The Civil Service Diversity & Inclusion Strategy
outlines a range of ambitious proposals to achieve this
aim, including:
- to build a dedicated ethnic minority programme to
improve the representation of ethnic minority staff at
the most senior levels across the Civil Service;
- to create a Diverse Leadership Task Force that will
report to the Cabinet Secretary;
- to publish a data dashboard tracking progress on
diversity and inclusion targets by April 2018;
- to establish a new framework for measuring inclusion;
- to embed diversity and inclusion in Single
Departmental Plans.
The Civil Service has already made significant progress
towards increasing the diversity of its workforce.
Introducing measures such as anonymised recruitment and
making Permanent Secretaries accountable to the Head of
the Civil Service for improving diversity and inclusion
have made a positive difference to the amount of
under-represented groups in the Civil Service.
On gender whilst 42% of current Senior Civil Servants are
women, in 2017, 49% of all new recruits into
the SCS were women. The
proportion of women at Senior Civil Service level (42%)
is now greater than the representation of female
executives and Board Directors in FTSE 100 companies
(26%).
The proportion of ethnic minority civil servants has
increased rapidly from 9.4% in 2012 to 11.2% today, and
representation of disabled people within the Civil
Service has increased every year since 2010, from 7.6% to
9.9% in 2017. Only 4.6% of Senior Civil Servants are from
ethnic minority communities, however, and only 3.3%
report having a disability, so there is more to be done.
Speaking today at the launch of the strategy, , Minister for
Government Resilience and Efficiency, said:
The Civil Service leads the way on diversity in many
ways. The gender pay gap is lower than in the private
sector, we have significantly increased our
representation of minority groups at every level, and
our award winning Fast Stream programme is now broadly
representative of the wider population in terms of
diversity characteristics and social background. We are
committed to driving this further, however, and I am
proud that we are putting inclusion at the forefront of
our agenda and for the Civil Service to act as a
leading light for other organisations across the UK.
Cabinet Secretary said:
In order to serve the country to the best of its
ability, the Civil Service must ensure that it reflects
the diversity of the UK. Having a diverse workforce is
not enough though, if it is to be truly brilliant, the
Civil Service must strive to be inclusive and must
create an environment where differences of thought and
outlook are not only respected, but expected.
Although progress has been considerable over the past few
years, today’s strategy highlights how we must go
further. Our ambition to become the most inclusive
employer by 2020 is testament to our commitment to
diversity and inclusion and to making the best use of
talent that exists in all parts of society.
John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service and
Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary, added:
There are many studies and reports that evidence that
diverse and inclusive organisations perform better and
have happier people. The Civil Service, in order to
ensure that it delivers the best quality service to the
taxpayer, has a duty to attract and retain the best
people from all corners of society. Our commitment to
becoming the most inclusive employer in the UK by 2020
should also set an example to other public and private
sector organisations.
