How Whitehall could make a move in the right direction by having Civil Servants posted in Yorkshire - Jayne Dowle

All day long they spend in their Whitehall, or at least central London, offices talking only to other civil servants, or politicians, or policy specialists.

Their job is to put into place the policies decided by government, offer sage advice to ministers, which is often ignored or over-ridden, and generally keep the wheels of the country turning.

So I was interested to hear that Rishi Sunak, should he become PM, proposes to uproot the men and women in grey suits from their comfortable metropolitan eyries and send them to Yorkshire – or Coventry, or Chorley, or wherever he sticks a pin on the map – for a year.

“The civil service needs a shake-up,” the Richmond MP told The Yorkshire Post. “Too often, it is the case that civil servants join the Civil Service straight from university. By experiencing time in industry, and outside London, they gain invaluable experience that will also help the Government to deliver for the whole country.”

He’s got a point. Currently less than eight per cent of the UK’s half a million civil servants work in Yorkshire, compared to a fifth which work in London, according to the most recent Government data.

Considering that with five million people, we’re the biggest county in the UK and almost twice as populous as Wales (with 3.1m), there is clearly room for improvement.

Even more worryingly, only 160 of the 4,160 civil servants attached to the Government’s Levelling Up department are based in the region, less than 4 per cent of the department’s total headcount.

And there is certainly scope for a bit of diversity. The people I know who work in the Civil Service in London are definitely of a type. They were the solid sorts at university, who played rugger (it tended to be a male-dominated career path back then) married early, and are now living in the suburbs, as their adult kids typically repeat the pattern.

Or, interestingly, one or two are former journalists. Tired of the cut and thrust of chasing the front page, they defected to the ‘‘other side’’, perhaps also with an eye on the generous amounts of holiday leave and gold-plated pensions.

I recall Sam Lister, Director General for Strategy and Operations at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for instance, as a bright and affable trainee in The Times newsroom two decades ago; now, after a distinguished career in journalism, he’s a very senior civil servant indeed.

I’m not sure if Sam’s ever been to Sheffield or Leeds, but if he fancies a recce, I’d be happy to show him around.

Seriously though, I do know from talking to civil servants in an informal sense that their view of the world is often so very proscribed.

If they’re coming to Yorkshire, they should know that we do things differently here; men call each other ‘‘love’’ without compunction, pints are served room temperature, taxis can be as rare as camels outside of towns and cities, and public transport? Good luck if you think you’re going to catch a bus on a Sunday.

At the very least, they will learn about public transport I guess.

And about how other people live. Mr Sunak is right to point out that the path from one of the top universities to Whitehall doesn’t allow for much deviation. If he attempts to send the poor loves in batches to Yorkshire however, will this do any good at all?

It could, and it should. However, what these civil servants need to do is to use their time productively and not spend 40-odd weeks of their lives whingeing from the confines of their hotel rooms or serviced apartments. This resentment would just entrench the idea that London and the rest of the country are so different that the gulfs are too wide to breach. Unless it is properly thought out, the plan would widen and deepen the ‘‘them and us’’ mentality. It needs open minds. The good news is, that’s not impossible. I was talking to a retired Army doctor turned GP from Plymouth the other week, who trained in Sheffield in the 1950s. He said he’s travelled the world, but nowhere opened up his eyes like smoky Sheffield on a Saturday night.

However, if institutional change is to be embedded, it can’t be inflicted just from the top down. It needs to come from the bottom up too.

Mr Sunak does hint at also encouraging more applications to the Civil Service via the apprenticeship route, rather than with a traditional degree. This would be a good idea.

He should also look at ways to welcome mid and even late career entrants to the Civil Service too. This, if he really does want to institute regional change, support businesses and bring in “new ideas and perspectives” from those based outside the capital and those from working class backgrounds, could be his best move yet.