Alex Thomas retweetledi
🧵Always enjoy reading @instituteforgov's Whitehall Monitor.
All change in Westminster this year, but in Whitehall? Not so much. It just goes to show there's nothing new under the sun. Some things which struck me:
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Alex Thomas
8K posts
Alex Thomas
@AlexGAThomas
Civil service and all things effective government @instituteforgov - ex-Cabinet Office, Defra, Dept of Health civil servant
Katılım Ekim 2010
1.3K Takip Edilen6K Takipçiler
Alex Thomas retweetledi
Whitehall Monitor 2025, our annual data-driven stocktake of the civil service, is out today.
It examines the civil service that Starmer’s government inherited – and how Labour’s mission-led approach fits in with Whitehall’s ways of working instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/wh…
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Alex Thomas retweetledi
PODCAST 🎙️ Appetite for disruption
@jesstud joins @DrHannahWhite @AlexGAThomas
@tompope0 to discuss Pat McFadden's public sector plans.
Plus: Rachel Reeves hunt for efficiency savings and
@cassia_rowland discusses fixing the prisons crisis
instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/inside…
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Overall looks like a good move - slimming down & refocusing the Cabinet Office. Chimes with the critique in our Centre Commission - though we’d go further!
The “odds and ends” are v important and must be done well, but separating them out is worth it for a more effective centre
Lucy Fisher@LOS_Fisher
EXCL: Cabinet Office will cut 400 jobs to achieve savings & streamline dept Perm sec Cat Little unveiled plans to officials today, incl proposals to hive off some “odds & ends” to separate arm’s length body This may include security vetting, govt property agency, recruitment
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@griffitha @HenryNewman Thank you for coming back on it Andrew - yes to the above, and doing it in the context of budget targets, and (if it’s what ministers want) a smaller civil service. But I do think numerical headcount targets just create all the wrong incentives. So to that extent it is either/or
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@AlexGAThomas @HenryNewman It’s not an either/or point.
Clarity of scope, elimination of overlap and ‘interface’ roles, massive delayering, ceasing legacy activity entirely, comprehensive performance and talent management, radical abstraction of central support functions, workforce skills transformation.
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@CarlNewns @jillongovt @HenryNewman And the good news is that Henry is the deputy chief of staff to the Leader of the Opposition - so we can expect sensible discussion about this from here on in
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@AlexGAThomas @jillongovt @HenryNewman Newman is right. Headcount reductions - and hiring freezes - make nice announcements for the media but create perverse and inefficient outcomes. If instead you target budgets (and do it sensibly), the system can (sometimes grumpily) adapt.
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@GavinBarwell @OliverKamm Yes - a paper I wrote a couple of years ago here. Our best estimate was about half the growth was Brexit related
instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/…
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There's certainly a case - particularly given advances in technology - that we don't need as many civil servants, but the comparison with 2016 is a misleading one. Brexit means we need more civil servants to cover those policy areas that used to be EU competences
Andrew Griffith MP@griffitha
To get the civil service back to its 2016 level would require a reduction of 133,000. Instead Labour claim to be contemplating cutting just 10,000 heads. That would maintain 98% of current levels and still be 34% larger than in 2016. 😱
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Cuts will (even should) reduce numbers but crude headcount targets have not worked
I wrote more about how to cut the civil service here
instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/…
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Whether the civil service gets smaller or not, the government needs a full workforce strategy - to which they’ve now committed 👍👍👍
And it’s good if ministers seek efficiencies without setting a perverse-incentive-creating headcount target
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Nothing less than the complete rewiring of the British state, in fact
instituteforgovernment.org.uk/about-us/caree…
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JOB ALERT
We have a fantastic researcher role coming up in the @instituteforgov civil service team
If you’re interested please consider applying. It’s a brilliant place to work and to contribute to a vital set of debates
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Thoughts on today’s Pat McFadden speech - @nehal_davison and me
instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/pat-mc…
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Alex Thomas retweetledi
Britain’s civil service, which employs half a million people, is both demoralised and in need of radical reform econ.st/3VoQIA0 👇
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Our @instituteforgov reaction to today’s Plan for Change
A positive development, but challenges ahead on targets/milestones, including about the money
And a shot across the bows for the civil service
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Not that complicated by the standards of most diagrams in government! (Useful to put them down like this though)
Steven Swinford@Steven_Swinford
What does Keir Starmer’s plan for government look like? It’s complicated. There are three foundations, five missions and six milestones Most of them interlink I’ve had a shot at putting it down on paper It’s far from definitive but gives you an idea of where we are
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Entertaining to be quoted in this
Henry Zeffman@hzeffman
One of the most striking themes in Keir Starmer’s speech today — his frustration with Whitehall For weeks I’ve been asking Labour people what they make of their time in government and one sentiment comes up again and again: “Dominic Cummings was right”
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Alex Thomas retweetledi
Ahead of Keir Starmer’s big Plan for Change speech tomorrow, here’s why it gets a cautious welcome from @instituteforgov 👇
Alex Thomas@AlexGAThomas
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