Cuts exacerbate civil service skills crisis

Today’s National Audit Office report on central government staff costs shows the government has no strategy beyond cuts and the result will be degraded public services

Although there is some planning for existing long-term projects or programmes, three of the NAO case study departments “had not completed detailed plans for other business activities after the 2010-2015 Parliament, which would improve their readiness for negotiations within the next spending review”.

Prospect deputy general secretary Leslie Manasseh said: “The government has no vision for the civil service beyond cutting staff. Resources need to be planned to meet the challenges of the future rather than simply cut to meet short-term expenditure targets.

“This is undermining operational capacity and service delivery, not to mention morale and motivation. Unfortunately the NAO report has confirmed what Prospect already knew.”

The NAO says departments reduced the number of civil servants mainly by minimising recruitment, which has affected the age profile and created a generational gap.

The number of 20-29 year-olds fell from 14% to 9% of the civil service (2010 to 2014), while 50-59 year-olds increased from 26% to 31%.

The NAO said: “We consider it fair to assume that low levels of recruitment and the creation of a generational gap potentially heightens the risk that the civil service will not have the talent and skills needed for future challenges.”

Skills

Case study departments continued to “lack comprehensive and reliable information on the skills their workforce possesses and their needs,” the NAO said.

“In 2011, we reported that departments lacked information on their workforce’s skills. This time, we have found that case study departments continue to lack systems to monitor all staff skills, restricting how they assess capability.”

The NAO report backs up the findings of a public administration select committee report in March 2015.

The PASC said that “gaps in civil service skills had caused very costly failures and without an honest appraisal of where weaknesses lie to enable real improvements, further failures such as the cancellation of the West Coast Mainline franchise competition are “unavoidable”.”

Read Prospect’s evidence to the PASC inquiry here.