Thank you for inviting me to join you today to speak about Modernising Government and the Partnership Agreement between the Cabinet Office and the Civil Service trade unions.

If there’s one thing we can all agree on in this room, from wherever we come from, it’s that being a public servant can be difficult – but that it’s also very rewarding work.

At least, that’s what I keep telling officials in the Cabinet Office.

It sometimes seems that we are either too close to the action to see how decisions work on the ground….

....or so far away from the action that you can’t see how your careful wording is going to change anything!

Our Modernising Government programme presents an opportunity for us all to value public servants and the people we serve.

One of the examples of how services have to change and are changing – for user and provider – is the NHS.

But the NHS is learning from past crises and responding to people’s concerns about service and treatment. And it’s backed with the National Plan and government money.

We have NHS Direct, the 24-hour nurse-staffed help-line, which is telephone and Internet accessible and bringing medical advice straight into your kitchen or your office.

We have walk-in centres – where you literally walk in to see a doctor.

We are piloting booked admissions –outpatient appointments made at your convenience.

Which is great for busy professional unable to escape the office to keep their hospital appointment, or the lone parents who can’t make surgery in the morning because they are taking the kids to school.

These aren’t just modernised public services – they’re responsive services as well.

Making lives better. Run to suit the people who need the service and not just the people who provide it.

We all know that change can be difficult and that everyone can’t have everything they want all the time. Yet if we look back at what the Government has achieved, I don’t think we should be too disappointed.

Some of the changes that have been put in place are of fundamental importance:

• New Deal – national rollout for over 50s, to help about 45,000 people. New Deal has reduced long-term unemployment by 60% and youth unemployment by 70% since May 1997 – nearly 200,000 have got jobs, with 120,000 going into training or voluntary work.

• National Minimum Wage – now at £3.70. Improved earnings for 2m workers – two-thirds of them women, two-thirds of them part-time.

• Working Families Tax Credit: 1.5 million families benefiting. Average £20 per week better off.

• Social Chapter – 3 million more people benefitting from statutory right to 4 weeks’ paid holiday a year.

• Fairness At Work – statutory right to union recognition in workplace comes into force June 2000. Everyone has a seat at the table. Also about helping workers to balance work and home responsibilities (13 weeks’ parental leave).

• Part time Workers Directive: same rates of pay and overtime and (pro-rata) entitlements to pensions, annual leave and parental leave as full-time workers. Benefits 6 million part-timers – 5 million of them women.

We are producing a greater safety-net of rights and entitlements for the vulnerable than has ever existed. And that is going hand-in-hand with new opportunities for people to fulfil their potential through training and family friendly employment.

But we’ve all had to learn that sometimes it’s not easy for a new government to get things going as quickly as you’d like.

Change may come slowly. But when it comes, you – and hundreds of thousands of workers around the country – notice it.

As a government, as a party and as unions, we are no strangers to change.

We have all been driven by the need to involve our members more, to make our working practices more effective and relevant, and to serve the people who need our help.

And we can all learn from each other about how best to improve our game for the future, so that we work together to bring about real and lasting partnership and change.

The unions aren’t – and have never been - just about a narrow debate on pay and conditions: it’s about the culture of the workplace, and about improving the life-chances of all who work there.

It’s about how every member can contribute for the wider good – of the company, of the community, of the country. It’s about how we can all get the most out of life and work.

In the Cabinet Office we’ve recognised that. That’s why we signed a formal Partnership Agreement with the civil service union and the Cabinet Office last month.

It’s a great step forward for all concerned – and one backed by the unions in a ballot of their members by 7:1.

It has grown out of a recognition that we work better when we work together.

We share so many objectives:

• being a good employer;
• making sure that public service is effective and is given the tools it needs for delivering the government’s programme; and
• the importance training and increasing individuals’ skills.

We have some challenging targets to meet – such as doubling the numbers of women and members of the ethnic minorities in senior positions within 5 years.

But I feel strongly that the Government’s got to lead by example. And we will meet those targets more effectively if we are all committed.

The Partnership Agreement takes our relationship onto a mature and responsible footing. It is something where government can lead the way for other employers.

Others have done it as well. There are similar partnerships between the unions and employers like Littlewoods, Tescos and the Legal & General. And the AEEU and Cammell Laird, which has a yard in my own constituency.

Partnership works. Of course, we shouldn’t pretend it will answer all the questions the future holds.

Some have criticised partnership as ‘getting too close to management.’ But it’s silly to say that employers and unions can’t have a common interest in the workforce.

As I said before, that’s the kind of oppositional, narrow debate that doesn’t get us anywhere.

Partnership offers us a more secure and stable platform than there has been for many years. That’s in our interests – but what’s far more important, it’s in the interests of our workforces as well.

Labour in government is delivering on the things that our core supporters want to see. The issues that really matter to people.

But as everyone in this room also knows, there is still a lot more to do. And only a Labour government can do it.

We need to make sure that the public service is a place where people want to work. And where they feel they can make a difference.

This is a reforming government. And when it comes to central government that means modernising the civil service itself.

Part of the Civil Service Reform programme, developed in partnership with the trade unions, aims to ensure that individuals are supported and equipped to face the many new challenges of working life - for example, through life long learning, building up transferable skills or marketable qualifications. One third of the Modernisation Fund is targeted at the development of training.

We have also got to make the civil service part of, not apart from, the society it serves.

That’s why we have appointed a senior adviser on diversity strategy and equal opportunities to drive recruitment and mentoring programmes across the Service, as well as an outreach worker to improve the links with different communities and encourage people to consider a career in the Civil Service.

Modernisation is not a 6-month, 12 month or 18 month project - this is a long-term rolling project.

Putting broad-reaching principles into practice takes time, energy and commitment.

And to be meaningful and lasting, change has to be delivered by Civil Service Departments working in partnership with each other; local authorities; voluntary organisations; private sector employers and the trade unions.

And that means working together.