On coming into office in summer 2019, the prime minister and his cabinet quickly put civil service reform near the top of their priority list. They saw enhancing the civil service as the first stage in delivering other objectives. Ministers are right to focus on this issue; identifying, attracting, developing and deploying the right civil service skills will be critical to the success of this government and its successors.

This paper examines the skills that the civil service has and those it needs to meet the demands of government in the coming years. It considers how the civil service workforce is managed and reviews progress made in recent years. The report also offers suggestions for what the government should prioritise as it works to improve the skills of its staff.