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Social impacts

Part I of the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate, due to be published in 2003-04, will explore Government's role as an employer and its impact on the local community in which it operates.

Terms of employment have always been a major component of the work of personnel officers and the Civil Service has a long tradition of reporting employment statistics. More recently, human resource directorates have embraced a wider agenda, encompassing government policies in particular relating to diversity and equality, to recruitment practice, and to training and development of their staff. It is only relatively recently, however, that a link has begun to be established between human resources policy and practice, and sustainable development.

Last year, in moving from environmental reporting towards more comprehensive sustainable development reporting, Departments were asked to report for the first time in a sustainable development context on the social impacts of their Estates. This resulted in a snap shot of Government social reporting. This year, more data on staff issues and on interface with communities were collected and the returns are not directly comparable to those in the previous reporting period. The question areas are still highly selective: they do not cover information which is coordinated centrally for the Civil Service, principally in the Civil Service Statistics, nor do they address the social impacts of departmental policies.

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Government as an employer

16 out of 20 Departments^[1] are currently accredited with Investors in People (IiP) status; three Departments are applying for accreditation. Only ODPM does not have and is not applying for IiP. Cabinet Office Statistics show that 92 per cent of civil servants are covered by IiP accreditation (98 per cent including military), compared to the national figure of 35 per cent.

Most Departments carry out staff surveys on a regular basis but not annually. Ten Departments have carried out a staff survey in the last year. An important part of using staff surveys, is to relay the findings back to staff and to take action on the issues raised. All Departments do this, often via the departmental intranet system or in the staff magazine. Some Departments took a more proactive approach: IR involved Trade Unions in a working group, and Defra required all directors to report to Management Board on local issues.

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Government in the community

Last year's SDiG Report included some case studies on how Departments liaise with their local communities. This year Departments were asked to provide information on their policy towards volunteering.

Ten Departments have published volunteering strategies (see text box); eight Departments are developing strategies. Staff involved in voluntary projects are supported through special leave arrangements and other departmental policies, for example, eight departments (DfES, DfID, DTI, DWP, HO, LOD (CPS only), MoD and ONS) build volunteering and self-development projects into individual staff development plans. There is positive Ministerial and senior level support for staff volunteering in some Departments.

Some Departments (including DCMS, DfES, DfID, FCO, HO, LOD and MoD) have explored ways in which staff volunteering could be linked to their service delivery.

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Home Office: Active Community Unit and Volunteering Strategies

Home Office's Active Community Unit is responsible for the achievement of the Government's target of increasing voluntary and community sector activity, including increasing community participation, by five per cent by 2006. The Framework covers over 650,000 staff (one per cent of the UK workforce, including military personnel), so promoting more staff volunteering lends support to this ambitious national target.

The Home Office recently launched its "Out of Office Experience" project, supported by both the Home Secretary and the Group Executive Board. This offers staff a chance to meet up with people who work in its frontline services and in voluntary and community groups. It provides staff with an opportunity to understand better the difficulties of working and delivering on the front line, and to see at first hand how the Department's work affects individuals and society. The project has also been integrated into the staff Performance, Appraisal and Development Review process, to ensure that experiences are recognised as part of personal development plans.

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1: FCO accreditation is for London sites only. Although LOD's Treasury Solicitors and LSO are accredited, application is currently in progress for the CPS.

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Departmental Data

For more detail on the how specific Departments within the UK Government are achieveing these targets, please access our Search Departmental Data section.

Report 2003

Updated: 07 March 2005