Places for Growth

This year’s ADC took place the day after the government made significant announcements on the next stages of the Places for Growth programme and plans to move civil service jobs out of London. Gould told delegates:  “London will continue to be the thriving centre, but we also want more progression opportunities. When I spoke to civil servants in those hubs they said they didn’t feel enough was being made of these opportunities, weren’t always working differently or testing new ideas, some said they felt further away and couldn’t progress unless in London”.

“For me it’s not just about the location, it’s a change in that approach. Not just making decisions in Whitehall but innovating together in the front line… We want a civil service that’s outward looking, creating partnerships and open to people from every background. We need to do more to make sure young people across the UK knows that the civil service is for them. Opportunity mission is about unleashing the talent in the country… They are valued, empowered and able to shape policy”.

During the Q&A session, Gould received a number of questions on the Places for Growth announcement, including how we can get to a position where someone can start and maintain a fulfilling civil service career all outside of London, whilst the ministers they serve remain in London. Responding to the first part of the question, Gould said the government are “expanding the school leaver apprenticeship to Birmingham, Manchester and hopefully beyond” and “have committed that half the Fast Stream places will be available outside of London and, critically, that half of senior civil servant roles should be out of London, so we can create that proper pathway and career progression that you have set out”.

“In terms of ministers, obviously we are accountable to parliament”, she continued, “ministers often need to be in London when parliament is sitting, but that does not mean we cannot spend time in the hubs… I have loved working alongside civil servants on the ground and seeing how we can work with universities and councils to bring that energy together.  We want to make it easier for ministers to do that”.

Another delegate asked Gould about her claim that Places for Growth would see the civil service “looking to grow talent in all four corners of the UK”. The delegate suggested that the search was limited to some cities of the UK and that the arbitrary requirement for civil servants to attend the office 60% of the time may mean “we are going to lose a lot of people just because of that overcentralisation”.

On the government’s work‑from‑home policy, the Minister responded: “I know it is something that people feel very differently about.  I think we feel that we have tried to get to a fair and balanced approach that gives people flexibility, but we think it is important that there are… when people come together and get the connections from working within a team”.

Dave Penman : The civil service is hungry for reform. The government needs to get on with it.”

In his speech to conference, FDA General Secretary Dave Penman rejected the idea that civil servants are resistant to change, arguing instead that “the civil service is hungry for reform” and challenging the government to simply “get on with it”.
 
Penman criticised the language used by the government to characterise its civil servants, stating that they “don’t get to decide the size of government, ministers do. They don’t create regulations or regulators to enforce them, ministers do.
 
“So, let’s cut out the language of a ‘bloated state’, of ‘blockers’ and ‘the usual suspects’.
 
“Civil servants can be the engine room of reform, they are hungry for it. But reform has to have substance. Being in government means it needs to be more than a buzzword in a speech. There has to be clear political objectives, a matching of resources to commitments and a plan.”

A clear plan
 
The FDA General Secretary challenged ministers to provide its civil service with “a clear plan for improved public services and a people plan to match”.
 
He said the government needs “a plan for what unlocking the digital and AI revolution can actually mean in reality. A plan for how services will be delivered differently, for how the civil service can attract, grow, and retain the right talent for the next decade, not simply be fixated with the staffing levels in the last one”.
 
Penman also lamented the pace of progress since Labour took power back last summer: “Civil service reform will take time to design, negotiate and implement, and all too soon ministers will be focusing on the next election. Almost 12 months in with the new government and we’re nowhere near the sort of discussion we need to be having, for that once in a generation reform that the civil service so badly needs. In this spending round it may not feel like the sun is shining, but we do now need to fix the roof.

“The new government has been given a once in a generation majority. It has set itself high ambitions and we all know that there is much to be done to improve public services. It needs a strong, skilled and motivated workforce to deliver them. That’s why we need to get on with it.”

Lewis Goodall: “if there is no clear ideological sense of where a government is progressing, that makes delivery harder.”

Journalist and broadcaster Lewis Goodall, LBC presenter and co-host of the News Agents podcast alongside Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, gave conference his perspective on the first year of the new government.

He compared this Labour government with what he described as the “the geological eras of various different Conservative administrations that we went through” and said “it does feel very new”. However, as a Labour MP put it to him, “one in five days of this mandate, of this term, has already gone, nearly 20% of this administration is already gone” and, that first 20% “when the mandate is freshest, should be on paper, some of the most productive”.

Foreign vs domestic affairs

Contrasting the successes and challenges of this government, Goodall said it’s instructive to consider “the asymmetry with which Starmer is considered to handle the two fundamentals of his job: foreign affairs and domestic affairs”.

“When we think about foreign affairs, actually the write up is extremely credible, if not impressive,” he said. “There were reports even in the papers on Sunday of other foreign leaders, despite the fact that he’s only been there for 10 months, deferring to him, going to him for advice.”

He suggested this was in part because “it plays to Starmer’s strengths”.

“This is a field where the problems are obvious, where ideology is important but not that important, which is a matter of incremental gains. That is exactly the sort of politics, the sort of politician that Starmer is, right?”

Goodall said that the Prime Minister “eschews big ideas” and instead “likes to identify the problems and use what is at his disposal immediately to fix them”. He also suggested that Starmer “does not need to communicate in a flashy way” to other politicians, who are largely his audience when it comes to foreign affairs, and he “does not need to sell a grand narrative or a vision” to them either. However, Goodall feels this is exactly where Starmer’s government has struggled with domestic affairs.

“For that he needs the opposite. Yes, there are problems, but you have to identify what the problems are and sell what the solutions are to the electorate,” he explained.

The ‘threat’ of Reform UK

Contrasting this with the approach of Nigel Farage, whose party is reported to be surging in the polls, Goodall says “whatever you think of Nigel Farage, whatever you think of Reform, one thing you cannot say is that he is a man who lacks ideological ballast”.

He opined that what “ministers think is their salvation to the ‘Faragist’ threat is delivery” but questioned what delivery means in the 21^st century – giving the example of Joe Biden’s administration struggling to communicate what had actually been delivered “when faced with a political opponent who is so good at consistently commanding, every single day, the narrative”.

Goodall told attendees that “if there is no clear ideological sense of where a government is progressing, then that in itself makes delivery harder”. He suggested “politicians who deliver” but “who don’t peddle in big ideas” will struggle in the current political climate, no matter “how good the people occupying those ministerial cars are”.

“This is just my view,” he said. “But you could be responsible, working in tandem with ministers for delivering a new hospital in every town, for filling every pothole and yet you, still, with the most effective Pied Piper of politics, will have many people who simply do not believe what is in front of them. That is difficult for any technocrat to believe. It is difficult for anyone who believes in good governance to credit. But it is in my view, correct.”
 

Debates on Annual Delegate Conference motions

Delegates debated 37 motions on a range of issues including pay, government policy, pensions, civil service employment matters and equality and diversity. Post conference, members received a link to version of the ADC Final Agenda containing details of which motions were passed, remitted and defeated, reflecting the FDA’s policy plans for the year ahead. This updated agenda can be accessed in the members’ area of the FDA website.

Each year the union also provides an update covering progress on motions passed at the previous ADC – the updates on 2024 motions can also be found in the FDA website members’ area. An update on developments from the motions passed at this year’s conference will be distributed later this year.