The British civil service : current issues and future challenges / Janice Morphet.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morphet, Janice, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civil service--Great Britain--History--21st century.

Civil service.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 222 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bristol : Bristol University Press, 2025.

Summary:

Taking account of its evolution in recent decades, this book provides an up-to-date account of the role of the Civil Service in the UK.

Contents:

Front Cover

The British Civil Service: Current Issues and Future Challenges

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

List of abbreviations

Preface

1 Introduction: What is the Civil Service For?

Introduction

The role of the civil service: an international context

How does the civil service relate to the constitution?

Is the senior civil service politically aligned?

Does the civil service have a public service or public value obligation?

What qualifications, skills and training do civil servants have?

Pressures for reform

The civil service in the UK

Is the Senior Civil Service politically aligned?

Conclusions

2 What Kind of Civil Service Do We Have? The Structure of the Home Civil Service in England

How many civil servants?

Tripartite structure of the civil service

Implementing the GPA: competition in central government

The Senior Civil Service

Functional departments

Operational departments

Issues for the civil service as an employer

Recruitment and retention

Training and development

A career for life?

3 How Does the Civil Service Develop Policy?

What is policy?

What stimulates policy development?

International agreements and obligations

Political manifestos

Sofa government

External shocks -. climate and humanitarian catastrophe, economic turbulence, war

Royal Commissions and government committees

His Majesty's Inspectorates and coroners' reports

Domestic events: dangerous dogs, NHS failures

Forthcoming elections -. general and local

Ministerial entrepreneurialism.

Members' ballots and individual campaigns

Donors

Lobbying by think tanks and APPG

Petitions and public demonstrations

Deliberative assemblies

Policy bandwagons

Who makes policy -. ministers or civil servants?

How are policies constructed?

Recycling past approaches with new names

Copying another country -. policy transfer and convergence

Policy communities and networks

Evidence based on pilots or previous policy roll out

4 How Does the Civil Service Administer Policy?

The context for the administration of policy

Administration vs implementation and delivery

Issues to be considered when designing the administration of policy

Demand management

Competing policies

Regulation

Redistribution

Short or long term

Determining the mechanism for delivery

King's speech

Machinery of Government

Spending reviews

Agents of delivery

Territorial scales of government

Agencies

Outsourcing

5 Relationships with Ministers

The view of civil servants by ministers

The view of ministers by civil servants

Has the civil service become more politicised?

Unwelcome intermediaries

Wider external recruitment

Special advisers (SpADs)

Events

Whistleblowing

Partygate

6 Devolution and the Role of Civil Service in the Union

What is the case for devolution of decision making?

Relationships between Whitehall, Scotland and Wales before 1999

Policy differentiation after the Devolution Settlement 1999-2010

Recentralising the state and muscular unionism after 2010

Civil servants in the DAs

Devolution in England

The future role of the civil service in drawing together the Union

7 Policy Formation after Brexit

Introduction.

The role of the EU in shaping UK domestic policy 1972-2020

International sources of UK government policy post-Brexit

Treaties and obligations

Influencers and policy diffusion

What was the role of the civil service in developing policy and administration when the UK was in the EU?

The challenges after Brexit

Political

Trust

What are the policy implementation challenges post-.Brexit?

8 Civil Service: Weaknesses and Failures

The context for decision making

What is the role of civil service in the failure to successfully administer government policy?

Policy design

Managing ministers

Lack of Parliamentary oversight

Relationships with contractors

Low status of contract management leading to perverse incentives

Failure to act on the use of powers held by government-owned bodies

International and domestic rules don't apply to us

Failure to keep regulation up to date

Short termism and the power of 'now'

Underpowered policy -. competition between departments

Corruption

9 How Does the Civil Service Survive Change? The Persistence of Power

The Westminster Model

Multiple Government reforms but no change?

The UK civil service as a persistent political elite

Methods of maintaining power: operating the Core Executive

HM Treasury

Cabinet Office

No 10 Downing Street

Methods of maintaining power: recruitment and promotion

Internal recruitment and promotion

Manage external appointees both in and out of the job

Maintaining power: creating a lattice of leverage

Over recruitment

Revolving doors

Public appointments

Honours

Managing outside Whitehall

Gaslighting

Hiding in plain sight

10 The Civil Service -. Forwards or Back?

What is the need for change?.

Can the WM accommodate devolution?

Can the WM accommodate SpADs?

What will be the long-.term consequences for the civil service of Brexit?

How can the civil service be focused on administration within the contractual state?

What are the possible tools for change?

Civil servants accepting the need for change in the civil service

References

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 12 Sep 2025).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-5292-3495-6

1-5292-3494-8

OCLC:

1520913448