The socio-economic background of civil servants needs to change

In a bid to get more working-class young people into the civil service, the government is restricting applications to its existing civil service summer internship programme. The six-to-eight-week paid internship will now only be open to applicants from lower socio-economic backgrounds (SEB) – the first cohort will start next summer.

This is not quite as radical as some commentary would have you believe. Until 2023 the government’s internship scheme was purely a diversity programme – open only to undergraduates with a disability, from lower socio-economic backgrounds or ethnic minorities. For a short spell it was then open to all undergraduates, but will now once again be used as a way to improve access to the fast stream and the civil service from underrepresented groups. The difference is that it will only be class that merits entry on to the scheme.

The civil service has become more diverse in many ways, but socio-economic background isn’t one of them

Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has said that he wants a civil service that “truly reflects the country”. Successive governments have a good story to tell particularly on minority ethnic and disability representation. 2025 saw the proportion of civil servants describing themselves as disabled (17.9%) matching the proportion in the economically active working age population. The percentage of civil servants from minority ethnic backgrounds, who now make up 18% of the workforce, lags the economically active working age population benchmark by just 0.6%.

However these changes have not translated to applicants from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The numbers are not exactly comparable, but the picture is clear, and socio-economic background remains unbalanced across the civil service.

Internships are for outreach, not a free pass to the fast stream

The civil service, despite being one of the UK’s largest employers, is a complicated organisation perceived as having a specific institutional culture. In our recent Institute for Government survey of potential applicants to the fast stream, some from working class backgrounds wrote that they thought that they might be “out of place” or not “fit in” due to their backgrounds.

A targeted – and, importantly, paid – internship helps demystify government and the civil service. It is an opportunity for people to decide whether the civil service is right for them, and to get to know existing civil servants and learn about what they do.

Unlike some internships outside the civil service, this one does not guarantee a job at the end. Individuals will need a positive appraisal from their manager to be fast-tracked past the online selection stages of the Fast Stream. They would then still need to pass the fast stream assessment centre, and, depending on the scheme, a final selection board, before getting a permanent role.

Internships and graduate schemes cannot solve all workforce problems

The internship programme will take 200 people each year. That is 0.04% of the civil service; a drop in the ocean. This scheme is not alone going to radically change the overall make-up of the civil service. To do that the government also needs to tackle recruitment, pay, and culture.

Recruitment into the civil service has many problems, but addressing two of them now would improve SEB intakes. First, the government should scrap success profiles – these are too rigidly applied, and too hard to navigate for those without privileged access to the civil service. The second is the lengthy hiring and vetting process, which in 2022 took an average of 99 days.
Despite a recent uptick in pay, real terms pay at each grade remains below 2010 levels.

If the civil service is to attract the best people from all backgrounds, especially to London and the South East, pay needs to be credible. Introducing an expert pay review body (like the Senior Salaries Review Body) to cover the whole civil service would enable pay decisions to be grounded in the reality of the job market and cost of living.

Finally, just getting a foot in the door will not allow civil servants to progress. It has not done so for civil servants with disabilities or from ethnic minority backgrounds who remain underrepresented at senior levels. The 2021 Navigating the labyrinth report ⁴ Social Mobility Commission, Navigating the labyrinth: socio-economic background and career progression in the Civil Service, 20 May 2021, www.gov.uk/government/publications/navigating-the-labyrinth  from the Social Mobility Commission found “an informal set of rules and norms” exists which gives an advantage to those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. Getting in does not get you up what they called “the velvet drainpipe”.

No internship scheme will change these fundamental structural points which the civil service needs to address. But a targeted intervention like this is worth a go. What matters, though, is whether it works. In the spirit of one of the government’s favourite current phrases, the scheme should be tested, and the civil service should learn from the results. If it works, then all to the good. If it does not, then it should be scrapped and the civil service should try something else.