Recommendations & Conclusions
20 items
2
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
The time taken to recruit staff across the civil service is too slow. It takes an average of 99 days to hire new staff in the civil service, from the job being advertised to completing basic pre-employment checks. Completing security checks for new recruits can take on average an additional …
Government response. The government states that consistent and comparable Civil Service recruitment measures, including time to hire and time to fill, have already been implemented across 17 departments. The first data set became available in April 2024 and will be reported quarterly …
HM Treasury
3
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
Most departments do not know how much it costs to recruit staff, or how they could be more efficient. 14 of the 16 main departments cannot provide full recruitment cost data. Only one department, HM Revenue & Customs, understands its recruitment costs well enough to be able to calculate its …
Government response. The government agrees to complete the recommendation within an additional three months, with the Cabinet Office committed to setting benchmarks, identifying best practice through data analysis and external research, and defining recruitment standards. Several discovery pilots are also underway to …
HM Treasury
4
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Acknowledged
Chronic pay issues within the civil service have lowered morale and risk departments not being able to recruit and retain skilled staff. The Cabinet Office acknowledges that there are longstanding issues within the civil service relating to pay and reward. These include a long-term decline in real-terms pay, which has …
Government response. The government states a civil service pay and reward strategy is under development, aiming to outline a coherent reward framework by 2030 and a revised pay framework. However, it provides little specific detail on the actions it will take to …
HM Treasury
5
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
Departments do not collect enough data on staff underperformance to know if it is being managed effectively. Some departments do not routinely collect data on the number of staff who are underperforming in their organisations, and most do not monitor what happens to staff who are identified as underperforming. Without …
Government response. The government commits to designing a tool by Summer 2024 to centrally collate performance management data from departments for 2023-24 and onwards. This will help understand and manage underperformance, with the Cabinet Office also reviewing data collection for Senior Civil …
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Rejected
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Cabinet Office, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the Ministry of Justice about civil service recruitment, pay and performance management.1
Government response. The government rejects the committee's observation, stating that the Civil Service People Plan 2024-2027 already outlines specific actions, commitments, and timescales for delivery, with formal governance and a new data dashboard in place.
HM Treasury
6
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Rejected
However, the commitments and metrics in the Civil Service People Plan do not set out target or expected levels of performance against which the Cabinet Office can measure and evaluate the success of the Plan. For example, recruitment times will be measured using a common time to hire metric, but …
Government response. The government rejects the observation, stating the Civil Service People Plan does outline specific actions, commitments, timescales, and metrics, with an evaluation strategy in development and a new People Data Dashboard implemented.
HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
The time taken to recruit staff is a key indicator of the efficiency of an organisation’s recruitment process. Recruitment times can be measured in a number of ways, including the time it takes from starting a recruitment campaign to making a firm employment offer – often referred to as ‘time …
Government response. The government agrees and states the recommendation is implemented, confirming that consistent 'time to hire' and 'time to fill' recruitment measures have been implemented across 17 Whitehall departments, with data available quarterly from April 2024.
HM Treasury
8
Recommendation
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office told us that it had agreed a standard definition of time to hire with departments, defined as the time taken from a job advertisement being published to a job offer being made.13 Using a similar definition, the average time to hire across all departments in 2022 was …
Government response. The government agrees and states it has already implemented consistent recruitment measures across 17 Whitehall departments, including 'time to hire' and 'time to fill,' with the first data set available in April 2024 to drive improvements.
HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office acknowledged that departments did not collect consistent and comparable data on how long it takes to recruit and vet candidates.16 The Cabinet Office told us it is working to improve the understanding of recruitment times across the civil 8 Cabinet Office, Civil Service statistics: 2019, 24 July …
Government response. The government agrees and states the recommendation is implemented, confirming that consistent 'time to hire' and 'time to fill' metrics have been implemented across 17 Whitehall departments, with data available quarterly from April 2024 for benchmarking.
HM Treasury
10
Recommendation
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
Most departments—14 out of the 16 main civil service departments in 2022—do not collect full information on their recruitment costs and therefore do not understand how much it costs them to hire staff. The Ministry of Justice told us that, in common with most other departments, it does not track …
Government response. The government agrees and has implemented a set of consistent Civil Service recruitment measures for 17 Whitehall departments, including 'cost per hire,' which will be evaluated for consistent reporting across departments by November 2024.
HM Treasury
11
Recommendation
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office noted that it was seeking to improve cost data and was benchmarking all costs associated with recruitment, which would enable departments to compare cost elements such as those for advertising or employment checks.21 However, there are no metrics on recruitment costs in the Civil Service People Plan, …
Government response. The government agrees and has implemented a set of consistent Civil Service recruitment measures for 17 Whitehall departments, including 'cost per hire,' which will be evaluated for consistent reporting across departments by November 2024.
HM Treasury
12
Recommendation
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
Most departments do not know how their recruitment performance compares to that of other organisations, either within the civil service or externally. In part this is due to the poor quality of recruitment data, as described above in relation to recruitment times and costs. The Cabinet Office explained this was …
Government response. The government agrees and will set benchmarks and identify best practices by Autumn 2024 through analysis of recruitment metrics data and external research. It will define a set of recruitment standards and has initiated discovery pilots to test new approaches.
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
Improving recruitment performance will also involve learning from the experience of others and from external best practice. We heard several examples of efficiency and good recruitment practice within the civil service, such as HMRC on recruitment costs and centralised recruitment, and the Ministry of Justice on ensuring the diversity of …
Government response. The government agrees and commits to setting benchmarks, identifying best practices, researching external recruitment practices, and defining recruitment standards by Autumn 2024 (with a three-month extension), supported by ongoing discovery pilots.
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Acknowledged
As part of their employer responsibilities, departments are delegated the authority to set pay for their staff below SCS level. Each department sets its own pay structure which defines pay rates for each grade. Annual pay increases are governed by the central pay remit guidance issued by the Cabinet Office, …
Government response. The government acknowledges the observation and states that a new Civil Service Reward Strategy is under development to create a more coherent, flexible, and individualised reward framework by 2030, alongside a revised pay framework and improved pension offer clarity.
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Deferred
Civil service pay for almost all grades has seen a long-term decline. Since 2013, civil service median pay has decreased in real terms for all grades apart from the most junior grade (Administrative Assistant).28 The Cabinet Office recognised that declining real-terms pay was a “chronic” problem affecting the civil service …
Government response. The government agrees and states a new Civil Service Reward Strategy is under development with an initial target implementation date of Winter 2024, aiming for a flexible reward framework by 2030, but acknowledges departmental control over pay systems.
HM Treasury
16
Recommendation
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
Other longstanding civil service pay issues include the existence of pay disparities between departments for staff at the same grade level. For example, differences between the higher executive officer (HEO) pay band at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and HMRC mean that the highest HEO salary …
Government response. The government agrees and is developing a new Civil Service Reward Strategy, aiming for a more coherent, flexible, and individualised reward framework by 2030, which includes a revised pay framework to address pay disparities.
HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Deferred
Departments vary quite substantially in their approaches to performance-related pay, including how much they spend on it. For example, departmental per-head spending on performance-related pay in 2021–22 ranged from £13 to £1,366 per employee, for staff 27 C&AG’s Report, para 3.2 28 C&AG’s Report, para 1.10, Figure 6 29 Q56 …
Government response. The government agrees and states a new Civil Service Reward Strategy is under development with an initial target implementation date of Winter 2024, aiming for a coherent reward framework by 2030, and acknowledges departmental control over individual pay systems.
HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
Performance management for civil service staff below SCS level is another responsibility delegated to individual departments. This has resulted in differences among departments in how they manage staff performance and support employees’ development. In particular, there is no common civil service-wide approach for identifying and dealing with staff underperformance in …
Government response. The government agrees and commits to designing a tool by Summer 2024 to centrally collate performance management data for non-SCS staff from 2023-24 onwards, and will work with departments to address underperformance, with a target implementation date of Autumn 2024.
HM Treasury
19
Recommendation
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
Further, most departments do not monitor or report what happens to staff identified as underperforming. Monitoring outcomes for underperforming staff is essential if departments are to understand how effectively their performance management systems are supporting people to move out of underperformance or identifying alternatives for those individuals, such as changing …
Government response. The government agrees and will design a tool to collate performance management data for 2023-24 and thereafter for central analysis, aiming for readiness in Summer 2024 with a target implementation date of Autumn 2024. It will also review SCS underperformance …
HM Treasury
20
Recommendation
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service wor…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office’s approach to dealing with staff underperformance, and raising performance levels more generally, is based on improving the confidence and capability of line managers in departments. The Cabinet Office told us that as part of work to implement the Civil Service People Plan, it is setting standards that …
Government response. The government agrees and will design a tool to collate performance management data for 2023-24 and thereafter for central analysis, aiming for readiness in Summer 2024 with a target implementation date of Autumn 2024. It will also review SCS underperformance …
HM Treasury