THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Sir PATRICK WRIGHT, KCMG, Mr D BLATHERwick, obe, Mr D Moss, CMG, Miss C PESTELL, CMG, Mr G GRIFFITHS AND Mr AR PAUL
3 May 1989]
[Chairman Conid]
it been edged sideways by great interest in business, industry, technical engineering careers and so on? (Sir Patrick Wright) I think the recruitment figures and the figures that the Civil Service Com- mission produce of applicants for the Diplomatic Service and, indeed, analysis of the success rates, show some falling of in recruitment levels, in appli- cation levels, quite a sharp falling off, in the past year from previous years. In fact, I think-Mr Moss may wish to comment on this-that the number of applicants to the Diplomatic Service was something round half last year into the fast stream from previous years. In a sense we do still have a problem of undergraduates thinking-and this is impressionistic, which you asked me to be- that unless they are double firsts from Oxford or Cambridge there is no point in them even applying for the Diplomatic Service. I apologise for an overstatement there, but the figures still show what to me is a disturbingly high percentage of Oxbridge graduates coming into the Diplomatic Service. I have no wish at all to discourage Oxbridge gradu- ates from coming into the Diplomatic Service, but I have a very strong wish to encourage other gra- duates to come in. I see that in 1988 Oxbridge accounted for 78 per cent of the DS 8 7D intake and that is very markedly up from previous years. Therefore, we are trying to address this in our recruitment literature and recruitment drive. To some extent, of course, this bias is self-fufilling. I have made the point before to the Committee that the higher number of Oxbridge graduates that come into the service the more I am afraid others assume that they are not going to be able to come in, but we are trying very hard in recruitment litera- ture to emphasise first that it is not in any sense a closed shop to Oxbridge graduates; and secondly- this is not relevant to the Oxbridge point-nor of course is there any discrimination against women. Indeed, the figures for women's entry have gone up quite encouragingly.
Mr Taylor
88. Do you engage in something called the milk round, which is the description used for businesses that go round universities each autumn trying to persuade people to join them? It seems to me that there is more needed here than just literature.
(Sir Patrick Wright) Indeed, we do, and perhaps I may ask Mr Moss to describe what we do.
(Mr Moss) Not only do we send people round in the autumn, Mr Chairman, but we send people round during the whole of the academic year. How- ever, there is a limit to what can be done in that sense because the number of people we have involved in our recruitment effort is quite small so we occasionally look to others outside the recruit- ment division to go round the universities. We have been doing more over the last two or three years, but still not enough, I think. We still have to do more as the labour market tightens into the 1990s.
Chairman
47
[Continued
89. May we turn to those grades that seem to be particularly affected by resignations in recent years. Can you describe the significance to the smooth functioning of some of these categories which seem to have been hit particularly hard? I am looking, for instance, at technical grade 5 where there was a big blip in 1985, and not so bad recently. I am looking at mainstream and equivalent techni- cal grade 9, which seems to have a persistent, quite high resignation level. Grade 7D is not so hot either, nor is 7E. The one where the big figures are, because you have most people, are the secretarial level where you seem to have armies of secretarial staff pulling out. How does this affect the workings of the office?
(Sir Patrick Wright) It obviously creates con- siderable strains and reduces the margin that we have for deployment of staff on training or on leave The reasons for this degree of wastage or resigna- or people covering for sickness or other absences.
tions I think are complex and varied. I do not think that one can point to any single cause even in any one grade. Pay levels and mobility factors I think are certainly the two biggest reasons why people leave. The wastage in DS 10 in 1988 was the highest it had been for 15 years. That has caused consider. able strain and problems at the administrative level in departments and in posts abroad.
Mr Wells
90. Who are DS 107
(Sir Patrick Wright) At home they would nor- mally be working in registries as clerical officers and abroad similarly in registries or communica- tions work. It is particularly disturbing to note the extent to which we have lost young fast stream officers in the last year when we lost eight in grade 7D and 8 against an average of one or two in previous years. That is obviously a matter of con- siderable concern. I think the reasons-and I will ask Mr Moss or Mr Blatherwick to add to this, if I may-are a non-competitive situation in pay, both in ordinary salary levels and in the sort of facilities offered to young people coming to work in London for the first time compared with the facilities offered in the private sector. I am told that a report on graduate salaries by the Association of Graduate Recruiters reported recently in the Financial Times showed that we offer about 30 per cent less than the average offered to the top 10 per cent of graduates in the private sector, but the facilities for mortgages, housing and other facilities offered in the private sector are also relevant. It is not by any means only pay, though I think that is a consider- able factor. There is a problem which stretches right through the service and which I think is increasingly a reason for people leaving, particu- larly in the middle of their career: that is the virtual inability for both spouses to follow a full-time career. This has both financial and social implica- tions and has led to some of the departures from the Diplomatic Service that one would not see, I think, in the home Civil Service at equivalent grades. It is very difficult to see what solution one
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