UK to create new ‘school of government’ to train senior civil servants | Civil service

Ministers will open a new “government school” for senior civil servants to be trained in artificial intelligence and other skills; More than a decade after David Cameron sacked the previous university for Whitehall.

The Prime Minister’s principal secretary, Darren Jones, will announce the new body on Tuesday in a speech laying out the government’s plans to “reframe” the civil service for modern times.

Cameron’s decision to close the previous national government school at Sunningdale was widely viewed as a mistake due to increased fees for external service providers.

Ahead of the speech, Jones said he was committed to “working with the civil service to change the system, drive innovation and build in-house government capacity to get things done”.

The programme, which aims to improve the training of senior civil servants, will include knowledge on economics, finance, politics, leadership and management, business, artificial intelligence, data and digital, program and project management and delivery.

The school will open later this year and reach full capacity within the next three years.

“By bringing in-house, high-quality education and training for public servants, the School of Government and Public Service will help support our goal of a world-class professional civil service,” Jones said.

“I am also determined to support civil servants with training as the use of artificial intelligence becomes widespread in the public sector in the coming years,” he said.

“I want to work with the civil service to change the system, drive innovation and build in-house government capacity to get things done.”

His speech on Tuesday, promising to “act fast, get things right”, will build on existing plans to halve the government’s spending on external consultants and cut departmental administrative costs by 16% over the next five years, saving £2bn a year by 2030. In an interview with the Times last week, Jones also suggested he would increase performance-related pay and that more officers would be “shown the door” even if they don’t meet standards.

The original vehicle of Whitehall education was, for decades, the civil service college; This college was dissolved in 1995 by then Cabinet Minister Stephen Dorrell, who decided it was not fit for purpose and should close. Its successor, the National School of Government, was closed under Cameron and his efficiency chief Francis Maude, at a time when civil servants were called “enemies of enterprise”. It was replaced by a national public service learning program without its own campus.

Keir Starmer’s government has launched its own efficiency drive; The prime minister controversially said many in Whitehall were happy with the “warm bath of managed recession”.

Last week, health secretary Wes Streeting criticized the centre-left for a “culture of excuses” that blames Whitehall officials and interest groups for slow change in the UK.

But Jones, the Prime Minister’s principal secretary, told the same Institute of Government conference that plans to reform Whitehall were about improving the system rather than civil servants.

He said: “Civil servants are as frustrated as we are… but over the years we have been faced with a system that does not enable them to do their job the way the politicians want. The problem is… over time it has become bloated and as a result we have too much internal debate about permits, powers and risk-taking and we are not doing enough.”

“I’m not going to criticize civil servants and I’m not going to criticize ministries because ultimately it’s up to ministers to reshape this the way they want. Digital identity will be part of that.”