FDA challenges “political rhetoric” over reports senior officials could be dismissed if they fail to make efficiency cuts

The FDA has criticised the political rhetoric around the government’s updated performance management framework for the senior civil service, which was announced in The Times under the headline ‘Find efficiency savings or risk the sack, civil servants told’.

Speaking on Times Radio, FDA General Secretary Dave Penman described the changes to the framework as “unremarkable” as they do not represent a major change in policy, and the union has been engaging with the government on the process for months.

He criticised the rhetoric from ministers, which suggested this would be “the first time officials would be held accountable for spending”, clarifying that this was not the case.

“The Cabinet Office’s evidence, and ours, shows that morale is low,” Penman said. “They’ve got a massive recruitment and retention problem, pay is ridiculously low compared to the private sector and churn is high. You don’t solve that by this kind of rhetoric. You don’t solve that by scaremongering. You solve that by addressing issues with reward and giving clear leadership as ministers.”

FDA Assistant General Secretary Lauren Crowley told The Times that officials always followed “clear objectives from ministers” and that “it’s important we don’t let political rhetoric get in the way of the substance of this review.” 

Penman also appeared on LBC to discuss the issue, telling presenter Tom Swarbrick that the briefings from Labour ministers surrounding the announcement felt “desperate”, and that it seemed the party was still in “campaign opposition mode” despite now being in government. Penman said:

“If you look at the coalition government in 2010, they delivered a 20% cut across the civil service in five years,” Penman explained. “They did that because what they had was a clear political objective. They had clarity of what they asked the civil service to do, and the civil service went on and delivered that. That’s what drives change in government, clear political choices, not words on an appraisal form.

“If you’re going to govern, you’ve got to lead. And leading 500,000 civil servants, inspiring them and motivating them, giving them clear objectives that they’re expected to deliver, is how you make change. Not scaremongering, not getting a hold of the grid on a Thursday and saying this will deflect from some of the other bad stories and we’ll look like we’re being rufty tufty with civil servants”.

Penman’s comments were also reported by the Daily Mail and Civil Service World.