The Civil Service at a Crossroads?
| Author | Terry Heiser |
| DOI | 10.1177/095207679400900104 |
| Published date | 01 March 1994 |
| Date | 01 March 1994 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
14
The
Civil
Service
at
a
Crossroads?
Sir
Terry
Heiser
There
are
two
questions
which
I
wish
to
discuss.
In
what
way
did
the
Civil
Service
change
in
the
nineteen
eighties;
and
what
are
the
consequences
for
the
future?
My
impressions
are
inevitably
subjective
and
reflect
my
own
career
in
the
Whitehall
&dquo;village&dquo; -
though
it
is
more
of
a
town
than
village,
with
its
own
social
hierarchy
of
Departmental
postal
districts.
I
have
had
the
unusual
though
not
unique
experience
of
having . served
at
every
level
in
the
Civil
Service
and
so
know
what
it
is
like
to
work
as
a
Registry
Clerk
as
well
as a
manager
and
a
policy
adviser
to
Ministers.
I
joined
the
Colonial
Office
as
a
Clerical
Officer
in
1949,
when
there
was
a
much
higher
level
of
public
esteem
for the
Service
than
now.
It
is
true
that,
even
then,
to
be
a
civil
servant
was
at
one
level
to
be
a
figure
of
fun.
Lord
Bridges
said
in
1950
that
he
confidently
expected
the
Civil
Service
&dquo;to
continue
to
be
grouped
with
mothers-in-law
and
Wigan
Pier
as
one
of
the
recognised
objects
of
ridicule.&dquo;
He
was
right.
Yet
behind
this
lay
a
recognition
of
the
worthwhile
nature
of
public
service.
Sir
Stafford
Cripps,
in
a
speech
to
staff
on
15
December,
1947,
which
began
&dquo;Friends&dquo;,
said
&dquo;I
know
of
no
higher
or
more
socially
valuable
service
than
that
done
in
government
administration.&dquo;
Those,
those
were
the
days!
This
sense
of
public
esteem
was
accompanied
by
a
seemingly
predictable
way
of
Civil
Service
life
and
a
certainty
of
job
security
and
a
pension
at
sixty -
not
something
dismissed
too
readily
by
young
school
leavers
with
parents
who
remembered
the
unemployment
of
the
slump
in
the
thirties
before
the
safety
nets
of
the
Welfare
State
were
erected.
Beyond
the
horizon
and
out
of
sight
lay
the
more
demanding
world
of
Next
Steps
Agencies,
market-testing,
performance-
related
pay,
and
the
explicit
duties
and
obligations
laid
down
in
the
Citizen’s
Charter.
On
the
debit
side
of
the
ledger,
there
was
a
strong
sense
of
hierarchy
and
status,
which
smothered
some
prospective
talent in
the
junior
grades.
For
the
majority,
the
division
between
the
Higher
Civil
Service
and
the
rest
was
so
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