Gus O'Donnell: lessons from Singapore

The former UK cabinet secretary and head of the civil service on what the UK can learn from Singapore's 'excellent' system
http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/2013/jan/03/gus-odonnell-lessons-fromsingapore?CMP=twt_gu
Thursday 3 January 2013 09.38 GMT

Gus O'Donnell says the UK civil service should follow Singapore's example in some key areas. Photograph: Guardian

Planning for the future, providing competitive rates of pay and encouraging involvement with the private sector are just three of the lessons the UK can learn from Singapore's civil service, according to former cabinet secretary and head of the civil service Gus O'Donnell. Speaking as part of the Global Public Leaders Series, O'Donnell says that when recruiting new talent, salaries that rival those of the private sector are an important incentive for the best and brightest to join. The Singapore civil service, he says, "have a pay policy which means they look at comparability with the private sector". In the UK, on the other hand, "we have very strict limits on [civil service] pay. They are way below the private sector at the top particularly, and therefore can't compete as much." He agrees with head of the Singapore civil service, Peter Ong, who stresses the importance of recruiting talent from the commercial world and allowing civil servants to continue their involvement with the private sector throughout their career. "They take in very, very good people whose qualifications are such that they could make it to the top in the public or private sector, and then they work in both," O'Donnell says. "They allow their public servants to work in the private sector, and they have spells out in the private sector." O'Donnell says that this engagement with the private sector encourages society to hold civil servants in high regard.

"If you just look at things, say, through a financial lens then you miss a really important part of things. We do need different sets of backgrounds, different sets of experiences, that can allow us to look at and imagine very different futures." Gender is another area where O'Donnell says diversity needs to be encouraged. Although he cites Canada, Australia and the UK as positive examples, he adds that Singapore is outstanding in this respect. Finally, O'Donnell says the UK civil service should follow Singapore's lead by becoming more forward-thinking and planning for the future. "There's obviously a thought that thinking the unthinkable is quite dangerous in the UK. Information is all potentially disclosable now, so I think that's potentially embarrassing for governments." He adds that planning for the future has been intermittent for this reason, but says "we shouldn't be embarrassed about it; we should actually be embarrassed about not doing it. The financial crisis has shown us that quite often shocks can come out of the blue, and we need to be ready for them."