Policy information
Civil Service Renewal
From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
Published on
Last updated on
The Civil Service serves the State and the people of Ireland by carrying out the work of Government and delivering public services efficiently and effectively. There are approximately 40,000 civil servants working in a range of government departments and offices.
The central role of the Civil Service means it is uniquely placed to support the other sectors of the Public Service to achieve their objectives, progress reform and deliver quality outcomes. The Civil Service is committed to ensuring that it has the capacity and capability to support the social and economic development of the country.
Civil Service Renewal 2030 is an ambitious strategy that builds on the strengths of the Civil Service and the achievements under the previous Civil Service Renewal Plan and related reform programmes.
It is underpinned by a commitment to achieve a vision to be ‘An innovative, professional and agile Civil Service that improves the lives of the people of Ireland through excellence in service delivery and strategic policy development’.
It is informed by the findings of the Civil Service Employee Engagement Surveys; learnings from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic; the overall strategic context in which the Civil Service operates and the lessons learned from the organisational capability review programme.
The Strategy has been developed to ensure that the Civil Service can build on its strengths to respond to today’s environment, address future challenges and continue to deliver for the Government and the people. It has three core themes:
• Delivering evidence-informed policy and services
• Harnessing digital technology and embedding innovation and
• Building the Civil Service workforce, workplace and organisation of the future
Civil Service Renewal 2030 was collaboratively developed by a whole-of-government process. A shared responsibility of all civil servants to own the commitments within this Strategy will make our Civil Service Renewal 2030 vision a reality.
The Strategy will be implemented through a series of 3-year Action Plans. The Plans detail the precise goals and initiatives which will progress each of the strategic priorities. Our progress on the commitments within these action plans will be continuously measured, evaluated, and reported on. The first such action plan, Civil Service Renewal 2024 (CSR2024), has been published and will deliver on specific actions over the next three years.
The Civil Service Renewal Programme Management Office in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform co-ordinates and drives the implementation of the Civil Service Renewal 2030 Strategy and the CSR2024 Action Plan.
Details of previous Civil Service Renewal Initiatives can be found here .
The Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Awards were established in 2015 to recognise the achievements of civil servants and to showcase successful projects. It is an annual awards programme that celebrates the work of staff and is an opportunity to highlight innovations in policy and service delivery across the Civil Service where best practice and lessons can be shared for other projects.
The 2021 awards will include 10 categories for nomination that reflects the evolving work of government departments and offices often in the context of a challenging environment. Categories include integrated digital excellence to citizen impact, customer service and citizen-impact and excellence in policy making and implementation. All of the categories in 2021 are open to projects that involve Civil Service and Public Service collaboration.
Further information on the successful projects recognised each year in the Awards is available here .
The third of three Civil Service Employee Engagement Surveys (CSEES) took place in September 2020. It was the most successful CSEES to date with a 65% engagement rate, or 26,822 civil servants taking part. The CSEES is a key action of the Civil Service Renewal Plan and had previously taken place in September 2015 and 2017.
The CSEES is designed to let you have your say in relation to your job, your manager and the leadership of your organisation. The purpose of the CSEES is to measure and evaluate employee engagement, well-being, coping with change and commitment to the organisation.
The spirit of the survey is about employee engagement and making the working lives of civil servants better. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that it was more critical than ever to obtain staff feedback to feed into the future strategic direction of the Civil Service and the next phase of Civil Service Renewal.
In 2020 additional questions were added to the survey as a COVID-19 Remote Working Module to give you the opportunity to provide feedback on how the unprecedented challenges which we are now facing have impacted on your working life.
The Civil Service Management Board (CSMB), which includes all Heads of Government Departments and major Offices, has tasked the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) and the Central Statistics Office (CSO) with administering the survey and processing the results.
Information on all three Employee Engagement Surveys are available here along with additional research which built on these findings.
Work is currently underway to design and prepare the next generation of Civil Service Employee Engagement Surveys.
The 2014 Civil Service Renewal Plan provided for the implementation of a Programme of Organisational Capability Reviews . This was to embed a culture of regular assessments of the capability of each Department to achieve its objectives.
The programme has been underway since 2016, with six reviews completed to date and one more under way. It is overseen by a Sponsoring Group of four Secretaries General who report periodically to the Civil Service Management Board.