Hannah Keenan
LightNews LightNews
banner
hannahkeenan.bsky.social
Hannah Keenan
@hannahkeenan.bsky.social
420 followers 250 following 110 posts
Associate Director at Institute for Government, and former civil servant (cabinet office, dfid). Interested in all things Civil Service. And mountains.
Posts Replies Media Videos
hannahkeenan.bsky.social
^ featuring wise words from my colleague @alexgathomas.bsky.social
September 2, 2025 at 5:42 PM
hannahkeenan.bsky.social
Think 2 big risks in No.10 shake-up are (a) more big figures & no clarity on who does what means duplicative work gumming up the system, and (b) the 'change the way the state works' bit of missions gets totally cannibalised by the 'deliver the plan for change targets' bit of missions.
Screenshot of text that reads: "By any measure, this is a big shake-up. In the PM's words, it is about moving the government into “phase two” and “ramping up the next phase of the government’s domestic agenda”. In more common parlance: it’s about getting stuff done. There are two traps Starmer must navigate through to give this set-up a chance of success: clarity and ambition. First, by not being clear enough on who is responsible for what, especially in terms of delivering on Starmer’s priorities, the new look No 10 is at real risk of compounding some of the issues it seeks to resolve. I currently count at least four people doing this from the centre: Jones in his new role; Clara Swinson (appointed as second permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office last year and head of the Mission Delivery Unit); Pandit, who is reportedly staying on in a “new role leading on policy delivery in No10”; and Pat McFadden, whose responsibilities as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster include “missions” and “supporting the delivery of the government’s priorities”. Add to that the Prime Minister’s private office (and a new PPS in Dan York-Smith who will want to show he ‘gets’ what Starmer is after), and the myriad of others in and around the centre who purport to speak for the Prime Minister, and the picture is looking very busy."
September 2, 2025 at 7:46 AM
hannahkeenan.bsky.social
Proportion of civil servants from low SEB by seniority. It is v striking to me...

1 - how flat the lines are. Almost no change over time?
2 - how perfectly stacked they are. Consistently smaller proportion of low SEB civil servants at each grade.

(stats are from people survey so not perfect)
Line chart from the Institute for Government showing proportion of civil servants from a low socioeconomic background by grade 2021 to 2024. The lines are very flat, trending slightly down. The lowest is SCS at just under 20%, the highest is AO/AA at just over 40%.
August 1, 2025 at 4:28 PM
hannahkeenan.bsky.social
The numbers on socio-economic background of civil servants really don't tell a story of much change over time - v. striking compared to e.g. ethnic minority staff. (plz note different timeframes, but point holds).

Alex's thread has a good breakdown of socio-economic background by grade, and more!
Area chart showing proportion of civil servants from different socioeconomic backgrounds over time from 2019 to 2024. Those from high socioeconomic backgrounds have consistently made up just over 50% of the total workforce. Line graph showing ethnic minority staff in the civil service as a proportion of headctoun between 2002 and 2004. Both whole CS and Senior CS have been increasing steadily. In 2024 Whole CS was almost at the same level as UK population benchmark. The senior CS is consistently around six percentage points lower.
August 1, 2025 at 1:01 PM
hannahkeenan.bsky.social
Given there is less churn between departments this year, it's interesting to see who is moving within the civil service - HMT staff seem to be very appointable what is presumably a competitive field, with most of their leavers staying inside the civil service.
July 30, 2025 at 5:26 PM
hannahkeenan.bsky.social
2025 civil service turnover falls because fewer internal transfers. If really less churn then great. But...pressure to cut headcount can mean broad recruitment freezes (bad!) and managers forced to look within the dept first to fill roles - we don't see that churn (inside a dept) in the stats.
July 30, 2025 at 5:26 PM
hannahkeenan.bsky.social
Outstanding translation from the LRB.
Picture of text from LRB reads 'describes the monetarist experiment as "one of the most unsatisfactory episodes of policy making of modern times". This is civil servant for "it was a shitshow".'
May 24, 2025 at 4:58 PM
hannahkeenan.bsky.social
7 - Grade structure in CS has become more senior since 2010. Some of that may be grade inflation. This, and CS growth, explains why the overall pay bill is about back to 2010 levels, while each person is being paid less in real terms. Absent the grade shift, total bill would be lower.
An Institute for Government line chart, showing the total spent on civil service pay between 2010 and 2024. The chart shows how high spending on pay would be in each year under different scenarios, showing that the change in grade structure of the civil service since 2010 is costing more money.
May 23, 2025 at 12:36 PM
hannahkeenan.bsky.social
6 - Depts have flexibility in how they award that across grades. Junior staff have seen bigger awards in the past (e.g. 23/24 remit gave another 0.5% to be targeted at lower pay bands). Overall civil service pay in 2024 was almost back to 2010 levels, but each grade was being paid less in real terms
An Institute for Government line chart, showing that real-terms pay for civil servants has fallen substantially at each individual grade since 2010 - from an 8% fall at AO/AA level to 24% at SCS level. But overall real-terms median civil service pay in 2024 remains roughly the same as in 2010, because of 'grade inflation'.
May 23, 2025 at 12:36 PM
hannahkeenan.bsky.social
@alaintolhurst.bsky.social mentions on the podcast an IfG graph on headcount numbers - my wonderful colleague @teodorgrama.bsky.social updated this yesterday and you can see our explainer here www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/ci...
March 21, 2025 at 12:45 PM