Civil service 'woefully underprepared' for reform battle with Dominic Cummings, warns Tory manifesto chief
3 min read
Civil servants are "woefully unprepared" for "seismic" changes to their working culture being planned by Number 10, the author of the Tory manifesto has declared.
Rachel Wolf, who co-wrote the Conservatives' election blueprint, said officials could face exams in a bid to end an environment "where everyone rises to their position of incompetence".
And she warned that Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister's most senior adviser, would slow the "merry-go-round" that sees civil servants change jobs regularly.
Mr Cummings is a longstanding critic of the civil service, arguing in a 2014 talk that Whitehall "promotes people who focus on being important, not getting important things done".
And he has claimed that "almost no one is ever fired" in an organisation in which "failure is normal".
Number 10 is already planning a string of changes to the structure of government, with several departments set to be merged or rebadged in the early months of Boris Johnson's administration.
But, writing in The Telegraph, Ms Wolf claimed that Mr Cummings's plans to "run the most dynamic state in the world" would go much further.
She said: "I cannot decide if Downing Street has deliberately sent people down the wrong path, or if officials are so used to meaningless 'machinery of government' changes that they cannot believe the PM and his chief aide, Dominic Cummings, mean business. As a result, they seem woefully unprepared for what is coming.
"Dominic has been reading and thinking about how to transform the public sector for two decades. He does not think it is a distraction, but a prerequisite to delivering even the simplest promises."
Ms Wolf, a former adviser to Boris Johnson who now works for the Public First lobbying firm, called for a host of changes to the working culture of Whitehall including on recruitment, training and frequency of job changes.
Arguing that the civil service is currently dominated by officials with humanities degrees, the former adviser said Number 10 would ensure training is "taken more seriously" once people are in post.
"Data science, systems thinking, and super-forecasting will be on the list," she said.
"I wouldn’t be surprised if officials, and special advisers, were set exams."
Ms Wolf meanwhile hit out at what she called the "merry-go-round" of frequent role changes for civil servants, arguing that "any official who has spent more than 18 months in a post is seen to have stalled" because the organisation values "transferable" skills more than hard knowledge.
She added: "This has catastrophic effects. It ensures the “Peter Principle” – where everyone rises to their position of incompetence – is ever-present. It kills institutional memory and expertise. It allows officials an escape from accountability."
The Tory manifesto author said officials should also expect to be "kept on projects where they know the background" under Number 10's plans, and, in a move that could anger civil service unions, she hinted at a "rethink of incentives, numbers, and pay" in the organisation.
Urging Downing Street to oversee a wider change in the organisation, Ms Wolf said civil servants were currently too focused on "stakeholders" and not the public.
"Too many officials see special interests as their customers," she argued.
Ms Wolf warned: "The Government understands that in five years it won’t be judged on the way the civil service is designed but on whether it has delivered on its promises."
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