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Departmental report

Change in the FCO

The FCO’s role is to pursue the UK Government’s international agenda and deliver services to British citizens. The point of the FCO’s change programme is to make the organisation better at doing this in the 21st century. This section sets out in more detail the FCO’s individual change programmes, but in summary the FCO is modernising in five big areas:

  • what we do: clearly defining our role to deliver better for the Government and the British people at home and abroad
  • who we are: strengthening our people and their skills
  • where we operate: putting our posts and people where our biggest priorities now lie
  • how we work: improving our day-to-day operations and our management of resources and
  • how we change: establishing a culture of ideas and new methods, and trying anticipate the future so that we are ready to adapt as necessary.

Managing change

The FCO has strengthened its change management structure by appointing James Bevan as Director General, Change and Delivery. He is responsible for the successful delivery of the FCO’s overall change programme. The Director for Change, Louise Boyle, has also been appointed to lead a new Change Unit, which co-ordinates and supports the delivery of the FCO’s change programmes.

We have now set up a Change Committee, chaired by James Bevan. The Committee aims to create a ‘joined-up’ and logical structure to the FCO’s change programmes so that they are delivered quickly and effectively. The FCO High-level Change Plan provides staff with an easy to understand summary of the FCO’s main change programmes.

Capability Review

The Capability Review of the FCO was published in March 2007. It identified many positive aspects of the FCO’s performance and recommended improvement in four areas:

  • the FCO’s distinctive contribution to delivering the UK’s objectives overseas
  • strengthening our change management
  • business planning processes to underpin performance measures and resource allocation and
  • developing human resources as a strategic management function.

The FCO has worked to address these areas. In October 2007 the FCO Board met the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell, and members of the Capability Review Team to review progress.

The overall outcome was positive. The Cabinet Secretary, Gus O’Donnell, and the other reviewers welcomed the significant progress we were making in three of the key action areas:

  • the FCO’s distinctive contribution to delivering the UK’s objectives overseas
  • strengthening our change management and
  • business planning processes to underpin performance measures and resource allocation.

They pressed for the FCO to pay further attention to developing human resources as a strategic management function. In December 2007 the FCO produced its first strategic workforce plan, which was intended to improve our human resources functions as recommended by the Capability Review Team.