At last Gus O'Donnell speaks up for us!The caricature of the feather-bedded civil servant bears no relation to the modern reality
Tomorrow the Civil Service Awards will take place in Buckingham Palace, rightly recognising some of those civil servants who – in Britain and overseas – have gone beyond the everyday and done something truly extraordinary to make people's lives better.
Nominees for awards include inspirational civil servants who have, through their energy and creativity, helped to change people's lives – whether through driving down drug use in prison, improving the use of helicopters in combat, or helping parents to access the free school meals to which their children are entitled.
While entertaining, the tired old caricatures of the civil service stand in stark contrast to the modern reality, epitomised by the recipients of these awards. But perceptions remain stubbornly resistant to change. Regrettably, misrepresentation of civil service roles and their pay and conditions is not unusual. The hackneyed stories of civil servants on Premiership footballer-style salaries, living and working in luxurious conditions in Whitehall, enjoying a job for life, and retiring on fat cat pensions, are becoming increasingly absurd.
It is hard not to grow weary of the repeated references to featherbedded pen-pushing bureaucrats in Whitehall. The reality is that more than 84% of all civil servants are outside London, working across the whole country, and overseas, delivering and supporting frontline services.
And let us be absolutely clear. It is not the lure of pay and pensions that draws most people to the civil service. The median salary of a civil servant is £22,850 a year – lower than the wider public sector, and lower than the private sector. Indeed, 60% of civil servants earn less than the private sector median of £25,000. The average pension is £7,000. Nor has the number of civil servants grown over recent years – in fact, quite the reverse. We will soon have the smallest civil service since the beginning of the second world war.
As head of the Home Civil Service, I am acutely conscious of the impact of this misrepresentation on men and women working extremely hard for their communities, especially at a time when many face a renewed uncertainty about the future.
Civil servants are fully aware of the challenges the British economy faces. They are, after all, working tirelessly and professionally to support the coalition government through the current challenges, every day, and in every part of Britain. I also know – as they do – that civil servants must play their part in sharing the pain of the difficult times ahead. Most government departments face administrative cuts of about a third over the coming years, with a pay freeze, reforms to pensions – and, of course, inevitable job losses.
These are not easy times for the civil service. But, as it has done through so many challenging periods in the past, the civil service will continue to draw on the dedication and quality for which it is internationally renowned. I am proud of the way the civil service rose once again in 2010 to the challenge of handling the transition from one government to another without missing a beat, and has quickly got into its stride in helping the coalition government to implement an ambitious policy programme.
And this week, with support from all political parties, we enact legislation to set in statute the abiding principles of the civil service: honesty, integrity, impartiality and objectivity. There are too many countries where the values we take for granted in our civil servants simply do not exist. Seeing these values in action, applied with dedication by hardworking individuals, makes me proud to lead a service that is making life better for millions across Britain.
