Antonia Romeo now needs reforms to match her rhetoric

Antonia Romeo used a lecture at the LSE to set the scene for radical change in the civil service, rightly arguing that the confluence of challenges facing the state means incremental change is not enough. It was a compelling argument, but her civil service reform programme has not yet shown that the system is braced for serious change.  

It is right to dial up the rhetoric on state reform

The cabinet secretary correctly describes the civil service as on a “burning platform”. Part of that is the confluence of factors Romeo identified: AI will shift how people interact with the state; complex global threats will demand more of government; the productivity story reflects the inflexible bureaucracy civil servants regularly describe to us – and a state that has failed to adapt to the challenges it faces.  

Her focus on trust being essential for the civil service’s legitimacy was particularly welcome, with recent Institute for Government research highlighting systemic long-term problems with ministerial trust in the civil service. While sketch-writers might raise an eyebrow at the prime minister sitting in the front row during Romeo’s speech, it was a very good sign indeed that Andy Burnham and first secretary of state Lou Haigh were deliberately present; rebuilding that relationship is a team effort.

The “burning platform” is also a good storytelling device. Romeo is the leader of half a million people, who have grown used to reform efforts being promised and failing to take hold. Not surprisingly, inertia prevails – and Romeo is trying to shock the system into changing at the scale and pace now urgently required.

Romeo’s focus on changing the incentives for civil servants is refreshing

Much of what the cabinet secretary described was in line with the Institute’s recommendations. A promise to shift incentives so that civil servants do not have to move jobs to get a pay rise, or are constrained to a career only inside the service, are some of our longstanding recommendations. These are exactly the type of system-wide fixes needed for the workforce. As is tackling poor performance, another Institute hobby horse.

Some reforms are already in train. The new Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet (another piece of IfG advice) is welcome – although it now needs to show it that the change is more than a rebranding exercise. Recent changes to senior officials’ pay, linking to performance, is the right step but only a small move towards reforming the mess of civil service pay structures.  

Romeo is rightly cautious in some areas. She was at pains to emphasise repeatedly that civil servants work for ministers and have no agenda other than that of the elected government. She could not get ahead of the publication of the 10-year plan or rewiring the state white paper. She acknowledged the risks around uncritical AI adoption and automation and is treading the right path between innovation and needing to earn and hold public trust.  

But the brakes need to come off the rest of the programme.

Don’t set the platform on fire if you’re not prepared to jump

The frustration of Romeo’s speech was not in what she said, but in what she did not. For example, Romeo rightly promised “decisive action” on poor performance. The same promise previously made by Darren Jones in January, by Pat McFadden six months before that, and by Francis Maude more than a decade previously. And yet the civil service remains in a cycle of losing ministerial trust when the same poor performers bounce around different parts of Whitehall. The public, repeatedly, feel the consequences.

Romeo’s review into the civil service – kicked off in July 2026 – will now not report to the prime minister until summer 2027. Even for the most enthusiastic of civil service reform watchers, it is hard to suspend disbelief for quite so long. Romeo knows this. It came up repeatedly in the post-speech Q&A – that this cannot be all talk, and to get the cultural shift the civil service needs requires people to believe that change will come.

Romeo needs some quick, big wins to show that this is real. Compulsory exit rounds for poor performers and performance-related pay to be in place for the next financial year would shift the dial, but there are other routes too.  

If not, belief in the cabinet secretary’s plans for change will fade. Her "burning platform" warning was the right one, but it also leaves Romeo playing with fire. The civil service needs action, not just words, speeches or reports, important as those can be. The trust of her workforce, ministers, and the public depends on it.