Serving civil servants giving their views like this to a political party not in government makes me feel very uncomfortable
But good luck to Danny Kruger as he works out what to do to fix the centre of govt. He’s wrong and right in different ways
https://t.co/OaXY99sTXI
Last weekend I set out Reform UK’s plans to fix the centre of government (https://t.co/cqWFdSPutf). This policy was informed by hundreds of disillusioned civil servants responding to my call for insights on life in Whitehall. This is some of what they said. Thread:
🧵Always enjoy reading @instituteforgov's Whitehall Monitor.
All change in Westminster this year, but in Whitehall? Not so much. It just goes to show there's nothing new under the sun. Some things which struck me:
Whitehall Monitor 2025, our annual data-driven stocktake of the civil service, is out today.
It examines the civil service that Starmer’s government inherited – and how Labour’s mission-led approach fits in with Whitehall’s ways of working https://t.co/d1mKFPZH7R
PODCAST 🎙️ Appetite for disruption
@jesstud joins @DrHannahWhite@AlexGAThomas@tompope0 to discuss Pat McFadden's public sector plans.
Plus: Rachel Reeves hunt for efficiency savings and
@cassia_rowland discusses fixing the prisons crisis
https://t.co/tFxocS4nMS
Overall looks like a good move - slimming down & refocusing the Cabinet Office. Chimes with the critique in our Centre Commission - though we’d go further!
The “odds and ends” are v important and must be done well, but separating them out is worth it for a more effective centre
EXCL: Cabinet Office will cut 400 jobs to achieve savings & streamline dept
Perm sec Cat Little unveiled plans to officials today, incl proposals to hive off some “odds & ends” to separate arm’s length body
This may include security vetting, govt property agency, recruitment
@griffitha@HenryNewman Thank you for coming back on it Andrew - yes to the above, and doing it in the context of budget targets, and (if it’s what ministers want) a smaller civil service. But I do think numerical headcount targets just create all the wrong incentives. So to that extent it is either/or
To get the civil service back to its 2016 level would require a reduction of 133,000.
Instead Labour claim to be contemplating cutting just 10,000 heads.
That would maintain 98% of current levels and still be 34% larger than in 2016.
😱
@CarlNewns@jillongovt@HenryNewman And the good news is that Henry is the deputy chief of staff to the Leader of the Opposition - so we can expect sensible discussion about this from here on in
@GavinBarwell@OliverKamm Yes - a paper I wrote a couple of years ago here. Our best estimate was about half the growth was Brexit related
https://t.co/Tdh1tklncD
Whether the civil service gets smaller or not, the government needs a full workforce strategy - to which they’ve now committed 👍👍👍
And it’s good if ministers seek efficiencies without setting a perverse-incentive-creating headcount target
Cuts will (even should) reduce numbers but crude headcount targets have not worked
I wrote more about how to cut the civil service here
https://t.co/Tdh1tkkPn5
JOB ALERT
We have a fantastic researcher role coming up in the @instituteforgov civil service team
If you’re interested please consider applying. It’s a brilliant place to work and to contribute to a vital set of debates
Our @instituteforgov reaction to today’s Plan for Change
A positive development, but challenges ahead on targets/milestones, including about the money
And a shot across the bows for the civil service