Socialist Party Scotland in PCS

Below a series of articles published in the Socialist this week as events developed

Socialist Party member and Broad Left Network (BLN) chair Marion Lloyd has won 71 nominations from branches to stand for national president of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS).

On 12 March general secretary Fran Heathcote published on the PCS website a totally complacent statement in the face of huge potential attacks on PCS members.

At the same time, Marion Lloyd, NEC member and Broad Left Network-supported candidate for PCS President, publicly warned about the potential enormity of the attacks and called for an emergency NEC. The sitting president Martin Cavanagh responded that he saw “no need”.

But the next day, Heathcote put up a new totally different statement in response to Starmer’s speech, and the original statement has disappeared from the ‘news’ page and can only be found hidden away under the vague title ‘blogs’.

The tone is getting harder – because of the pressure from Marion and the BLN.

Of course stronger words is not the same as a fighting strategy to resist. Our call for an emergency NEC remains.

Marion Lloyd and the Broad Left Network are the real fighters. If they can force a change of tone now, imagine the difference a fighting president will make!

In the national elections, vote Marion Lloyd for PCS president and for the BLN-supported list of fighting candidates for NEC

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Fran Heathcote – BEFORE Marion’s call to stand up to the government

12 March 2025

Update on the government’s Plan for Change

Fran has met with the Cabinet Office and stressed that any changes to the civil service must include agreements with PCS on pay restoration, job security and more flexible ways of working, including maximising access to homeworking.

In December 2024, the prime minister announced Labour’s “Plan for Change”, which set out Labour’s “Milestones for Mission-Led Government”.  This week, alongside the cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, Chris Wormald, he wrote to civil servants, praising them for their dedication and brilliance and inviting them to play their part in a rewiring of the British state to deliver the “Plan For Change”.

The prime minister indicated a desire to create a renewed civil service that is more agile, mission-focused and more productive, freeing staff from shackles of bureaucracy and the frustration of inefficiency, giving them better opportunities to develop their skills in priority areas like digital and leadership.

As part of the sequencing, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, set out to “fundamentally reshape the British state to deliver for working people and their families – with a single-minded focus to drive through the Plan For Change”.

He said that the government would draw a line under the approach taken by governments over the last decade, promising to reject rhetoric attacking brilliant civil servants for the constraints and bureaucracy they have had to work within; and called on civil servants to work together to reshape the state and ensure it is primed to deliver for working people.

However, in doing so, he also set out plans to introduce a new exit process termed “mutually agreed exits” for the civil service, plans to give managers more tools to address substandard performance, weed out underperformance amongst the highest paid civil servants and introducing a new pay-by-results system for them which links their wages to the outcomes they achieve.

Yesterday, I met with the parliamentary secretary for the Cabinet Office, Georgia Gould, and the Cabinet Office permanent secretary, Cat Little, to discuss the announcements.

I impressed upon them that PCS is in favour of a national mission of renewal and changes to the civil service that help it deliver that mission.  However, I made it clear that our members would need assurances on what it means for their futures and their working lives.  I said that this must include agreements with PCS on pay restoration, job security and more flexible ways of working, including maximising access to homeworking.

They assured me that the talks we are currently engaged in on our wide ranging bargaining agenda with the new government would cover all of those issues; and that the government is keen to work with PCS on delivery of its renewal agenda.

There has been a report in The Guardian today claiming that proposals have been drawn up by a Labour think tank which amount to a “chainsaw” being taken to the civil service; and insinuating that this is influencing the government’s thinking.

Happily, this has been rebutted this afternoon by 10 Downing Street, rejecting what they called a “juvenile characterisation” of the government’s plans. They confirmed that the position set out at the weekend is not about slashing the state but is instead about reshaping the state so that it works for working people.

PCS will continue to engage in talks to secure improvements to your working lives and we will keep you fully informed of developments. 

Update on the government’s Plan for Change | Public and Commercial Services Union

Fran Heathcote – AFTER Marion’s call to stand up to the government

13 March 2025

PCS response to PM’s speech on civil service reform

PCS has called for unions to be fully consulted on any proposals for changing the way our members work in response to the prime minister’s speech outlining plans for civil service reform, including greater use of artificial intelligence.

During his speech in Hull this morning, Keir Starmer said he was committed to reforming public services and Science and Technology secretary Peter Kyle warned on Sky News this morning that the headcount of the civil service “will go down” as artificial intelligence is used in government departments to drive improvements. He cited a report his department led, which found there was £45 billion worth of productivity and efficiency savings to be made within government if it embraced AI.

Responding to the prime minister’s “Plan For Change” speech, PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote said: “The prime minister says that he is rewiring the British state to deliver the ‘Plan For Change’.

“A key milestone in that plan is raising living standards in every part of the United Kingdom. Our members have a key role to play in delivering that; and the government needs to ensure their interests are taken into account by providing them with job security and good pay and conditions.

“We agree technology has a part to play in improving public services and enhancing our members’ job satisfaction, but we are also clear that it cannot be used as a blunt instrument to cut jobs.

“Better public services and better front-line delivery will require human beings making empathetic decisions, not automatons incapable of understanding people’s needs.

“Any proposals for changing the way our members work must be done in full consultation with the unions.

“Labour says it is fixing the state so that it works for working people. Civil servants are working people, so this plan must also work for them.”

On 12 March, Marion Lloyd wrote to PCS president, Martin Cavanagh, demanding he urgently convenes a meeting of the union’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to address recent press reports suggesting that thousands of jobs across the civil service are to be cut.

Already staff meetings are taking place posing potential redundancies and anxieties will be high, yet the silence from PCS has been deafening.

Reports of job cuts started to appear in newspapers last year, including one suggesting 10,000 job cuts. However when the left NEC majority referenced this report in January, when emphasising our commitment to campaigning on pay, jobs and pensions, it was dismissed by the General Secretary Fran Heathcote as emanating from a “rogue journalist”.

Now that the wolves have reached our door, it is crucial PCS sends a firm signal to the government that we will resist any attack on our jobs, terms and conditions by taking active steps to build a serious campaign to fight back.

Marion Lloyd wrote to the general secretary and president, on behalf of the left NEC majority:

“You will no doubt have seen press reports in the papers over the weekend and again in the Guardian last night and this morning about plans to cut thousands of civil service jobs.

Meetings are already taking place across different departments setting out what this could mean and clearly anxieties are high. This means that there is truth in the press reports.

Taken together with the reports about the enormous cuts in NHS England again where we have members means there has been no reset by this Government, despite the hopes from some of our members and reps.

We must respond.

I am therefore writing to request an emergency NEC to discuss and agree this. Given the enormity of the potential attacks, I do not believe we can wait until the 17/4.

I hope this request is acted upon – and urgently.”

Meanwhile, on the same day as Marion called for an emergency meeting to face up to the potential attacks, the general secretary published a shockingly complacent response to the government:

“There has been a report in The Guardian today claiming that proposals have been drawn up by a Labour think tank which amount to a ‘chainsaw’ being taken to the civil service; and insinuating that this is influencing the government’s thinking.

“Happily, this has been rebutted this afternoon by 10 Downing Street, rejecting what they called a ‘juvenile characterisation’ of the government’s plans. They confirmed that the position set out at the weekend is not about slashing the state but is instead about reshaping the state so that it works for working people.

Stage set for battle for a fighting PCS union

PCS member in DWP

Socialist Party member and Broad Left Network (BLN) chair Marion Lloyd has won 71 nominations from branches to stand for national president of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS).

Marion is neck and neck with her opponent, the outgoing president Martin Cavanagh. She is heading up a full list of campaigning National Executive Committee (NEC) candidates. This is the chance for PCS members to vote for a serious, fighting and democratic leadership.

On top of the threat to 10,000 jobs, now Starmer’s Labour government threatens “radical reforms” to the civil service, including that it would be “smaller” (ie more job cuts), with staff moved to work outside London. Minister for the Cabinet Office Pat McFadden is likely to attempt to bring in performance-related pay for senior civil servants. We know this will trickle down to extra pressure on our members and is the thin end of the wedge.

All this further stresses the need for a fighting leadership of the PCS, that represents over 190,000 civil servants and outsourced government workers.

The position of president is key, as it is currently being used by the misnamed Left Unity grouping (which stands in PCS elections as part of the Democracy Alliance), to block the democratically elected majority of the union’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

Socialist Party members are part of the BLN, which is working with a broad range of reps from across the union to push for a fighting campaign on pay, jobs and working conditions. This coalition of the BLN and others won a 19-16 majority on the NEC in the 2024 elections, when members ousted Left Unity/Democracy Alliance from their majority. But we have been blocked in implementing any major policies due to rulings of the national president Martin Cavanagh, who is a member of Left Unity.

Leadership needed

In the March NEC meeting, general secretary Fran Heathcote, also a Left Unity member, reported back on discussions with the Cabinet Office. There were no significant steps forward but she proposed no plans to build a serious campaign to combat not just future attacks on our members, but also the currently tabled job cuts in various government departments, including the Ministry of Defence, and the ongoing dispute between outsourced staff and their private employers (despite the promise by this government to be the most insourcing government in a generation).

Left Unity/Democracy Alliance will not provide the leadership we need. In the 2023 strike wave, when the Tories offered a paltry non-consolidated, taxed £1,500 payment, the Left Unity/Democracy Alliance leadership called off all strikes, cancelled reballots and cancelled the strike levy that funded targeted action.

This year, they have not taken a step forward to build the campaign needed. The BLN has pushed every step of the way to begin the fight on pay, pensions, jobs, hybrid working, and at each step they have been blocked by Cavanagh and Heathcote, with the support of the Left Unity/Democracy Alliance minority on the executive.

The choice in this election is between two groups: one that wants to mobilise the membership to win, and one that has shown it does not.

Vote Marion Lloyd for president, and vote for BLN-supported candidates in the NEC and group executive elections!

• PCS national elections take place 16 April – 9 May by postal ballot
• PCS group elections take place 24 April – 13 May by electronic ballot