The Cabinet Office today sets out its new Civil Service People Plan for 2024 - 2027, as it continues its work to ensure the Government is best equipped to deal with the challenges of the 21st century.
It sets a clear direction and focus on skills, recruitment and efficiency, continuing this Government's drive to make the long-term decisions that will build a brighter future.
The Plan includes a commitment to make senior ranks smaller and more skilled by developing a brand new Senior Civil Servant Strategy. It aims to deliver a more capable workforce that can lead and manage a modern, multi-skilled Civil Service spread across the country.
This will be combined with a radical overhaul of the Civil Service recruitment processes, which will be streamlined and opened up so the Government can attract a broader range of talent. This includes a focus on bringing in more of the best people from outside Government into remunerated senior roles, supported by a new cross-Civil Service attraction strategy, as well as providing more entry routes including increasing secondment opportunities for external candidates.
The Plan also aims to upskill managers so the Civil Service can better deliver for the British people, with a new Line Management Capability Programme set to be launched in April 2024, which will embed externally-accredited standards and requirements for line managers across government.
Minister for the Cabinet Office John Glen said:
The Government is committed to a bold agenda of modernisation that will deliver for people in every part of the country. It is crucial that the entire Civil Service can rise to this challenge.
The People Plan sets a clear vision for the Civil Service to be as skilled, agile and productive as it can be to support this effort.
We have made significant progress in our programme of reform, and will keep striving to improve the Civil Service's capabilities, people and culture to ensure it is fit for the current and future challenges our country faces.
These standards will be drawn on evidence of best practice from academic research, professional bodies, across sectors and within government - and the aim is to have the majority of line managers having achieved or worked towards accreditation by 2025.
Internal HR processes are also set to be streamlined by integrating employee data across the whole Civil Service through a new Central Employee Identifier system. Issued to each civil servant, it will enable Civil Service systems to link employee datasets and remove manual work.
It is expected to deliver at least £9.8million per year in efficiency savings from 2025/26 and a reduction to the estimated millions of workdays of effort expended on back office processes.
The Plan also re-affirms the commitment made in the Autumn Statement: considering a presumption against external Equality, Diversity and Inclusion spending, and streamlining and increasing ministerial scrutiny of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training and HR processes, with a view to getting value for the taxpayer.
Other commitments include:
- The Places for Growth programme will launch a network of thematic campuses across the country over the next two years in support of the People Plan.
- Procurement for the next iteration of Learning Frameworks will begin this year with full implementation planned for 2025.
- Pilots of courses will be delivered to CEO-level public sector leaders to share skills and network.
