FDA General Secretary Dave Penman responds to the government’s latest announcement on the reshaping and renewal of the state.

This past weekend, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, made a series of announcements to the media regarding the civil service.

His announcements – on performance management, fast track exits for poor performers, and a link between performance and pay – were made by way of a press release to journalists late on Friday – in advance of the ministerial broadcast round on Sunday.

We were given no advance notice of these announcements or details beyond what you will have read in the press. We spent Saturday morning trying to discover more detail and were left to respond publicly to an announcement that had already been trailed. Inevitably that response was robust.

I am frankly dismayed that the government, now eight months into power would treat their civil servants in this way. All civil servants know that governing is tough, and ministers have to inhabit a world of febrile politics. But when politicians become ministers, they also take on a responsibility of leadership for more than half a million dedicated public servants in the civil service. This government would expect any major employer to consult unions and staff before making major announcements in the press. They need to hold themselves to these standards as well.

It is all the more galling as we have been trying to get the new government to engage in a partnership to help us work with them in addressing the many challenges the civil service faces. The FDA prides itself in dealing with difficult issues, often unpalatable to members, because of course every government will propose unpalatable things for civil servants.

The FDA, like the civil service itself, is not afraid of reform, but reform has to have substance. The government is facing tough choices. It has to match an ambitious agenda with limited resources and that of course means that the civil service must change how it operates. Driving change in any organisation is difficult, but it is made all the more difficult if it is something that is being done to, rather than with, the very people the government is asking to help deliver their agenda.

We have always approached these difficult issues by rolling up our sleeves, getting embroiled in the detail and seeking to influence. That approach to engagement and partnership only works if the employer is prepared to reciprocate. On performance management and pay we have a unique and valuable insight that we can bring to the table. That’s what good, pragmatic unions do.

After his ill-judged comments in December on the “tepid bath of managed decline” the Prime Minister responded to my letter to say that “government must deliver better for the people we both serve and ministers and civil servants should work in a partnership that is based on trust.”

At the weekend I made these points to the government. We know they’ve got a tough job, every civil servant does, but dealing with tough issues doesn’t have to look like this.