Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Thirty-second Report - Specialist Skills in the civil service
Public Accounts Committee
HC 686
Published 11 December 2020
Recommendations
4
Departmental data is not good enough to support functions’ development of comprehensive workforce plans.
Recommendation
Departmental data is not good enough to support functions’ development of comprehensive workforce plans. The Cabinet Office acknowledges it does not have the data it needs across all functions to accurately assess what skills the civil service has and where …
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HM Treasury
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Conclusions (19)
2
Conclusion
The civil service struggles to attract and retain specialist staff. Since 2010 the civil service has been subject to pay restrictions, which have limited its ability to offer progressive pay packages to staff. Areas such as Digital and Commercial have struggled to recruit and retain specialists because there is strong …
3
Conclusion
There is still a long way to go to ensure the civil service retains and promotes those from different backgrounds. The more diverse an organisation, the better decisions it makes. The civil service has made a commitment to be more diverse at all levels across both departments and functions. To …
5
Conclusion
Seven years on from their introduction, functions still have not developed clear plans to help maximise their impact, and lack strategic direction. The Department requires all functions to put in place their own ‘capability blueprint’. Blueprints should include a clear operating model and set out the organisational capacity for each …
6
Conclusion
Only a few of the fourteen functions have been able to demonstrate the benefits of their activities. Most functions have not been able to quantify their costs and benefits. The Cabinet Office admits there are difficulties measuring the impact of some functions, such as the HR function. Progress has been …
1
Conclusion
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from Cabinet Office and HM Treasury on specialist skills in the civil service.1
7
Conclusion
The Cabinet Office recognised that rules introduced in 2010 on civil service pay make it difficult to attract and retain skilled specialists in some areas.15 Some skills, such as the ability to lead large projects, are particularly scarce. The Cabinet Office told us the areas which experience the highest levels …
8
Conclusion
Some functions, such as the Commercial function, have introduced pay flexibility in order to try and increase recruitment of specialists. The Cabinet Office told us that the use of flexibilities in the Government Commercial Organisation had been an effective way to bring in external talent and to consolidate internal talent. …
9
Conclusion
Pay flexibilities can however lead to disparities in specialist pay, which can create an internal market between departments for those with specialist skills. To tackle this, the Cabinet Office explained how it is managing the issue. For senior civil service pay grades, pay exception processes have been put in place …
10
Conclusion
The more diverse the people in an organisation, the better run it is and the better decisions it makes. As part of the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy the civil service has committed to setting and working towards targets to increase the flow of ethnic minority and disabled staff …
11
Conclusion
The Cabinet Office also recognised the importance of retention. One of its key aims is to look at how people progress within the civil service once they are in post. The Cabinet Office acknowledged it can take three to five years for someone to fully understand their role, and stated …
12
Conclusion
Ideally, all functions would have access to workforce statistics from a consistent civil service-wide data set. However, functions are still largely reliant on departmental data on staffing, which is variable in quality and is not always detailed enough for functions to use.22 The Cabinet Office told us that while it …
13
Conclusion
The Cabinet Office is looking to put in place measures that will allow it to identify what skills an individual has so that they can be best deployed to maximise impact. The Cabinet Office noted that the Project Delivery function is ahead of the other functions in this regard, as …
14
Conclusion
The Cabinet Office told us that the challenge of EU exit and EU transition, alongside the concurrent risk of the covid-19 pandemic, has sharpened its thinking about skills and has improved the effectiveness of strategic workforce planning across the civil service. The current situation has forced the Cabinet Office to …
15
Conclusion
Developing detailed plans for each function—also known as ‘capability blueprints’— is fundamental to the effective operation of the functional model in government. The National Audit Office report found that without capability and capacity plans in place it is difficult for functions to understand their own impact, or for departments to …
16
Conclusion
We believe blueprints are a key part in setting out the operating model for each function, and an important control tool for managing the relationships between functions and departments. Once they are in place it will be easier for functions to collaborate and share best practice, as well as work …
17
Conclusion
Despite the lack of capability blueprints in place, HM Treasury shared with us positive examples of cross-government collaboration. The Treasury told us it had integrated functions into major investment decisions, with all functions involved in the appraisal of capital programmes throughout the Spending Review process. HM Treasury also told us …
18
Conclusion
The Cabinet Office’s ‘blueprint’ exercise in 2018 set consistent expectations for functions and introduced more regularised reporting from functions on their performance, costs and benefits.32 The National Audit Office noted that data quality would be central to the success of these reporting initiatives but found cross-departmental data to be poor.33 …
19
Conclusion
The Cabinet Office explained that the Digital function has made progress identifying the cost savings of moving to permanent staff from contract labour and, as part of this, the function has recognised the indirect cost benefit of retaining skills within the organisation. It also told us that the maturity of …
20
Conclusion
The Cabinet Office told us that the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) is in the process of developing a new project to allow comparison of impact assessments across the functions. As part of this, the GIAA has developed a standardised methodology and metric so that the functions are able to …