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Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell
has put aside her campaigning work to answer six key questions for CSW. Innovation,
reform and careful planning, she says, will be required to cut costs whilst
protecting services

Q. What are the key ways in which
the civil service will have to develop over the next Parliament?

A. We
believe the civil service has made substantial improvements in recent years.
Above all, it has become more diverse and action-focused. It has responded well
to the Capability Review programme, regarding transparency and performance as
fundamental elements of the job. But as the Capability Reviews make clear,
there is more to do to keep pace with the changing environment. This requires
three key improvements: reshaping the civil service; introducing new approaches
to performance management and benchmarking; and increasing skills and
innovation at the heart of government.

To
modernise, the civil service will have to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and
management layers, increase staff empowerment and reduce the cost of the senior
civil service. To improve performance the civil service should make better use
of benchmarking, showing that best practice is not imposed from on high, but is
being achieved by colleagues across the country or around the world. Perhaps
above all, innovation will be the distinctive asset of the best agencies,
departments, teams and individuals. We all recognise that, as citizen
expectations persistently increase but budgets tighten, innovation is at a
premium. And this will be recognised in changes to the professional development
programme, reward systems and Capability Reviews.

Q. How can faster progress be
fostered on internal reforms such as the introduction of shared services?

A. We see
great potential in shared services. And in the Budget we announced new centres
of excellence. So, for example, Department of Work & Pensions Shared
Services, which already provides services to 140,000 staff across three
departments, will take on four new departments and move to a new corporate
structure by April 2011. In addition, the Ministry of Justice will introduce a
shared service centre for back office human resources, payroll, finance and
procurement transactions, providing services to 81,000 staff. The Ministry of
Defence will also study how best it can transform the way its civilians work,
freeing up resources that can be deployed to the front line.

Our outside
efficiency advisers have recognised the strengths that exist among the best inside
the civil service, and with their help we will convene a small team of experts
at the centre of government, reporting to the chief secretary to the Treasury,
to set new standards for shared services, standardise processes, ensure
delivery of savings and explore more opportunities to use private sector
involvement to commercialise these platforms further. These centres of
excellence can become a new frontier in public administration.

Q. The growth of external
recruitment into senior civil service posts has had both positive and negative
consequences. How would a Labour government increase the positive and reduce
the negative outcomes?

A. Clearly,
having a diversity of talent in senior roles in the civil service is a positive
development, particularly when they bring in expertise that the internal
apprenticeship model does not create. In addition, greater mobility between
senior public and private sector roles does heighten the employee value
proposition of a career in the civil service. However, it is also important
that there is a greater diversity of talent in junior and middle management
roles. Perhaps above all, we should aim to have more civil servants take
rotations in delivery roles across the public sector as part of their career
path. This is more and more popular among civil servants, and over time
increases the likelihood that senior civil servants have a better mix of policy
and delivery skills.

Q. What mechanisms would Labour put
in place to pursue Ian Smith’s relocation agenda?

A. It’s too
early to say. Ian Smith’s review has just been published and we have accepted
his recommendations. The work begins in earnest after the election to identify
how to make this transition

Q. The growth of special advisers,
consultants and interim staff in the civil service has provided access to
important specialist skills – but on a short-term basis. Do you have a plan for
developing those skills within the civil service?

A. Based on
feedback from civil servants, we believe that special advisers continue to be
an important part of departmental life. In addition to bringing in often very
high-level specialist expertise, [their use] has provided clearer boundaries
between the governmental and political responsibilities of working with
ministers within and across departments.

Clearly,
the development of specialist expertise within the civil service is also hugely
important. To date this has been a particular emphasis within government
professions – eg. the statistics or finance profession. Over time that should
extend further. We would be keen to explore with the civil service what the
next stage of this agenda should be.

Q. When threatened with budget cuts,
large organisations tend to protect their centres and make cuts to frontline
services. How could the next government ensure that it protects frontline
services, while making efficiency savings by changing central processes and
structures?

A. This
characterises our entire approach to date. We committed in the pre-Budget
report 2009 to the budget protection of key frontline services: the NHS, Sure
Start, schools, [services for those aged] 16-19, and police. Protecting
frontline budgets is a critical way to support service leaders in confronting
the fiscal climate, and also to motivate local staff to find efficiencies.

Our focus
on efficiency has sharpened further still. In 2009, after months of extensive
work by civil servants and outside experts, we completed the Operational
Efficiency Programme (OEP), which increased government’s efficiency targets for
2010-11 to £15bn. We also set out new efficiency programmes that will take
longer lead times but will realise £11bn per annum by 2012-13.

It is
critical that efficiencies are well thought-through if they are to be
successfully completed and not impact upon frontline budgets. As you may know,
we have heavily criticised the Conservatives for suddenly announcing a futher
£12bn in efficiency plans this year, based on four sides of A4.

We share
the view of Gerry Grimstone, Chairman of Standard Life, former Treasury civil
servant and OEP Reviewer, who wrote in the Financial Times last month:
“Incoherent attempts to deliver efficiencies will not deliver value for money
and will damage the services people rely on in times such as these. And we
should never forget that change like this has a very real human face. For
example, if we move too quickly in the public sector without a proper plan,
about 100,000 jobs could be at risk, with all the attendant human and financial
costs. But properly thought-out programmes redeploy staff, retrain people and
expand rather than close down their opportunities.”