Politics Home Article | Government To Overhaul Civil Service Recruitment

The use of success profiles will be scrapped under changes to civil service recruitment (Alamy)

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PoliticsHome understands that there will be a new model introduced that “emphasises skills and expertise”. 

The expectation is that the move will more closely align civil service recruitment with the private sector and bring in more talent, PoliticsHome understands.

Currently, the civil service recruits using so-called “success profiles”, made up of “ability”, “technical”, “behaviours”, “strengths”, and “experience”. The civil service also has a set of defined “behaviours”, which “when demonstrated, are associated with job success”.

In an email to staff on Friday, Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo said: “We are going to start by scrapping success profiles, instead introducing a new model that emphasises skills and expertise – and will make further changes over the coming months.”

Romeo also said “to deliver for the public, my focus – and that of your Permanent Secretaries – has been to build a world-class civil service that is fit for the future.” The head of the civil service also referenced the Review into the organisation, performance and transformation of the permanent civil service”.

“The Review will define a clear vision for the civil service as a world-class organisation, delivering a onece-in-a-generation transformation.”

Romeo was appointed as the new Cabinet Secretary in February and is the first ever woman to hold the role. She replaced Sir Chris Wormald, who was awarded a peerage by the outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier this week. 

The civil service’s approach to recruitment has faced criticism in recent years for its rigidity, with the Institute for Government previously recommending the replacement of success profiles in order to test “more robustly whether applicants have the skills they say they do”.

The think tank has also criticised the current approach discouraging external candidates to apply for roles in the civil service.

The Cabinet Office has been contacted for comment.