ChemistryEquipment: Cuts 'hit civil service morale'

Friday, February 4, 2011

Cuts 'hit civil service morale'

Staff across the civil service were questioned

Morale among civil servants fell as a result of last autumn's government Spending Review, an analysis of the official staff survey suggests.

The Institute for Government, led by former Labour cabinet minister Lord Adonis, said Whitehall needed a "clear vision" to reverse the change.

Its analysis, based on a poll of 325,000 workers, found morale down in 16 of 17 major government departments.

The first such survey was carried out by the government in 2009.

The second survey was conducted at around the time of last October's Spending Review, which outlined the government's spending cut plans.

The institute's analysis found all major departments, except the Ministry of Justice and Department for Transport, had seen a reported fall in "employee engagement".

Departments facing large-scale upheavals - including health and education - had seen the biggest declines in positivity among staff.

The Department for Communities and Local Government had experienced the biggest fall in the proportion of staff agreeing that "my department as a whole is managed well".

The highest employee engagement rating was at the Department for International Development, which has had its funding ring-fenced.

Julian McCrae, director of research at the Institute for Government, said: "Whitehall is facing an unprecedented challenge in overseeing an ambitious agenda for reform at the same time as facing major cutbacks in spending.

"Most departments are also having to reduce their own administrative costs by a third. Falls in staff engagement levels are not unusual as organisations start tackling challenges on this scale. The important thing is for departments to have a clear vision and effective leadership, so any falls are rapidly turned around."

A source at the communities department said it was unsurprising that staff had felt uncertain during the Spending Review, but that it had a clear sense of direction and was producing initiatives to improve morale.

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