A consultation process on the success of the Civil Service West Midlands project has just closed, paving the way for a national roll-out that could transform career development within the civil service.

The consultation will inform a report, to be submitted to the Cabinet Office within the next few weeks for distribution to permanent secretaries, which evaluates a six-month pilot of a more flexible vacancies and promotions system in the West Midlands. Career prospects in the civil service could be “fundamentally changed” by a national roll-out, according to report author Gary Lang, programme manager of the Civil Service West Midlands project.

The pilot – designed to give civil servants outside the capital the same range and quality of career opportunities as those in London – has seen jobs advertised to all civil servants in the region and vacancies open to all those with the right skills, regardless of their grade. Previously, some agencies limited job opportunities to officials in the grade directly below the advertised post, or only circulated details of the vacancy within their own organisation.

Lang told Civil Service World that the move was an innovation for the civil service that has proved popular with staff and managers. “This has not been done before in the civil service,” he said. “This is something novel; something that staff wanted and something we have delivered.”

While the scheme has proved popular, Lang admitted that it was complex to set up and took six months to establish because of the “sensitivity” of dealing with different departments’ rules and union agreements.

The report, to be completed in mid-June, will highlight specific issues that “need to be smoothed out before a wider roll-out is considered”, Lang said. These include, for example, the future role of assessment centres, used by some departments to judge whether people are ready for promotion. If adopted the system “is going to fundamentally change the way vacancies are filled”, said Lang. “We are taking things step by step.”

Charlie Cochrane, secretary of the Council of Civil Service Unions and a member of the Civil Service West Midlands (CSWM) steering board, said he was very supportive of the scheme but wanted to see the evaluation results. “To move to something national is a quantum leap forward”, he said. “If it all works, it could have a very positive impact on our union members.”