Keynote speeches

As reported in The Herald and Civil Service World, FDA General Secretary Dave Penman gave the opening speech to conference in which, following the recent dismissals of Sir Chris Wormald and Sir Olly Robbins, he warned that “a government in a hurry to deliver, urging civil servants to be risk takers, should understand that governing is a joint enterprise. Risks will only be taken if the risk is shared. Trust is required for good, effective, and agile government. But I’m afraid that trust is in short supply.” 

Penman also responded to the Prime Minister’s message to the civil service last week, in which he stressed “the vital importance of the partnership between politicians and officials. We are one team”.

The General Secretary said: “As you can imagine, there was quite a response to those words. It is the Prime Minister’s actions, not his words, that will leave an indelible mark on the most senior leaders in the civil service. Who now will feel they will not be thrown under the bus if it serves a narrow political objective?

“It is what you do Prime Minister, not what you say, that matters.”

Highlighting the successes and strengths of the union, Penman told delegates:

“Standing up for members, supporting careers, and delivering real outcomes. That’s what makes us different, that’s what makes us strong, and that’s why we’re the fastest growing union in the country”.

Delegates also heard from Caroline Wheeler, Political Editor of the i Paper, who took part in an ‘in conversation’ session.

Discussing attacks against the civil service from this and previous govts, Wheeler says such incidents have increased over the past decade: “It’s very fashionable at the moment for civil servants to be attacked, to be blamed for things that are going wrong. “There does seem to be a real culture of blame everything but yourself… it is fashionable to blame systems.”

Wheeler also discussed what lies behind the “fragmentation” and “polarisation” of the past few years, and the “clashes between deliverism and populism.”

In the afternoon, attendees heard a speech and Q&A session from Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Jones opened his address to ADC by thanking FDA members “for your service and all of your work” and defending the impartiality of the civil service as one of the “foundations of our democracy”.

During his speech, Jones made a number of announcements, including new AI training for civil servants to “seize the promise of technology” to improve public services, making reference to the FDA and Fabian Society’s AI report Adopt, Innovate, Transform.

As reported in Civil Service World, Jones also told delegates he wants the civil service to “prize delivery of real world change” as much policy development, he announced that every department across Whitehall will be setting up new senior led delivery teams to “help identify barriers” and make it easier to escalate to No.10.

Organising and Equality Awards

Delegate Anna Whittaker from the FDA Welsh Government branch received this year’s Wendy Jones Equality Award, for her work leading the Equality, Diversity, and Workplace Adjustments Team, conducting primary research into social mobility within HMRC during the pandemic and working on enhancing access to workplace adjustments and building organisational knowledge. 

This year’s individual Impact Award went to DWP branch delegate Matt Brown, for his tireless work to improve health and safety across DWP offices. The FDA’s Ofsted Section received the group Impact Award, recognising their work to deliver the FDA’s Beyond the Framework report, highlighting the value of HM Inspectors and pushing to tackle excessive working hours.