Public sector managers reject policy outsourcing plans

More than eight in 10 (81.6%) are against the move, announced as part of a package of civil service reforms by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude (pictured), according to the survey of more than 500 members of the Guardian Public Leaders Network.

The Government’s Contestable Policy Fund is designed to draw on ‘thinking, evidence and insight’ from beyond Whitehall, allowing ministers to bid for money to commission external organisations to provide policy advice.

One of the first steps was to review the structures and operations of the equivalents to civil servants and special advisers in other countries – including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the USA, France and Sweden. Announcing this review in June, Maude said: “To meet the future challenges of our fast-changing world Britain’s Civil Service will need to continue to change and adapt, and that’s why we are determined to draw on new ideas.

“We are already implementing the reform plan we published two months ago but we are also developing new ideas to form our next steps. For the first time ever ministers are directly commissioning policy advice from outside Whitehall, moving towards our goal of opening up policy making.”

Head of the Civil Service, Sir Bob Kerslake, said: “Open policy making must become the default in Government – Whitehall does not have a monopoly on policy making expertise.”

A previous poll of over 1,000 civil servants by Civil Service World found similar scepticism, with only 8% backing the idea without reservation, and a widespread feeling that ministers would commission advice from think tanks and academics who shared their core political views.

In the new Guardian survey, 65.8% of respondees also rejected the idea of ministers having more responsibility for the hiring of senior civil servants, saying that politicising the selection process would undermine the impartiality and effectiveness of the civil service. Even those who were not completely against the idea said it should only be with tight restrictions, including to limit the practice of senior civil servants moving straight into the private sector with firms working in the same field.

The survey also showed than fewer than one in five public leaders think staff in their own organisation had the right skills and appetite to consider spinning out the services they offer as an employee mutual or co-operative.

More information on the survey can be found here