Alex Thomas

Rayner’s new office: a land-grab, or the answer to Labour’s problems? The deputy PM’s allies say the premises, and her choice of art, are central to her social cohesion project. Others say it is an HQ for her leadership campaign

Who else could give these sort of insights

“It’s proximity to political authority rather than windows that makes the difference [in Whitehall],” he said.

www.thetimes.com/article/a110...

A tyre with a 2-3 inch rip and very much flat

A nice beach

I have tonight come back from Cornwall where I enjoyed beaches and tiny roads leading to my dad’s burst tyres. Broken Britain, secession now

You guys

That was indeed one of the jobs I was thinking of

That’s kind - thank you Geoff

Top MoD civil servant to leave in wake of Afghan data breach - BBC News Permanent Secretary David Williams will leave this autumn, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

Another perm sec vacancy - a lot of change at the top of govt depts this year

Afghan data breach supposedly the trigger but I’d see this as part of a broader post-election shift

A moment to note that David Williams has put in a shift in some thankless and tricky jobs

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Entirely agree - both on the wider societal issues and wider points for the CS to consider. But on balance I think this is worth doing

Line chart from the Institute for Government showing proportion of civil servants from a low socioeconomic background by grade 2021 to 2024. The lines are very flat, trending slightly down. The lowest is SCS at just under 20%, the highest is AO/AA at just over 40%.

Proportion of civil servants from low SEB by seniority. It is v striking to me...

1 - how flat the lines are. Almost no change over time?
2 - how perfectly stacked they are. Consistently smaller proportion of low SEB civil servants at each grade.

(stats are from people survey so not perfect)

The socio-economic background of civil servants needs to change | Institute for Government No internship scheme will change the fundamental structural points which the civil service needs to address.

The government is restricting civil service internships to applicants from lower socio-economic backgrounds to get more working-class young people into the civil service.

Using internships will not solve everything, but the experiment is worthwhile www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/soci...

Here’s our rapid comment on the civil service working class intern proposal - from @hannahkeenan.bsky.social @hcdunlop.bsky.social and me

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/soci...

The numbers on socio-economic background of civil servants really don't tell a story of much change over time - v. striking compared to e.g. ethnic minority staff. (plz note different timeframes, but point holds).

Alex's thread has a good breakdown of socio-economic background by grade, and more!

I have been collecting bad takes on this policy, so only fair to highlight this very good one.

Ha - thanks Stephen

FS Summer Internship Programme Discover a career in the Civil Service with the Fast Stream Summer Internship Programme (SIP). This 6-8 week, UK-wide internship offers talented undergraduates £430 per week to gain experience in rese...

Yes I do agree that the application of the test needs more nuance than it probably will have. Haven’t seen the details apart from on this page

www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/fast-stream/...

Civil service fast stream | Institute for Government The fast stream is the government’s accelerated development programme for the UK civil service. But how big is it?

More information on the civil service, its workforce and the fast stream on the IfG website

Explainer on the fast stream including data on SEB is here

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/ci...

Pay has ticked up recently and some of the immediate angst has receded. But making specific changes to schemes can only be one part of the wider effective management of the civil service

But but but… the elephant in the room is PAY. If the civil service wants to attract the best people from all backgrounds, especially to London and the SE, it needs to remain at least plausible on pay for entry and mid level jobs

- But in the end what matters is what works. Civil service needs to regularly and transparently evaluate these schemes. If they’re bringing the best talent into the civil service then great. If not then scrap them!

- Important to maintain recruitment on merit - so anyone who gets a permanent job does need to have demonstrated that they reach the standard. But that’s consistent with giving people who are talented and interested the chance to experience the CS for a summer

- I don’t love governments using the management of the civil service to make wider policy points. But to me this is more like the last Cons govt broadening the geographical spread of the civil service (Darlington campus etc) than attacks on woke lanyards etc. Getting new people in should be healthy

- the “fast pass” to the fast stream has been used before. To get a permanent FS job interns will need to succeed as interns then pass the final stage of the FS assessment. The civil service should be using the information it has about potential applicants to make the best judgements on candidates

I think that’s on balance reasonable. Why?

- internships are internships. Not permanent jobs. They’ve long been used to develop new routes for people to join organisations who are talented but might not otherwise find a way in. This seems justified

The last government scrapped the diversity element of the SDIP in 2023

This government is restoring it but only for people from a low SEB

They’ll argue that’s justified because SEB recruitment and workforce makeup is lagging behind the gains made in other characteristics

Restricting the civil service summer internship to people from a low SEB isn’t quite as radical as it looks

The same internship until 2023 was explicitly a diversity scheme - the SDIP. It offered the same “fast pass” opportunity for successful interns to skip some Fast Stream recruitment stages too

Chart showing socio-economic background of civil service staff by grade. The more senior the grade, the higher the SEB

There is a problem with socio-economic (SEB) background in the civil service

42% of the most junior grades are from a lower SEB; just 19% of the most senior

70% of the SCS are from high SEB

Unlike other characteristics (sex, ethnicity, disability) which have been growing, SEB has remained stable

Civil service interns must all be working class, government says Internships will only go to students from poorer families in a push to make Whitehall more working class.

Eye-catching story about civil service interns needing to come from a lower socio-economic background

Some thoughts!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I hadn’t read that before - thank you for sharing

Yes, am obviously not saying high food miles are always better - just that it’s often counter-intuitive (as you say)

See also - food miles!

And more analysis from @jackworlidge.bsky.social

bsky.app/profile/jack...