FDA responds to MPs’ criticism of civil servants in Guardian article

Writing on the Guardian Public Leaders Network, FDA general secretary Jonathan Baume responds to the latest Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) report - Change in government: the agenda for leadership - which has criticised the pace of reform and what it calls "complacency" in the civil service. PASC chair, Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin, has said that civil servants' response to change is to "keep their heads down until the latest reform has passed over".

Baume says: "The civil service is not afraid of change - the problem is that it has been battered by waves of change from successive governments. Civil servants have become used to following a path which, more often than not, will regularly change tack in the face of the then prevailing political winds.

He added: "The civil service is frequently told by ministers that they want more risk-taking, but civil servants can only take risks if ministers are prepared to accept new ideas, help carry them through, and be willing to accept their share of responsibility for any downsides."