Ministers change jobs too often, says scathing report into Whitehall
Whist we might have the best civil service in the world, the other part of the coin which justifies its continuity, the fact that ministers change so frequently leaves a challenging policy void according to the findings of the report profiled in this article. Across the board this has major impacts in terms of the challenge of ministers coming up to speed with their policy briefs. What sort of impact do you feel it has had on the development of rural policy? I have to say over my time working in this world I have seen good, bad and indifferent examples of this in terms of Defra and that other key rural department CLG. My lips are sealed however in terms of naming names! The article tells us:
Ministers change posts too often, are poorly managed and focus too much on the media rather than managing their departments, according to a report compiled from in-depth interviews with officials, ministers, special advisers and non-executive directors across Whitehall.
The civil service suffers from a tradition of promoting poor workers out of their jobs, rotating staff so quickly they do not have to take responsibility for projects, too much automatic promotion, and paying too little to attract and keep outside expertise, the Reform thinktank found.
More than one current coalition minister argued that responsibility for poor performance by ministers went all the way to the prime minister, David Cameron. “The efficient running of a government department has no bearing on [ministerial] career prospects,” they are quoted as saying. “The prime minister doesn’t say ‘Well done!’ So if you wanted ministers to engage in the process properly, you’d need to send a much clearer signal that this is something that is valued.”
Another minister pointed out structural problems as a result of reshuffling ministers too often. “Frankly if you change ministers every two years you hand vast power to civil servants,” they are quoted as saying. “Civil servants have a certain contempt for ministerial office because they know they are moved so often, and not necessarily on merit and ability.”