“The government proposals will do little to ensure that the Senior Civil Service (SCS) is able to recruit, retain, develop and motivate the highly skilled staff it needs.

 

“The Review Body and those covered by the Review Body should be rightly angry that the government has refused to adopt the full recommendations made and yet again the civil service finds itself the poor relation compared to other parts of the public sector. “Coherence” is now a code word for treating both the SCS and “delegated grades” more harshly than other parts of the public sector.

 

“Vague commitments about “direction of travel” and “vision” will feel like Groundhog Day to many. It is remarkable that the government has been silent on addressing issues of gender pay inequality within the pay system and we see no practical proposals to address how staff are able to move through their pay ranges and how gender inequality issues are to be addressed.

 

“Even opportunities which would have been quick wins, cost little and been hugely popular- such as the abandonment of the toxic and discredited performance management system have been missed- with vague assurances about a “review” and it being a “priority”.”