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Labour’s new plan to cut civil service jobs was torn apart this morning as union chiefs said it was a “recipe for disaster”.
Whitehall departments have increased by over 15,000 since the end of 2023, but, according to the government, working people have not seen tangible improvements.
In a plan set to be announced in the coming days, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden is going to introduce “mutually agreed exits” so people who are underperforming are able to leave their jobs easily.
The highest paid civil servants will be dismissed if there’s no improvement within six months, and there will be a new pay-results system, while also increasing the use of digital systems.
But, the plan has been slated by unions and compared to “Trumpian” efforts to slim down the state in the US.
The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress Paul Nowak told Times Radio he is “disappointed” in this plan, and said cuts to the civil service are not what’s needed right now.
He said: “I think these are a set of proposals that look more about grabbing headlines rather than about a serious plan for reforming our public services.”
Nowak said to enact public sector reform, “you have to be serious about engaging the staff who are involved in delivering those services” otherwise it is a “recipe for disaster”.
He also took issue with the suggestion the civil service is not working effectively, saying: “It was a decade and a half of underinvestment in our public services. Now the number of civil services, civil servants has gone up.
“We have had Brexit in the last few years and we now do things in the UK, trade agreements for example that we didn’t do before.
“A whole range of things around veterinary standards for example that we didn’t have to do before.”
Prime minister Keir Starmer sparked backlash last year when he claimed “too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in tepid bath of managed decline,” and warned change was coming to the civil service.
Touching on the prime minister’s comment, Nowak said he did not agree “on the Trumpian language”.
He said: “I don’t think the language is always helpful when you try and paint those who are delivering public services often at the sharp end in difficult circumstances as somehow part of the problem.
“Now the civil service public service workforce is like any workforce there are some people who don’t pull their weight.
“To characterise the vast majority of people who are working hard day in day out as somehow the part of the problem and that’s what they do I think is unfair.”
Similarly, the general secretary of the FDA – the civil service union – Dave Penman told the same radio that the issue comes down to the constant changing of hands in government.
He said: “We’ve had six prime ministers, eight chancellors, 40 ministers in the Treasury departments, hundreds of different ministers because of the chaotic political leadership over the last 10 years.
“If you want to look at how you solve the problem with public services, look at the political chaos that we’ve had to deal with as well, not just simply headlines around sacking civil servants.
“We wouldn’t be in business if people weren’t sacked for poor performance in the civil service. ”
Penman said this new plan was all about “cheap headlines”.
“The idea that you can simply get more for less is rhetoric. It’s a headline that’s not reality. You have to demonstrate how you do that. Technology can play a role, AI can play a role, but how is it actually going to do that? That’s what ministers should be setting out rather than these cheap headlines,” he said.
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