Учебнометодическое пособие Петрозаводск 2010 ббк 81. 2Англ удк 811. 11 Г 613 Рецензенты
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b) What are the requirements for entering the civil service? c) Can British civil servants be removed from their posts? d) What is promotion in British civil service based on? e) What is the hierarchy of British civil service? f) Which skills are essential for British civil servants? g) How are successful British civil servants rewarded? When we speak of “the Government” we tend to think of the ministers, who are politicians. But each department has a large staff of professional civil servants who do most of the work of running the department on the minister’s behalf. The Civil Service in the UK is wholly non-political. Those of its members who are in any way concerned with administration are forbidden to be candidates for Parliament or to give public support to any political party, though they may vote at elections. When a new government comes into office, the same civil servants must work for the new ministers, who a few weeks before led the attack on the old ministers’ policies. In the three weeks before a general election, when ministers, as leading party politicians, are away campaigning for their party, the civil servants continue to administer their departments. But they also have to prepare themselves for the possibility of a change of government, so they study the election manifesto of the opposition party, so as to be prepared to advise new ministers on the implementation of their programme if the election results in a change of government. The Civil Service is a life’s career. Most of those who advise ministers have joined the service after taking bachelors’ degrees at universities, at the age of about twenty-two, though some have joined at an earlier age without going to university, and made their way up by promotion. Entry to the Service is controlled by the Civil Service Commission. People who hope to become civil servants must pass through a long selection process, with a series of tests designed to measure their competence and suitability, and many of those who are chosen have been among the most successful students in their university examinations. They are trained at the Civil Service College which provides courses both for newly-appointed officials and for those at later stages of their careers. A civil servant in an established post has almost complete security of tenure, and can in practice only be removed for improper conduct. Promotion is not automatic according to seniority, but selective, and based on the recommendation of superior officers. A civil servant does not necessarily remain in the same department all through a long career. In fact when a department has a vacancy in one of its top posts it is very likely that it will be filled by someone from another department. The chief official of a department is the Permanent Secretary, and below him are under-secretaries, assistant secretaries and others in a hierarchy. The Permanent Secretary is in close touch with the minister, and has the task of issuing directives which will put the minister’s policies into force. Each civil servant must know exactly how far his personal responsibility extends, and what questions he ought to refer to someone higher up. Many people say that Britain is really managed by the Civil Service, and that the ministers, being mere amateurs, just do what the civil servants tell them to do – or find themselves frustrated whenever they try to implement any new ideas. One of the main professional duties of civil servants is to shield their ministers from criticism in the House of Commons. Any innovation is likely to upset some established interest, which can be relied upon to feed some Member of Parliament with material to attack it. Genuine loyalty to the minister in office is the first element in the professionalism of any civil servant, skill in defending departmental positions is the second; and an ability to reconcile the two, even when they conflict, demands intelligence, hard work and flexibility. A successful civil servant is rewarded by high pay, state honours and a right to an inflation-proof pension at sixty. 2) Write a summary of the text in your own words. 3) Read text 5.22 “The Mandarins of Whitehall” and say what else you have learnt about British civil service. 5.21 GRADES IN CIVIL SERVICE IN THE UK 1) Look through the text and make a supposition which category of readers this text will be interesting for. (1) If you are a new recruit, arriving on your first day, you will first meet support (administrative) staff in reception areas delivering papers. They also carry out routine casework and provide direct support for senior staff. They are very important, not only because nothing would function without them, but also because they see more clearly than anyone else what is going on. If you want to know whether a unit is well run, and provides a good service to its customers, you will generally get a better informed, and more honest, answer from support staff. (2) Next up the chain is middle management (or executive grades). They help to formulate and to amend policy. They deal with more difficult casework and help Ministers to respond to letters from the public. A small number of them are in the Fast Stream – serving a three to five year apprenticeship before being promoted to Grade 7 and then into the Senior Civil Service. (3) Titles such as “Grade 7,” or “Principal” are old-fashioned, and have been replaced by a wide range of other titles. There is no common title used across Whitehall, so the old titles live on. The main ones, at Grade 7 and above, are shown in the following table:
(4) What do these senior people do? They help Ministers and other officials to deliver Ministers’ objectives, both by giving advice to Ministers and by implementing Ministers’ decisions. They need to be able to work closely and effectively with Ministers, with other Whitehall civil servants, with the wider civil service, with the private and voluntary sectors and with pressure groups. They operate more like a club than a hierarchical organisation – and that is simultaneously their great strength and their great weakness. (5) The key grade is Grade 7. Grade 7s are expected to know all there is to know about their policy area, and to know all the key players, pressure groups and so on. In a well-run department, you will find that senior officials listen very carefully to their Grade 7s, and tend to operate in a way which supports their Grade 7s, rather than vice versa. (6) People in the Senior Civil Service include employees outside Whitehall, specialists and employees who first worked in other sectors. Indeed, the long-term aim is to have around one-third of the Senior Civil Service recruited from outside the civil service. Jobs in Senior Civil Service vary hugely, but usually include one or more of the following:
(7) The breadth of responsibilities increases with increasing grade. Most departments structure themselves so as to cut out one of these tiers in each management hierarchy. It is worth noting that many senior officials do not necessarily mean more power. They have to rely on others both for information and for delivery, and they are often heavily constrained by political factors, including the independence of each Secretary of State, and hence the independence of each departmental senior management team. (8) Other constraints on senior officials include the need to avoid annoying Ministers, and the club-like nature of senior officialdom. The latter can be a good thing because it encourages senior officials to work collaboratively rather than just for their own Ministers. But the “clubiness” of the Senior Civil Service can also lead to senior officials being over-tactful in their dealings with one another, which can delay change, leads to poor annual appraisals, and creates confused expectations. 2) Which paragraph of the text: a) describes the relations between Grade 7s and senior officials? b) describes the responsibilities of middle management? c) explains the contemporary use of titles in civil service? d) notes that many senior officials in the department do not necessarily mean more power? e) mentions Fast Stream program for civil servants? f) evaluates pros and cons of the club-like nature of senior officialdom? g) says that department’s support staff is very important? h) mentions the long-term aim of the British civil service? 3) Find professionally-relevant terms in the text. Find Russian equivalents to them. 5.22 THE MANDARINS OF WHITEHALL 1) Read the text and answer the questions: a) Are civil servants famous? b) Do civil servants often speak in public? c) Do civil servants in the UK change jobs after the change of government? d) Are British civil servants powerful? e) There are many civil servants in Britain, aren’t there? f) What do British civil servants do? g) What is Whitehall? h) Who are called the “Mandarins of Whitehall”? i) Why is it good to be a civil servant in the UK? j) Why do people dislike British civil servants? k) All civil servants are the most intelligent and best-trained people, aren’t they? 2) Translate the second paragraph of the text and give your opinion on the sentence “Civil servants in the UK stay in the same department for years.” (1) Politicians are famous. Civil servants are not. Politicians talk loudly about everything they have done or are going to do. Civil servants almost never speak in public. Politicians come and go as their parties rise or fall. Civil servants stay in the same department for years. People think that politicians are the men and women with the most power. But civil servants can be just as powerful. (2) The job of the civil service is to carry out the wishes of the government. But in Britain the government changes every three or four years. One government might ask for a big new road to be built. The next government might try to stop it. The civil servants see all the problems and difficulties of introducing new ideas. They often try to compromise. They sometimes try to make the government change its mind, or to delay decisions which they do not like. This can be a good thing. It can stop the country from rushing into hurried changes. It can make sure that governments act sensibly. But it can be a bad thing. It can slow down important reforms. (3) There are many civil servants in Britain. They collect taxes, pay people’s pensions, look after the prisons, and give help to industries and farms. They look after the country’s defence, and organize hospitals, museums, and roads. The cost of this large civil service is very great indeed, and governments are always trying to cut it down. (4) On the whole, civil servants are not very popular with the British people. Some people are jealous of their safe jobs and good pensions. Some also feel that civil servants are too slow to change, and too blind to the needs of ordinary people. The top people in the civil service are sometimes called the “Mandarins of Whitehall” (Whitehall is the street in London where many big government departments are located). But the popular idea of the civil service is not always fair. Some departments have plenty of good ideas and can move fast to carry them out. And the top civil servants are some of the most intelligent and best-trained people in the country. Civil servants can still be proud of the good service they give in many areas of life. After all, without them the country would just come to a stop. 3) Read the text “Vivian Brown: a British Civil Servant” and prove that the main character is a typical British civil servant. 5.23 VIVIAN BROWN: A BRITISH CIVIL SERVANT 1) Read the text and answer the questions: a) Vivian Brown has a very good job, doesn’t he? b) How does he get to work? c) What does he wear at work? d) What does he like about his job? e) Does he have international experience? f) What is his marital status? g) What is an “au pair” girl? In the old days, civil servants wore black “bowler” hats and dark suits, and they carried long umbrellas. But not now. Take Vivian Brown for example. He has a very good job in the Department of Trade and Industry. He has to make important decisions about the future of British businesses. He works with the top men in his Department, and he often has discussions with government ministers. But Vivian Brown (aged thirty-nine) rides a bicycle to work, wearing a pair of jeans. True, he changes into a suit when he arrives at the office. But at about six-thirty, when his day’s work is over, he changes back into his jeans and cycles home again. Vivian Brown could have chosen any kind of job. He did well at school, and very well indeed at Oxford University, where he studied Arabic. But the civil service offered lots of interesting chances. Like many other clever young men and women, Vivian chose to make it his career. When he left Oxford, he took the difficult civil service exams, and passed. For Vivian, the best thing about his job is the variety. He likes changing from one kind of work to another. In the past fifteen years he has worked on Britain’s space programme, and on Concorde, the supersonic aeroplane. He has travelled around Britain, meeting heads of universities, and well-known scientists. He has even travelled abroad. The Department of Trade and Industry lent him to the Foreign Office for three and a half years. During that time he and his family lived in Saudi Arabia. Vivian is not the only successful person in his family. His wife has a very good job, too. She is a doctor in a large hospital, with a special interest in very young babies. She works long hours, and is often away from home at night. So who looks after their two young children? Like many other middle-class parents, the Browns have an “au pair” girl. “Au pair” girls are usually students from European countries who want to live in an English family and learn English. They work for about four or five hours a day, helping in the house or looking after children. In their free time they go to English classes, or go out with friends. At the same time young Matthew and Oliver Brown can practise their French, Dutch or German. It will be very useful when they grow up, and – who knows? – join the civil service. 2) Name the words and expressions that belong to the topic “work.” 3) Describe Vivian Brown’s career path. 5.24 WOMEN IN THE CIVIL SERVICE IN THE UK 1) Agree or disagree with the statements: a) Civil service is not a woman’s career. b) Men dislike working with women in the upper echelons of government. c) Women become self-confident working in men’s society. 2) Read the text and point out the sentences corresponding to its title. Jaqueline Hope-Wallace, who recently turned 100, built a successful career in the civil service at a time when women were a rarity in its upper echelons. She recalls the highlights of forty years in Whitehall. “I was born in 1909, and went to the local school in Wimbledon Common. My father was in the civil service in the Charity Commission. So when I came down from Oxford with a degree in history in 1931, I wasn’t keen on the civil service; it seemed boring. But of course in the early ’30s things were very low. I had friends with very good degrees from Oxford who couldn’t get jobs. One girl who got a first at my college was selling hats at “Harrods” for a year or two before she could get a proper job. So my father said I had better go into the civil service, and I did. I was there for 40 years. I joined the Ministry of Labour, and they sent me out into the provinces. I had to stay in B&Bs in county towns for nearly two years, then I managed to get back to London. Soon after that they set up the National Assistance Board, and I got in there right at the beginning. There was high unemployment at that time, and the unemployed and pensioners received a non-means-tested unemployment benefit. The Board had offices all over the country, and gave benefits to people for whom the basic benefits weren’t sufficient. The ’30s was a very bad period; we all felt certain that there was going to be a war. When the war came the Board got lots of extra jobs. For a short time I was evacuated up to Lancashire while London was being bombed, but it was awful being exiled up there and I got back to London as quickly as I could. I lived in Wimbledon, so I had to get up to London every morning – and that was sometimes difficult, London being in such a state of chaos, but one got used to it. After the war, everybody was hopeful that everything was going to be wonderful and different – but it wasn’t, of course. I got a fellowship to America for six months, where I examined how they dealt with the unemployed and old people, then I stayed at the Board until 1965. I became an Under-Secretary, and looked after the policy side of things. In ’65 I moved to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government to deal with countryside matters – and very soon after that, the Board was folded up. The newspapers wrote that I was the first woman to reach the rank of Under-Secretary – but I don’t think it’s true. When I became an Under-Secretary there were a couple of women who were already Permanent Secretaries, and when I moved to the Ministry, the Permanent Secretary was Dame Evelyn Sharp. It upsets me when they write that. I retired in 1969, though I stayed on various boards: I was on the board of the Corby Development Corporation until 1980. Corby had been a village and it absorbed the people from the North. Like many of these places, the people who lived there originally didn’t like being a new town – but we managed these problems. Life has changed immensely over the years, especially for women. When I used to go to civil service meetings with other departments, I always found myself the only woman at the table. It didn’t bother me at all, though. I quite liked it: being the only woman gave one a little bit of self-esteem. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||