I was startled this morning when I read a Civil Service World report that there are now 7,385 Senior Civil Servants. The last figure that impinged on my consciousness was around 4,000, so I thought that CSW might have made a mistake. But … No! There were 3,770 SCS in 2000 and there were 7,385 last March. This chart summarises the figures:
Much of the increase has taken place since 2016. (I wonder what happened then?) But there must also have been a fair amount of grade inflation, as discussed in my previous newsletter and for the reasons nicely summarised in this chart.
One consequence has been a significant increase in the percentage of civil servants who are in the SCS. It is now around 1.4%, around double the equivalent figure in 2000.
Note:- The proportionate increase in full time equivalent numbers will be a little less than is shown in the above charts as there are now rather more part-time employees at this level - 130 in 2000, 865 in 2023.
Martin Stanley
It would be interesting to dig deeper into this startling increase. Grade inflation may partly be a product of competition for skills, internal and external. I wonder if it may also in part be connected to the tendency of Ministers to be more skeptical of the expertise and qualifications of their officials and critical of the advice they receive? A growth in demand for professional specialists might be involved too, as well as increases in frontline operational teams pushing up through the layers?