Officials have expressed a mix of support, scepticism and disapproval over the government’s plans to reform the civil service in a new survey by Prospect, the union for specialist civil servants.
The poll on the government’s reform agenda – filled out by almost 3,000 civil servants – found 66% of respondents supported the government’s plans to improve the performance of the civil service.
Officials completing the survey were also fairly positive about the Labour administration's plans to relocate jobs outside of London, with around half of respondents supportive of this policy, and only around one in ten negative about it.
But civil servants responding to the survey were ambivalent on the government’s overall reform plans, with more than half giving it a score of three out of five, where one is “not at all positive” and five is “very positive”.
One area where civil servants showed clear opposition to the government’s plans was on the cuts to administration budgets which were finalised in the 2025 Spending Review.
Departmental administration budgets will be reduced by 16% by 2029-30 under the SR25 plan.
Around half of respondents to the survey expressed opposition to this plan, with just one in five supporting the reform.
The officials also identified a number of risks to the government's agenda. They said the greatest risk to civil service reform was from poor implementation. Other issues identified as being “high risk” included “indiscriminate job cuts”, “poorly managed change”, “an unclear plan for reform” and “a shortage people with the right skills”. For each of these areas, more than three-quarters of respondents said they were a risk to the reform agenda.
“The commitment of civil servants” was viewed as being a much lower risk, with just 50% of respondents concerned about this.
The civil servants answering the poll also raised concern around communication, morale and uncertainty around the reforms. Some 84% said communication on the issue has been poor, while 57% described morale as poor in their organisation following reform announcements. And a third of respondents were unsure whether their organisation would be affected by the reforms.
The survey also found that only around a quarter of the sampled officials (28%) thought the civil service was effective at delivering its core objectives. By contrast, 46% thought their parent organisation was effective and 68% said their team was effective.
Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy said: “The idea that civil servants are set against reform is simply wrong; our members see the case for change as much as anyone. But while they support the idea of improving the civil service, expert Prospect members are also clear that change needs to be managed properly if it is to be effective.
“First and foremost, as Prospect has been warning for some time, a tick-box exercise based on arbitrary numbers is likely to be counter-productive. What’s more, any change must be done in partnership with the workforce and communicated effectively. The worst thing for morale is uncertainty and poor communication."
He added: “Whether they are scientists or data engineers, our members are the specialists the government needs to deliver on its missions. They need to be fully engaged in shaping the reform agenda so it can create a civil service fit for the modern age.”
The survey respondents work for central government departments, agencies, non-departmental government bodies and other arm's-length public sector bodies included within the wider civil service. Prospect members working for devolved government organisations or public service corporations were not included in the survey.