Letter from the First Civil Service Commissioner

I concluded my introduction to last year's report with these words:

I look forward to reporting next year on the further progress....I am still hopeful that I will be able to report that legislation to confirm the core values of the Civil Service in statute has, at last, been passed.

When I wrote those words I knew that the expectation of Civil Service legislation had been raised and then dashed on many occasions. I wrote, metaphorically at least, with my fingers crossed. This year I am enormously pleased to be able to say that the hopes of many of us have at last been fulfilled: the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act was passed, with cross-party support, in the final days of the last Parliamentary session. The Act enshrines the core values of the Civil Service in legislation and puts the Civil Service Commissioners and the important work we do on a statutory footing.

The Civil Service Commissioners have long maintained that the constitutional position of the Civil Service and the core values that underpin its effectiveness need and deserve the protection of statute. In future it will be impossible to change the essential values of the Civil Service without proper Parliamentary debate and scrutiny. This will not prevent necessary and sometimes radical change to the Civil Service. But it will ensure that change will not undermine the core values of Honesty, Integrity, Impartiality and Objectivity and recruitment on merit.

Competitions

This year has seen a reduction in the number of competitions chaired by the Commissioners. We chaired a total of 92 competitions this year, compared to 117 the year before. Last year we noted a decline in the number of successful applicants for senior competitions that came from outside the Civil Service. This has not been the pattern this year The Civil Service continues to find that it sometimes needs to find senior leaders from outside the service to refresh its skills and bring new perspectives and experiences.

The principle of recruitment on merit

Our new Recruitment Principles came into effect 1 April 2009.  These are mandatory for departments and agencies and set out our interpretation of the principle of appointment on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. They make it clear that it is for agencies and departments to determine their own recruitment policies and practices, and test them against our Principles. I am pleased to report that they have been well received by human resources colleagues. There is a growing understanding that it is our role is to ensure that the merit principle is followed, but it is for departments and agencies to determine the best way of doing that to meet the needs of their own organisation.

Commissioners chair the selection panel for competitions for only the most senior positions in the Civil Service. For recruitment at other levels we discharge our duty to uphold the principle of selection on merit through our compliance monitoring regime. I am delighted to report that this year, for the first time, over half the organisations we assessed were given a risk rating of Low. Four years ago only 18% of organisations achieved a Low risk rating.

We want to build on these excellent results. With our newly appointed contractor we are working to achieve further improvements and to align the compliance monitoring approach with our new Recruitment Principles. This will yield better feedback and more valuable learning resources for departments.