ‘Civil Service Act’ to

protect neutrality of the Civil Service.• Calls for clearer boundaries between ‘government and party’.• ‘Blairites have wrecked the best of the civil service’. (Hugo Young,

‘Guardian’ 25 June 2002.• Posts filled through open competition may have increased – but from a

very low starting point: so not that impressive.• Difficult minister/official relationships – accusations of ‘bullying’.

General criticisms include:• Still too much focus on ‘value for money’.• Not enough focus on ‘public service ethos’.• ‘Business values’ are not always appropriate in the public sector’.