Britain’s long – and sometimes successful – history of reforming the civil service

Suddenly, radical reform of Whitehall is in fashion again. Sir Keir Starmer spoke last week of civil servants lingering in the “tepid bath of managed decline” and now his de facto deputy, cabinet office minister Pat McFadden, has urged departments to behave more like tech startups by adopting the “test and learn culture” of the best digital companies, bringing in outsiders, and abandoning “mind-bogglingly bureaucratic and off-putting” application processes for civil service jobs. In 2012, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition complained of “ingrained, cultural problems” and bravely launched a “civil service reform plan”. In words that sound eerily familiar, then prime minister David Cameron declared it was about “harnessing the world-beating talents of those who work in our civil service and making sure they aren’t held back by a system that can be sclerotic and slow,” adding: “That means learning from the best in the private sector. But the way the best businesses nurture talent, flatten management structures, reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, and improve services while reducing costs all hold lessons for us in the public sector.” How do outsiders fare in the civil service?