Political appointees should play no part in civil service reform, says Prospect

Creating an extra tier of political appointees in the civil service is no substitute for the reforms that should take place across Whitehall, Prospect has warned.

The union says the government should tackle the issues that the public really care about and some of the real challenges facing specialist civil servants across departments.

Leslie Manasseh, deputy general secretary said: “If this is the next phase of reform we would like to know what happened to the previous one. The latest round of cuts to departmental spending illustrate very well that the Cabinet Office can only sing one tune when it comes to plans for reform.

“Political appointments will not help government recruit and retain the scientists and other specialist staff it needs to do its work. Austerity policies have slashed budgets and cut many thousands of such staff and seriously denuded government and the civil service of its specialist capability. This has damaged its role as an intelligent customer. Government is simply papering over the cracks and lacks a positive vision for the future of the civil service.

“Prospect has argued consistently that what a modern civil service needs is an open, transparent and modern approach to its work and which fairly rewards its specialist staff who are crucial to informing government policy. That is why Prospect has called for a skills audit, the restoration of intelligent customer capability, a strengthened role for heads of profession and an independent pay review body for specialist civil servants.

Prospect has argued in its own report on the progress of civil service reform that the government has only partially achieved some of its key objectives and doubts whether even those will produce positive reform.

The Prospect report: Government that can needs people who can – one year on is available at: https://library.prospect.org.uk/id/2013/00771