Close to 2,000 delegated grade jobs at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office could go as part of the department’s plans to cut its headcount, according to the PCS union.
The union said the FCDO has given notice that 1,885 jobs are at risk and told the union it needs to lose 25-30% of the workforce to meet its spending review outcome. It comes after the department’s permanent secretary, Olly Robbins, said in July that the department planned to reduce the size of its workforce by up to 25%.
The FCDO currently has a global headcount of roughly 17,000 people, with around 9,400 of these based in the UK.
PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said the union will “strongly resist” the headcount reduction plans.
The union also raised concerns about the restructure of the department, claiming that the FCDO has not followed the civil service redundancy protocols introduced in 2016 in its restructure of director-general level positions.
In July, Robbins told MPs the department had “started from the top” with the restructure, beginning with the director general level cadre in London. He said there were nine DGs in London when he arrived, and there would be seven by September. Robbins said the department would concurrently run an exercise to determine the right levels of grading and seniority in the FCDO’s overseas network, which has more than 20 DGs.
According to PCS, redundancy notices have now been sent to DGs who have been unsuccessful in securing a role in the new structure. Their last day of service is 1 December 2025.
In a letter to the union’s FCDO members, Lois Austin, PCS’s industrial officer for the international sector, said the 2016 protocol sets out that "employers are supposed to go through a process called a Redundancy Mitigation Review with the Cabinet Office and trade unions and they must offer voluntary redundancy before compulsory redundancy notices are issued (the VES earlier in the year closed before the DG restructure started)". "This did not happen," Austin said.
She added that PCS and fellow trade unions have “communicated senior management's deviation from the agreed process to the employer and are taking advice on what else we can do to support those issued with a redundancy notice and just three months’ notice”.
Austin said PCS is “very worried that the same flawed process will be applied” to the restructure of director (SCS2) roles.
Robbins said in July that the department had begun looking at changes to director-level roles, and was planning for there to be “fewer jobs, but they will be bigger jobs, and they will be more empowered”.
In her letter to members, Austin said that it was "clear that there is not an intention to fill all vacant posts with current SCS2 staff despite current SCS2’s performing well at their grade".
"PCS are arguing that all roles are filled with current staff, with training and support to meet new competencies if needed," she added. "This is a widely accepted redundancy avoidance measure.”
Austin noted that the FCDO has said that “no decision has been made on the restructure process and that the unions can put forward proposals on how it should be done”.
She said the starting point for PCS in these discussions "is that we are opposed to job cuts”, but the union will also be "demanding that existing agreements are adhered to such as the 2016 protocols”.
“We will insist that all job roles are filled with existing staff and that all those who want and need a job get one; our bottom line is complete opposition to compulsory redundancies,” she added.
New directors are set to be appointed at the start of November, before taking up post in January and then beginning to restructure each directorate, according to PCS. Austin said it is important that PCS members in the delegated grades “understand what lies ahead”, as “it is at this point that jobs will be cut in SCS1 and the delegated grades”.
Austin also said the union is “open to discussion” on the philosophy posited by the then-foreign secretary David Lammy in June, namely that reforming the department could help "ensure that Britain's diplomatic and development footprint is more open, more strategic and more technologically enabled".
But she added that PCS is concerned that the department "has provided a figure for job cuts to the delegated grades before consulting unions on their workforce plan and before providing unions with a timescale in which they will be able to consult".
Austin also warned that the government's cuts to the foreign aid budget will have a “disastrous impact on important aid programmes in areas of the world in crisis” and said PCS lobbying and campaigning to stop the cuts will continue. She said the union would also continue its campaign against the department's performance-based pay system.
PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: "We will strongly resist the FCDO's plans to slash its UK based workforce by up to 30%.
"Our members have seen no justification for these cuts and have yet to be told what work has been deemed disposable by management.
"To add insult to injury, the government's recent cuts to the overseas aid budget will not only lead to job cuts and a loss of valuable expertise, but could cost hundreds of thousands of lives overseas.
"If the FCDO is serious about delivering a safe, secure, and prosperous Britain and wider world, it needs to listen to its own workers' concerns about its job cuts programme."
An FCDO spokesperson said: “The FCDO is embarking on a series of changes over the next five years. This will include a headcount reduction as we move towards a slimmer, more agile workforce.
“This is a key step in our reform programme to ensure that the FCDO is more open, more strategic and more technologically enabled, to deliver maximum security and growth for the British people.”