Downing Street Says » Civil Service speech

The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) previewed the Prime Minister’s speech on the Civil Service. The speech would mark the 150th Anniversary of the Northcote-Trevelyan Report which laid down the foundations of the present Civil Service. The Prime Minister would pay tribute to the ‘enduring values’ of the Civil Service – integrity, impartiality and merit. He would say that the question for the Civil Service in our generation was how to sustain those values whilst bringing about the radical transformation our times demanded. As with the NHS, Education and the Criminal Justice system, “the world has changed and the Civil Service must change with it.” That would mean a change in the balance between the traditional focus on policy advice towards the need for delivery, focusing on outcomes and not working in traditional departmental silos: “A change of operation and of culture that goes to the core of the Civil Service” following the example of the Department of Health where the centre was becoming a more strategic operation with greater use of professional expertise. “The goal is a transformed Civil Service, capable of serving Governments of any colour in the era of Globalisation. We need a Civil Service which aims to amplify the implementation of successful change rather than, as in the past, act a shock absorber in order to maintain the status quo.”

Asked if the Prime Minister would mention the Civil Service Act, the PMOS said no. It was a speech about the Civil Service itself. Asked what practical measure the Prime Minister had in mind for transforming the Civil Service, the PMOS said there was quite a lot of detail in the speech in terms of how the centre would become more strategic and how it would focus on delivery outcomes, rather than just policy. That included using professional expertise from outside the Civil Service to drive forward processes of change and so forth, but there was quite a detailed analysis in the speech, as journalists would see.

Asked if the Prime Minister wanted to see a smaller Civil Service, the PMOS said the Prime Minister wanted to see a more focussed Civil Service, and that would mean changes in relative numbers between the centre and agencies and so forth. This was not about the detail of numbers. This was about the overall direction and setting that overall direction and modernising the traditional merits, the enduring values of the Civil Service but translating them into the era of Globalisation.

Put to him that this was an odd speech to make about the Civil Service since it avoided the pressing issues, the PMOS said he didn’t agree with that. He would make a distinction between issues which dominated headlines and issues which were about the essential character and role of the Civil Service. This was a serious speech about the role of the modern Civil Service and how it needed to adapt to modern demands and modern practices. That was a much broader issue than the small range of issues on which the headlines tended to focus.

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» Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Civil Service speech

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