Civil service morale worsened despite improving pay levels, survey finds
Morale and churn in the UK civil service worsened despite average pay almost bouncing back to real-terms levels last seen in 2010, an annual survey has found.
The Whitehall Monitor report, by the Institute for Government (IfG) thinktank, found that average civil service pay rose for the 2023-24 financial year, with the government settling disputes that had led to industrial action.
However, its analysis of morale for 2023 found the mean “engagement” score dipped slightly for the third year in row, while churn in jobs – those who move between departments or leave the civil service entirely – went up by a percentage point to 12.7%.
Although the figures relate to a period before the Labour government came to power, the IfG said its report underlined the challenge Keir Starmer faces as he tries to reform the civil service and make it more dynamic.
In December, the prime minister threw down the gauntlet to civil servants by
in a keynote speech that “too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline”.The IfG report found satisfaction with pay levels rose in Whitehall by three percentage points to 32%, with average pay about £34,000 – almost returning to its 2010 level in real terms. It said pay was now 0.7% lower than 15 years ago, similar to the private sector which is 0.9% lower than in 2010. Senior-grade salaries were still 24% less in real terms than in 2010, however.
Its analysis found morale dropped across the civil service in 2023 for the third year in a row to a mean score of 60.7%, down from 63.6% in 2020. Before then morale had risen steadily since 2010.
The IfG said this was largely driven by lower scores for how the civil service felt about its leadership and the management of change, coinciding with the creation of new science, energy and business departments.
The civil service people survey’s own figure found a rise in morale to 61% up from 59% by choosing a median rather than a mean figure for its analysis of employee engagement – a measure of officials’ overall attitudes to their organisation, calculated using responses to questions about their motivation, and pride in and attachment to their organisation.
The figures for churn were largely driven by the Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak having created three new departments. The proportion of officials leaving the civil service entirely fell from 9% to 7.4% during the year.
Promising a new way of working, through “mission-led” government, Starmer said last month that the civil service must no longer be comfortable with failure.
He later moved to head off anger over his comments by highlighting that civil servants “bring something very special to work, which is that sense of public service” – though he reiterated that he wanted to drive change in Whitehall.
Jack Worlidge, the lead author of the IfG’s report, said: “There are welcome signs that political leaders – Starmer himself as well as Pat McFadden [chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster] – understand the scale of change that it would need in the civil service. But they’ll need a long-term commitment to reform, and a focus on addressing fundamental problems of uncompetitive pay, the resulting grade inflation, and excessive turnover.”
Before Christmas, Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, the union for senior civil servants, said that Starmer would need their support to effect change, and cautioned against him invoking “Trumpian” language about Whitehall.