Civil Service Training and Development

Thursday 13th October 2011 Written Statements

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

I am today announcing further steps in reforms to make civil service training more modern, efficient and cost-effective.

For too long we have relied on expensive residential and classroom-based training, duplicating effort across Departments. The new Civil Service Learning will focus on work-based approaches including e-learning and will directly involve managers in the training process.

The reforms in training will save around £90 million per year and at the same time improve the quality and impact of training. It will also create greater flexibility by sourcing much of the training from external providers including small and medium-sized enterprises.

As part of these reforms, the National School of Government will close on 31 March 2012. Until then the school will remain open for business and provide a range of products to support Civil Service Learning.

The changes will:

ensure that we get the best value when we buy training through improved procurement—moving away from Department-based procurement to a civil service-wide approach leveraging economies of scale;

ensure consistency in civil service skills development and enable better evaluation and control of training effectiveness and value for money;

ensure civil service training is delivered in line with modern practice in other organisations, move away from expensive residential and classroom-based training and focus more on work-based and supported online learning;

ensure that by 1 April 2012, all Government training and development spend will be channelled through one operator—CSL.