Matt Hancock will today set out his vision for a "more engaged and productive" civil service, as he gives his first speech since taking over from Francis Maude as minister for the Cabinet Office.
The former business minister – who was appointed to the post following the Conservatives' general election victory earlier this month – will tell an audience at the Institute for Government think tank later that he believes "the most important element of civil service reform is people", as he hints at further changes to the way officials are appraised for their performance.
"I want to see a civil service where people feel in control of their destiny, have permission to innovate and are trusted and can trust others," he is expected to say.
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"By the end of the parliament we should aspire to a more engaged and so productive workforce, supported with more rigorous capability assessments, where individual talents are better nurtured, and where promotion and pay are tied to performance."
Hancock is also expected to focus on Whitehall's patchy record on diversity. Before the election, the Cabinet Office published a trio of highly-critical reports on the career barriers which still face officials from under-represented groups, prompting Cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood to promise a "relentless" programme of action.
According to extracts released in advance, Hancock will say the civil service's record on diversity is "not good enough".
"What matters is not the bowler hat but what’s underneath it," he is expected to say.
"One in three young people in Britain today are from working-class backgrounds. So too are 23% of undergraduates from the top third of universities and 11% from Oxbridge.
"But only 7% of applicants to the civil service fast stream are from working class backgrounds, falling to just 3.5% of those who are given offers. It’s not good enough. The civil service must get better at recruiting from a wider talent pool, and must ensure that the ladder to the top can be climbed by all."
In the run-up to the election, Labour floated the idea of introducing quotas in the Fast Stream to increase the number of black and minority ethnic graduates getting places on the programme, but ministers have so far been reluctant to set strict targets for representation.
Instead, the latest "Talent Action Plan" published by Heywood in March promised to beef up oversight of departments’ diversity policies with increased external scrutiny from non-executive directors, and the most senior civil servants made "personally responsible" for tackling discrimination.
Civil Service World will have live coverage of Hancock's speech and Q&A from 12:45pm