Speak plainly, act humanely and don’t call it the blob – how to cut Whitehall

Stark, but not unprecedented...a 15% reduction in Civil Service costs announced in Chancellor’s Spring Statement sounds, and is, significant. However, handled correctly, it could be a real boost for the quality of public services.

Back in 2007, the Comprehensive Spending Review set my then Department the challenge of reducing both headcount and spending by 30%. For me, as a Director, that meant reducing from 256 to 80 people over three years, and cutting programme spend from £500 million to £375 million annually. We did it without recourse to compulsory redundancy, becoming in the process more efficient, more focused and able to offer better and more satisfying jobs to people at all levels.

So the Civil Service can, and will, rise to this challenge, but needs to get it right. It needs careful planning, and the recognition at all levels of leadership of the emotional and practical energy required. Here’s what this, and subsequent tough Spending Settlements, taught me as a leader:

• Communicate relentlessly - Change is unsettling – and human nature will fill the vacuum with worst-case speculation. Be clear about what you know and don’t know. If there’s nothing to say, say so. And set out, as soon as you can, the plan and implications for jobs. Doing so will show that the challenge is manageable, and free up the creativity to reshape the business.
• Cultivate a culture of rigour - This is the moment to re-examine the role of the State, and to regroup around the functions that only the State can provide. The public has high expectations about the role of the State. Brexit and the pandemic shifted those to a more interventionist level. This is the moment to address again – with Business and private citizens – where those boundaries should lie.
• Work as a team - Ministers and Civil Servants alike need to recognise that these reductions can’t simply be made by paring the “Back Office”, not least because administrative functions, well-constructed, free up the front line. Making change will require the Civil Service to do less: and since every function will have its fans, senior leaders and Ministers need to be ready to defend decisions which may be unpopular. The best Ministers recognise this – and the fact that the best ideas for change come from Civil Servants at all levels who feel supported.
• Phone a friend - Discuss the challenges early and often with those you serve, and be humble enough to seek external expertise and counsel. As far as you can, share the decision-making. Doing so will challenge your assumptions about where you and your teams add most value and improve your thinking. Not always easy in the full glare of the media, but worth the effort.
• Be strategic - The £3.25 billion transformation fund accompanying the Spring Statement is an important opportunity to improve systems and develop the uses of artificial intelligence, but, equally, to invest in training and improving the skills of the Civil Service. Many of those who joined since 2016 were thrown directly into delivery without the classic benefits of training and face-to-face learning. Many did heroically well, but the Civil Service is in many areas underperforming its potential.
• Be human and humane – Those who stay after major change initiatives judge their leaders by how they handled those tough decisions about downsizing and departures. People will remember, long after the event, not what you did, but how you did it. After she left her role in Downing Street, Baroness Gray’s maiden speech in the House of Lords noted the downside of talk of “blobs”, “chainsaws” and “axes” in referring to civil servants. She – and I - would say that, wouldn’t we? But I’ve yet to meet the CEO whose success was founded on belittling or insulting the workforce.

The Civil Service today has many advantages over 2007. The Chancellor’s decision to express reductions in terms of money rather than headcount is a positive – allowing choices focused on best value rather than outsourcing by default. The application of AI offers huge potential for sharper delivery – though it needs to be seen in a public service context. The unique selling point of public service is that it supports the weakest and poorest in society – those whom commercial companies might abandon as too complex. AI for the Civil Service needs to recognise that fundamental principle.

These targets are not unreasonable. They present a chance to redesign a Civil Service which grew dramatically and organically to respond to two huge challenges – Brexit and the pandemic – in tandem. And that is an opportunity to provide a better public service and more satisfying jobs for those who work in it.

In a 39-year career in the civil service, Katrina Williams held Director General roles at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and the Department for Energy and Climate Change. From 2017-2020 she was the UK’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU and Ambassador in COREPER.