The civil service has been in a long state of transition ever since the Northcote-Trevelyan proposals in 1854. But in recent times the Gershon and Lyons reports and the merging of the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise are bringing about a particularly intense and radical period of change.
It is too early for any real impact to be felt on recruitment but the government has entered a period where careful planning is critical to success. The Civil Service Management Board is working on what skills are likely to be needed in the future, whether in policy advice, large operational functions, corporate services or service delivery.
The first requirement is the need for people with a demonstrable track record in tackling organisational change. Richard Grainger was brought in from Deloitte Consulting to oversee information technology in the National Health Service and David Varney has been recruited from mmO2, the mobile network operator, as chairman of the soon-to-be merged Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise.
Woodhurst, a recruitment consultancy, reports that there has been more than a 42-fold increase in demand for consultants with public sector experience over the past three years. It says that the public sector is the largest source of demand for management consultants, representing more than 19 per cent of vacancies. However, demand is outstripping supply and the number of available consultants with public sector experience has risen just four-fold.
The report, Civil Service Reform Delivery and Values, published by the Cabinet Office in February this year, heralds a move from generalist civil servants towards specialists working in broad specialised areas called career anchors in which a person can hold a variety of jobs, interspersed with service elsewhere that complements the role. The report particularly singles out project management, financial management and human resources.
Stephen Brooks, a member of the management group at PA Consulting, points out that the move to a less generalist civil service could threaten many of the very capable and able people at the senior levels in the Civil Service who have stayed, despite other opportunities, to enjoy the variety. "The move towards career anchors could be perceived as a constraint on their development," he says. "It could tip the balance the other way."
The Cabinet Office paper accepts that "the civil service has been historically poor at giving people honest, constructive feedback about their performance and ensuring that everyone has a personal plan for improvement".
Mr Brooks says that there has been little opportunity for career planning because jobs are awarded through open competition.
"If you are going to use career anchors," he says, "you need to be more pro-active in developing career planning systems, rather than leaving it up to employees to apply for vacancies. You have to ensure that you are giving opportunities to people who have the right skills and ensure that you retain the quality people coming in at the bottom."
Richard Pearson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, an independent research centre, refers to a Treasury paper put out two years ago. This pointed out that under then current projections the public sector would take 75 per cent of the growth of the workforce over the next five years.
"There was growing competition within the public sector for the same people," he says. "This was driving up wages. It was aggravated by the drive towards decentralisation a few years ago when departments were encouraged to take responsibility for their own recruitment, pay and appraisal. It made it difficult to move people around if they were all on different pay structures and systems."
Mr Brooks says that central co-ordination is being encouraged by the Treasury. "It is not a formal thing but is quite subtle." Mr Pearson describes it as "providing a central eye on processes for managing people and resource planning, but falling short of central planning."
The Independent Review of Public Sector Relocation, carried out by Sir Michael Lyons, identified 20,000 civil service jobs that could move out of London and the south-east. This refers to movement of posts, not people, so there will be extensive local recruitment at local labour market rates.
Clive Shore, director of business consultancy at Experian Business Strategies, an economic and regional consultancy, was involved in the review. "It looked at the regional economic impact of relocation," he says. "It examined 20 previous public and private sector relocations and evaluated 104 different possible locations."
The case studies showed that one of the main reasons for moving out of the south-east was the increasing difficulty, particularly in the public sector, of recruiting quality junior staff at a sensible price.
Adrian Slater, managing director for the public sector at Hays Personnel, says that the government must carefully research the pockets of available specialist skills before choosing a region. "There will be certain locations where a major government department will have an impact on local skills and rates of pay," he warns.
According to Mr Pearson, the population locally will already have the skills needed for administrative jobs but not in policymaking. Mr Slater adds that people in the regions will lack expertise in working within the civil service and dealing with ministers.
The danger is that relocation of senior policymakers to the regions could be followed by a steady migration back to London. This is driven both by government ministers wanting senior policy makers to be available locally and senior civil servants' natural desire to protect their careers by getting back to the centre.
Teleconferencing is already being used to encourage people to work effectively at a distance.
Lastly, Mr Slater points out that if relocation is not an option for good staff, they will need help with managing their careers and redefining, reshaping or reskilling themselves.
"The government may need to bring in expertise to manage that process," he says, "because I don't believe that it exists at the moment."
