Training and Retaining Public Servants for the Future

Demographic changes with an ageing population and declining birth rates, alongside economic challenges, have implications for the public service labour market. A growing challenge for public institutions is that the public sector is no longer the employer of choice. The public sector is already facing challenges in recruitment, filling vacancies with competent and talented personnel, and retaining public servants. The UK civil service is also wrestling with how to train and maintain skills within the mid-range officials and one way it has addressed this is to partner with King’s College London and other UK universities to co-develop and co-deliver customised courses. The paradigm shifts in the state from public administration to new public management and new public governance in part underlies this declining interest in public service with the introduction of neo-liberal public sector reforms over the decades, downsizing of the state, relatively lower pay, and various austerity measures. The article revisits these paradigm shifts of the state, providing a review and discussing the impact of these shifts. Furthermore, the article argues for a new paradigm shift. A New Public Service Bargain, which recognizes and values public service because it is the human resource capacity of the state that is key to addressing crises, wicked policy problems and turbulent times.