Alex Thomas
@AlexGAThomas
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Civil service and all things effective government @instituteforgov - ex-Cabinet Office, Defra, Dept of Health civil servant
Joined October 2010
RT @jo3hill: 🧵Always enjoy reading @instituteforgov's Whitehall Monitor. All change in Westminster this year, but in Whitehall? Not so mu….
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RT @instituteforgov: Whitehall Monitor 2025, our annual data-driven stocktake of the civil service, is out today. It examines the civil se….
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RT @instituteforgov: PODCAST 🎙️ Appetite for disruption. @jesstud joins @DrHannahWhite @AlexGAThomas.@tompope0 to discuss Pat McFadden's pu….
instituteforgovernment.org.uk
Jess Studdert, director of New Local, joins us to ask whether Pat McFadden's plan for the civil service is fresh thinking.
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Overall looks like a good move - slimming down & refocusing the Cabinet Office. Chimes with the critique in our Centre Commission - though we’d go further!. The “odds and ends” are v important and must be done well, but separating them out is worth it for a more effective centre.
EXCL: Cabinet Office will cut 400 jobs to achieve savings & streamline dept . Perm sec Cat Little unveiled plans to officials today, incl proposals to hive off some “odds & ends” to separate arm’s length body. This may include security vetting, govt property agency, recruitment.
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I agree with @HenryNewman
To get the civil service back to its 2016 level would require a reduction of 133,000. Instead Labour claim to be contemplating cutting just 10,000 heads. That would maintain 98% of current levels and still be 34% larger than in 2016. 😱
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Cuts will (even should) reduce numbers but crude headcount targets have not worked. I wrote more about how to cut the civil service here.
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Whether the civil service gets smaller or not, the government needs a full workforce strategy - to which they’ve now committed 👍👍👍. And it’s good if ministers seek efficiencies without setting a perverse-incentive-creating headcount target
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Nothing less than the complete rewiring of the British state, in fact.
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JOB ALERT. We have a fantastic researcher role coming up in the @instituteforgov civil service team. If you’re interested please consider applying. It’s a brilliant place to work and to contribute to a vital set of debates
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Thoughts on today’s Pat McFadden speech - @nehal_davison and me.
instituteforgovernment.org.uk
Consistent commitment to change must follow Pat McFadden's speech on civil service reform.
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RT @TheEconomist: Britain’s civil service, which employs half a million people, is both demoralised and in need of radical reform https://t….
economist.com
Keir Starmer gives the new head of the civil service a near-impossible job
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Our @instituteforgov reaction to today’s Plan for Change. A positive development, but challenges ahead on targets/milestones, including about the money. And a shot across the bows for the civil service.
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Not that complicated by the standards of most diagrams in government! (Useful to put them down like this though).
What does Keir Starmer’s plan for government look like?. It’s complicated. There are three foundations, five missions and six milestones. Most of them interlink. I’ve had a shot at putting it down on paper. It’s far from definitive but gives you an idea of where we are
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Entertaining to be quoted in this.
One of the most striking themes in Keir Starmer’s speech today — his frustration with Whitehall . For weeks I’ve been asking Labour people what they make of their time in government and one sentiment comes up again and again:. “Dominic Cummings was right”.
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RT @sammacrory: Ahead of Keir Starmer’s big Plan for Change speech tomorrow, here’s why it gets a cautious welcome from @instituteforgov 👇.
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RT @instituteforgov: Keir Starmer has said that it “will require nothing less than the complete rewiring of the British state to deliver bo….
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New from @NJ_Davies and me in which we feel cautiously optimistic about Starmer’s Plan for Change. If it does what we have long argued & translates manifesto into a governing plan that’s good news. But must avoid misusing targets…& now they have a plan govt must stick to it.
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