Letter continued
Concerns
In last year’s Foreword I commented on a number of concerns we had. One related to salaries, and particularly the number of cases in which the final negotiated salary was significantly higher or lower than the advertised salary. Another concern was the decline in the proportion of senior appointments that went to women. A third concern was the ability of departments to maintain proper controls over their recruitment processes, as revealed by our compliance monitoring audits. We have been monitoring these issues and can report some progress on all three.
Salaries
Last year we reported on a number of instances of payments significantly higher than the advertised rate to candidates from the private sector. In one case this was as much as 100%. We also reported a number of instances where civil servant candidates were paid significantly under the advertised rate.
This year the picture is more mixed. There are fewer instances of significant salary payments over the advertised rate and they are less extreme. Also this year some of those who negotiated rates higher than the advertised range were existing civil servants. At the other end of the scale, some of the payments under the advertised rate went to candidates from the private sector. There do seem to be more examples this year of candidates being paid significantly under the advertised rate. The four most extreme examples were civil servants. There was one instance when a civil servant was paid 40% less than the advertised rate for the job.
We are concerned to note that there is evidence to suggest that successful female civil servants are disproportionately more likely to be paid under the advertised rate than their male colleagues. This is something we shall monitor and report on next year.
Successful female candidates
This year has seen a significant increase in the percentage of jobs at the very top of the Civil Service which have gone to female candidates. The two Permanent Secretary appointments this year were both women. For the first time in the past four years the percentage of women appointed to the very highest jobs (pay band 3 and Permanent Secretaries) is higher than the overall percentage of women appointed to all senior jobs.
However, overall this year saw another decline in the percentage of all senior appointments that we are required to approve that went to women. Only 24% of all such senior appointments went to women compared to 27% the year before and 32% the year before that. The Commissioners welcome the fact that women are competing successfully for the most senior jobs in the Civil Service. However, if women are being less successful in gaining appointments to jobs outside the Top 200 then the pool of women civil servants who can compete for the top jobs in the future will be depleted.
‘High risk’
We reported last year on an increase in the number of departments and agencies judged as ‘high risk’ during our compliance monitoring audits. This was a sharp increase from the year before. I am pleased to be able to report that this trend has been reversed. This year only 5% of organisations were judged to be ‘high risk’. This compares to 14% last year and 8% the year before. We have been working with departments to help them address the practices that might produce a ‘high risk’ assessment. This appears to be working well.
We are also pleased to note in our Link Commissioner visits to departments that Permanent Secretaries are taking an increasing interest in their department’s efforts to ensure compliance.