The chief secretary to the Prime Minister has pledged to “move fast and fix things”. At a speech in west London this morning, Darren Jones laid out his plans to “rewire Whitehall” so that it can deliver public services fit for a Britain that is “richer, fairer, and stronger”.
The chief secretary’s speech overlapped with one being given by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. As Ethan Croft writes, Burnham repeated his claim that the government must not be “in hock” to the bond markets and argued for “business friendly socialism”. Burnham’s vision is at odds with the view of his colleagues in the current Labour cabinet – such as Jones – who would rather exercise more fiscal caution than their colleague in the north. Responding to Burnham after his first intervention on this issue last year in the New Statesman, Keir Starmer warned this vision would “harm” working people.
In his speech this morning, Jones outlined several key measures which he hopes will lead to a more agile, productive and efficient government. These measures included reforming the hiring practices of top civil servants so that there is more emphasis on experience of frontline delivery, innovation and the private sector, rather than “writing policy papers”. Once hired, senior civil servants will now also be subject to stricter performance indicators, in order to promote the “doers, not the talkers”.
Under new government policy, officials will have their work marked against key performance indicators, directly set by ministers. “Those under-delivering will be held to account, instead of the so-called sideways shimmy to another team or another department,” Jones said. He added: “if you are not performing, if you fail to perform, I’m afraid you will be sacked.” (When asked if he had ever been put on a performance plan, Jones said he had not but revealed he had recently completed a competency assessment: “I would encourage everyone to do so,” he said).
The civil service bonus pot will also be adjusted by the government in order to reward top performance and therefore improve retention. Under the current system, just over half of senior civil servants receive a bonus. Jones’ reforms will mean that while the pot allocated towards civil servant bonuses will remain the same, a greater distribution of money will go to those who are performing well in their roles.
Jones said he knows from working with “many brilliant civil servants” that they are “just as frustrated at the system and how long it takes to get things done.” He added: “Too often they have been scapegoats for political failure.”
These measures echo the critiques put by Dominic Cummings, a former adviser to Boris Johnson, who has previously criticised civil service hiring and retention practices. Some within the Parliamentary Labour Party and wider Labour circles have also backed these critiques – including members of the Labour Growth Group and Blue Labour. And this is not the first time that the Cabinet Office has unveiled a policy with a hint of Cummings’ influence. Last year, then chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, called for civil service applications from “innovators and disruptors”.
But it is not just Cummings who has influenced Jones’ call to “rewire Whitehall”. The chief secretary to the Prime Minister also announced the creation of new taskforces to be rolled out across Whitehall, mirroring the vaccine taskforce. “We will apply the vaccine taskforce model in ‘peace time’ – not just in a crisis,” Jones said. Patrick Vallance, who had a pivotal role in the creation of the taskforce – and is now a government minister – has previously suggested that the government use this model to tackle other tricky policy challenges.
The new bodies announced by Jones will be able to expedite recruitment and bring in external expertise on short-term appointments; procure faster by bypassing layers of bureaucracy; and take more risks, supported by a direct line to the top of government and direct ministerial sponsorship.
Jones also announced the creation of a new national school of government and public service, to improve learning and development for civil servants, and the expansion of the No 10 innovation fellows programme.
Though it took them more than a year in government, Labour has clearly realised that in order to fix the country’s problems and deliver on the cost of living, it must start closer to home.
[Further reading: Labour MPs relieved at Hillsborough Law delay]Content from our partners
Related
Join the debate
Subscribe here to commentAh, the Jones School of Government! I suggest that it would be more in line with
Labour to establish a Business School with a focus on the Management of Non-Profit organisations. This would apply the methodologies, experiences and practices of the private sector to the civil service. The institution would be a replica of the Harvard Business School merged with the Kennedy School. This would give the UK a civil service acceptable to the USA while extirpating all references to socialism from our political discourse. Perhaps as a sop Labour could label itself as Conservative Socialism a very Starmer solution. Yah, Go Jonesy blow your trumpet and watch the red wall tumble.!