Recommendations & Conclusions
9 items
2
Recommendation
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Wo…
Accepted
Publishing details of the rationale and success criteria for a major programme is essential for public transparency and assisting parliamentary scrutiny. This is not only a democratic good in itself; by exposing the justifications for their interventions to scrutiny, departments can hope to strengthen the design of their policies and …
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Publishing details of the rationale and success criteria for a major programme is essential for public transparency and assisting parliamentary scrutiny. This is not only a democratic good in itself; by exposing the justifications for their interventions to scrutiny, departments can hope to strengthen the design of their policies and gain greater public confidence in their decisions. In future, whenever the Cabinet Office launches a named programme, it should publish a prospectus document in advance of its operation, setting out details including the programme’s rationale, key objectives, and evaluation plan. It should additionally maintain a dedicated webpage on GOV. UK, on which it periodically publishes updated metrics of progress, as well as other corporate announcements related to the programme. Retrospectively, the Cabinet Office should, alongside the response to this report, publish this information, both for Places for Growth and for its Plan for London, on a dedicated GOV.UK webpage, and commit to updating it with metrics of progress at regular intervals, at least annually. In publishing this information, the Cabinet Office should clearly show how Places for Growth and the Plan for London fit together.
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Government response AI summary
The Government will publish relevant programme documentation for Places for Growth and the Plan for London, and will refresh the appropriate pages to ensure that purpose, objectives, critical success factors and performance against these are included.
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4
Conclusion
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Wo…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office has made high-profile statements about the economic benefits to be delivered by Places for Growth, referring to research which supports its estimates. However, it has only just published information about this research, and this information was not written for easy digestion by the general public. This is …
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The Cabinet Office has made high-profile statements about the economic benefits to be delivered by Places for Growth, referring to research which supports its estimates. However, it has only just published information about this research, and this information was not written for easy digestion by the general public. This is a clear example of bad practice, as it prevents Parliament and the wider public from comprehensively reviewing the arguments and evidence underlying the alleged benefits of the programme. The Cabinet Office should, alongside its response to this report, publish details of the research underpinning its claims of economic benefits in a form which clearly explains how the claims made in previous Places to Growth press releases have been calculated. Moreover, the Government Analysis Function should, within six months, publish a statement on its website and write to heads of the analysis function within all government departments urging them to bring the transparency requirements of all government analysts into line with the best practice guidelines set by the Office for Statistics Regulation. This should make clear that, whenever economic research is referred to in press notices and ministerial statements, departments should present links to a published form of this research.
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Government response AI summary
The government claims that research underpinning the economic benefits of the Places for Growth programme has already been published and that further early-stage analysis of the benefits is scheduled for this financial year. The National Statistician will respond directly to the Committee on the part …
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5
Recommendation
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Wo…
Accepted
The Government is not only relocating posts from London to the regions and nations, but also relocating posts from local offices (often in economically deprived towns) to large regional Hubs (mostly in big cities). We are concerned that the Cabinet Office is not seeking to estimate the net economic impacts …
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The Government is not only relocating posts from London to the regions and nations, but also relocating posts from local offices (often in economically deprived towns) to large regional Hubs (mostly in big cities). We are concerned that the Cabinet Office is not seeking to estimate the net economic impacts of its different relocation policies, once these local office closures are taken into account. The Cabinet Office should publish within six months analyses of economic losses in towns where government offices have been or are going to be shut down under the Government Hubs programme, as well as the expected benefits in areas where Hubs are opening. (Paragraph 49) Government Property Agency: Managing the office portfolio
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Government response AI summary
The government states that the socio-economic impact of the Hubs Programme is considered for all recent and proposed regional Hubs, and the economic impact on regions as jobs are moved between them or new jobs created is analysed.
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7
Conclusion
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Wo…
Accepted
In order to do its job effectively, the Government Property Agency needs good quality workforce plans from departments, enabling it to plan for the right size and location of government offices. This has been made more difficult by uncertainties resulting from government policy and communications. On the amount of time …
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In order to do its job effectively, the Government Property Agency needs good quality workforce plans from departments, enabling it to plan for the right size and location of government offices. This has been made more difficult by uncertainties resulting from government policy and communications. On the amount of time civil servants should work in the office (which thus affects the demand for office space), high-profile statements from Ministers have been at odds with key policy Where Civil Servants Work: Planning for the future of the Government’s estates 49 programmes. Meanwhile, the Government has made sudden and unclear statements about the size of the civil service, most recently stating both that it had scrapped targets for headcount reductions and that it was still committed to achieving the same scale of cuts but clarifying neither how this was to be achieved nor over what timescale.
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Government response AI summary
The government commits to publishing relevant programme documentation for Places for Growth and the Plan for London.
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11
Recommendation
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Wo…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office should issue guidance to departments that London should not be ruled out as location for new recruitment, where it is more appropriate for certain posts to be based in the capital. It should also use the Civil Service People Survey to monitor and address evidence of a …
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The Cabinet Office should issue guidance to departments that London should not be ruled out as location for new recruitment, where it is more appropriate for certain posts to be based in the capital. It should also use the Civil Service People Survey to monitor and address evidence of a perception among regionally-based staff that they 50 Where Civil Servants Work: Planning for the future of the Government’s estates have lower engagement scores or views on career prospects. Equally, should the Civil Service People Survey reveal engagement to be higher in regional offices, the Cabinet Office should conduct research into what departments running Whitehall offices may be able to learn from them.
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Government response AI summary
The government says that it is for departments to determine which roles should be recruited in London and that departmental workforce planning ensures that the right roles are being recruited for in the right locations. They say the Civil Service tracks People Survey results closely …
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12
Recommendation
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Wo…
Accepted
Co-locating officials from different departments within the same regional Hubs potentially offers the opportunity to create collaborative teams, generating new insights and leading to more joined up policy-making. At the same time, past experience suggests that problems may arise from the fact that different departments are individual employers, with their …
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Co-locating officials from different departments within the same regional Hubs potentially offers the opportunity to create collaborative teams, generating new insights and leading to more joined up policy-making. At the same time, past experience suggests that problems may arise from the fact that different departments are individual employers, with their own pay scales for officials below the Senior Civil Service grades. We disagree with the Minister’s assessment that there are no risks to consider here. Instead, we believe this has the potential to both lead to tensions where staff from different departments are co-located, and cause practical issues where staff seek to move between departments within Hubs in pursuit of improved pay and conditions. To help realise the wider potential of the Government Hubs programme, the Cabinet Office and GPA should promote case studies which demonstrate the practical benefits of staff from different departments working together within regional offices. The GPA should report on such case studies, highlighting the practical impacts on policy-making, in its annual reports. The Cabinet Office should also monitor the extent to which staff within regional Hubs transfer between departments, investigating both the reasons for it and the level of disruption this causes to departmental business.
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Government response AI summary
The government states they already promote positive case studies demonstrating the benefits of role relocations and cross-departmental working. They highlight existing co-location initiatives and encourage porosity between departments to facilitate career development. They also argue that potential tensions resulting from differing department pay arrangements are …
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16
Recommendation
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Wo…
Accepted
To increase the impact and rationale of each regional Hub, the Cabinet Office should co-ordinate the local outreach work undertaken by each department’s regional offices (liaising with local authorities, businesses, and third sector stakeholders). The objective should be to systematically improve central government’s understanding of local needs, and the local …
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To increase the impact and rationale of each regional Hub, the Cabinet Office should co-ordinate the local outreach work undertaken by each department’s regional offices (liaising with local authorities, businesses, and third sector stakeholders). The objective should be to systematically improve central government’s understanding of local needs, and the local impacts of government policy, in each region and nation of the UK.
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Government response AI summary
The Cabinet Office states it is already driving a joined-up approach to local outreach, overseen by Director-level Heads of Place, with regular cross-departmental outreach activities to understand local communities and foster relationships with local stakeholders.
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18
Conclusion
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Wo…
Accepted
Overall, the Cabinet Office has a number of successes to point to regarding the Places for Growth and Government Hubs programmes. The number of posts allocated to regional offices under Places for Growth is growing rapidly, and HMRC and the GPA have made significant progress in meeting their objectives of …
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Overall, the Cabinet Office has a number of successes to point to regarding the Places for Growth and Government Hubs programmes. The number of posts allocated to regional offices under Places for Growth is growing rapidly, and HMRC and the GPA have made significant progress in meeting their objectives of consolidating the office portfolio into a smaller number of larger, more modern buildings. However, these promising signs are undermined to an extent by weaknesses in the framing, reporting, and rationale for these programmes. Notably the reported economic and cultural benefits of civil service relocation have not been clearly demonstrated.
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Government response AI summary
The government stated that research underpinning the economic benefits of the Places for Growth programme has already been published, implying the benefits have been demonstrated.
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19
Conclusion
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Wo…
Accepted
Beyond the specific design and impacts of these programmes, we were struck by what they revealed about the Cabinet Office’s approach to policy-making. The fact that Civil Service relocation has been pursued by several previous governments provides an historical comparison against which this Government’s approach stands out for its lack …
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Beyond the specific design and impacts of these programmes, we were struck by what they revealed about the Cabinet Office’s approach to policy-making. The fact that Civil Service relocation has been pursued by several previous governments provides an historical comparison against which this Government’s approach stands out for its lack of published research, its failure to seriously engage with the trade-offs to be 52 Where Civil Servants Work: Planning for the future of the Government’s estates managed, and its exaggerated approach to progress and benefits. The Cabinet Office’s approach to presentation is particularly disappointing, given it is the responsible department for the Government Analysis Function, Government Communications Service, and Evaluation Task Force—all of which provide guidance to departments on the robustness of policy development or communications. This lack of rigour manifests itself as a vagueness at the heart of this policy, with the Cabinet Office not providing a clear account of why certain functions are being located in particular places, what difference this will make to government policy, or how exactly this will impact on regional communities and their citizens. (Paragraph 99) Where Civil Servants Work: Planning for the future of the Government’s estates 53
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Government response AI summary
The government stated that research underpinning the economic benefits of the Places for Growth programme has already been published, responding to the committee's observation about a lack of published research.
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