Public Servant Lifestyle

Civil Service chief Sir Gus O'Donnell - who sees diversity as "getting people from different backgrounds that challenge our existing viewpoint" - launches plan for the Service.

Sir Gus O'Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service, has unveiled a 10-Point Plan to raise the pace towards a representative workforce.

The Plan introduces a major programme of change aimed at achieving a diverse workforce at all levels of the Civil Service, including the most senior. It reaches further than previous work, by embedding diversity as a key measure of performance for Permanent Secretaries.

"I want the Civil Service to be a beacon for change and a model of best practice for all organisations," says Sir Gus. "A truly representative workforce, including at the most senior levels, will enable policies and services to be developed in ways which will result in better outcomes for everyone in society. That is why this must happen.

"Diversity is a key part of the wider Civil Service reform programme. Together with improved leadership and professionalism, improved diversity is essential to build the Service's capacity to deliver.

"I can also announce that I have appointed Bill Jeffrey as the new Civil Service Diversity Champion. He will have a leading role in making this plan work."

Bill Jeffrey was recently appointed as the new Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence. He spent the early part of his career in the Home Office. He moved to the Cabinet Office as Deputy Head of the Economic and Domestic Secretariat between 1994 and 1998.

He then became Political Director of the Northern Ireland Office, where he was principal adviser on the political process there to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Prime Minister. He moved, in 2002, to become Director General, Immigration and Nationality Directorate, in the Home Office.

While in this post, he was a member of a diversity sub-group of the Civil Service Management Board, shaping corporate strategy on diversity. He was also disability champion at the Home Office and sponsor of IND's ethnic minority network.

Bill is currently Security and Intelligence Coordinator, where he has been the principal adviser to the Prime Minister on intelligence, security and counter-terrorism strategy.

The 10-Point Plan was developed following a review of diversity and equality in employment across the Civil Service. Implementation of the plan will be driven by the Diversity Champions' Network, which is chaired by the Civil Service Diversity Champion.

It commits to a programme of significant change in 10 key areas including:

Maximising use of positive action in recruitment practices, including equality-proofing recruitment panels

Making all Senior Civil Service and feeder grade posts available on a flexible working pattern basis wherever possible

Development schemes in Departments to build a diverse talent pool

Meaningful diversity objectives for all, linked to reward

"The Civil Service has made good progress towards increasing diversity at senior levels," says John Hutton, the Minister for the Cabinet Office. "However, as our 2005 targets show, more work needs to be done and the 10-Point Plan will build on this progress and towards the 2008 diversity targets.

"The Civil Service is key to driving wider Public Sector Reform and to be able to do so it needs to be in touch with the diverse communities it serves, to develop policies that include everyone in society and to deliver services in ways appropriate and sensitive to all."

How the Civil Service has fared against its 2005 diversity targets

As part of the Spending Review 2004, the Government committed to new diversity targets for the Senior Civil Service (SCS accounts for the top 4,000 posts) to achieve by 2008. All four targets were set and will be measured using Cabinet Office workforce data on the SCS. The Cabinet Office will publish progress towards the 2008 targets every six months.

Current published figures show: (October 2003 baseline / April 2004 / April 2005 / 2008 Target)

Women ( 27.5% / 27.8% / 29.1% / 37% )

Women in top management posts ( 23.9% / 24.4% / 25.5% / 30% )

Black Minrity Ethnic (BME)staff ( 2.4% / 2.6% / 2.8% / 4% )

Disabled staff ( 2.1% / 3.7% / 2.9% / 3.2% )

The overall Civil Service workforce

Figures for 2005 show: (April 1998 / April 2005 / 2005 Target)

Women ( 17.8% / 29.1% / 35% )

Women in top management posts ( 12.7% / 25.5% / 25%)

BME staff ( 1.6% / 3.2% / 3.2% )

Disabled staff ( 1.5% / 2.3% / 3% )

The Diversity Champions' Network is a network of senior people with responsibility for leading on diversity issues in their organisations. It is chaired by the Civil Service Diversity Champion, and supported by the Chief Diversity Adviser, Waqar Azmi. The Diversity Champions' Network will report on progress annually to the Civil Service Management Board.

The role of the Civil Service Diversity Champion is to be an advocate and guardian of the aspiration to achieve a Civil Service where equality and diversity are embedded in our behaviour and in the quality of the services we deliver. The Champion leads the Diversity Champions' Network. The Champion is accountable to Sir Gus O'Donnell, Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the .

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