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Whitehall needs to improve diversity, National Audit Office says

Thursday, 25 June 2015 11:50 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 25 June 2015 11:51 AM ]

Watchdog urges action on Whitehall diversity

Diversity progress among civil servants has slowed in recent years, as the public spending watchdog urge the government to do more.

The National Audit Office produced a report that shows lack of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people taking on senior jobs at Whitehall. The report even found cases where people are leaving Whitehall as the culture is too exclusive.

The NAO said that the "Talent Action Plan", the brainchild of the Cabinet Office to make the civil service diverse, was "acknowledged that while recruitment statistics show a good mix of people from a range of backgrounds, at senior civil service level, white middle-class males still predominate".

The study also said that female and minority ethnic workers or former workers at Whitehall "feel significantly more engaged than their immediate peers at lower grades, but less so at senior grades" while those workers with long-term health problems felt "less engaged" and "more likely to feel discriminated against, bullied or harassed".

A Cabinet Office spokesman said "we have a world-class civil service which is much more diverse than in the past and more diverse than the majority of British employers, but we know there is lots more work to do."

The report has made clear that the while diversity may be improving across recruitment levels generally there was still a middle class white male culture that dominates senior levels. Women, ethnic minorities, disabled people and those born from a deprived background are all more likely to languish at a junior level, making it harder for them to break the ceiling and get promoted.

The government is insisting that the civil service is diverse, but they also acknowledge that there is much still to do in order to make it fairer at senior levels.

LM/SKL

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