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Reports say ministers’ proposals to significantly reduce the number of civil servants will include suspending the government’s alumni scheme, which recruits 100 novice leaders in digital and information technology each year.
Last week, it became known that Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to cut the number of civil servants by 91,000, which is about one in five people in the government. The purpose of these cuts, which have drawn harsh criticism from unions and other observers, is to return civil service employment to the same level as before the 2016 Brexit referendum. Since then, the process of leaving the EU with demands The response to the pandemic has led to a marked increase in the number of departmental staff after years of decline during the David Cameron coalition administration.
According to Efficiency Minister Jacob Rhys Mogh, about 40,000 civil servants leave their posts each year, and the ministers ’plan to achieve their estimated cuts is to freeze hiring. A recent report in The spectator argued that this moratorium on recruitment would extend to the Fast Stream program, an alumni program designed to identify and develop potential future leaders.
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Finding talent for the digital, data and technology professions is a key area of the scheme; of the 1,072 people who included the Fast Stream competition in 2021, 100 joined the specialized DDaT track. This made the digital profession the second most popular specialty, second only to project management, which scored 103 fast streamers.
Speaking at the recent PublicTechnology To live At the event in London, Sonia Pawson, head of Fast Stream, told the audience that technical skills will become increasingly important for the work of heads of government in all disciplines.
“We understand that in time you will not be able to become a senior civil servant without experience and experience, for example, in using big data for political or operational purposes or in managing a digital project,” she said.
The The spectator said the “last opinion” on recruitment in Fast Stream was that decisions on the number would be left to the departments.
But talking to PublicTechnology nursing publication PoliticsHomea source in the government has indicated that the intention of the ministers is to actually suspend the Fast Stream program by including it in a wider hiring freeze from 2023-2024.
In a statement, responding to the latest batch of stories, a government spokesman said: “The civil service is doing an excellent job of providing the public and encouraging progress in meeting the government’s priorities. As people and businesses across the country face rising costs, the public rightly expects their government to work as efficiently as possible, and the Prime Minister has instructed the Cabinet to return the civil service to 2016 levels to provide a more frugal and efficient workforce . ».
In 2021, about 404 people joined the overall Fast Stream scheme, which aims to give graduates “the opportunity to perform a wide variety of roles to establish their strengths and leadership potential”.
In 2021, in 2021, there were 1,072,125 civil servants selected to participate in the leadership development program.
