Resourcing the Civil Service

The Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) has “not delivered the scale and pace of reform necessary to demonstrate value for money in its workforce and people management”, according to the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO).

Leading and Resourcing the Northern Ireland Civil Service, published by the Audit Office in January 2026, states that, among other challenges, there has been a notable increase in sickness absence rates, with an average of 13.4 days per year lost per staff member in 2024/25. This compares with an average of 12.6 days per staff member in 2018/19 recorded in a preceding Audit Office report in 2020.

Over the same time period, costs associated with sickness absence have increased from £32.9 million to £48.8 million.
The Northern Ireland Civil Service has a total workforce of roughly 24,500. For context, there are around 50,000 employees of the Irish Civil Service, servicing a state which has almost three-times the population.

Despite this, the Audit Office report states that there were nearly 5,500 vacant post declared by the Civil Service on 31 March 2025, and that the inefficiency of the organisation has resulted in a greater reliance on temporary staffing solutions.

Nearly 5,000 agency workers were employed by the Civil Service as of 1 April 2025, which is more than double the number recorded in April 2019.

In addition, more than 3,000 Civil Service staff were temporarily promoted, which represents 13 per cent of the workforce.

The report finds there has been a lack of progress in key strategic areas, such as workforce planning and recruitment. It also outlined concerns over both the reliability of workforce data used to identify resource requirements and the affordability of filling the high volume of posts currently declared as vacant.

In addition, the Audit Office highlights that many previous recommendations on workforce reform are yet to be implemented over five years after the 2020 report, Capacity and Capability in the NICS, as well as a follow-up report by the Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Only five of the 23 recommendations made by the NIAO in 2020 have been fully achieved. Similarly, of the 12 recommendations made by the PAC, just five have been delivered.

The report does identify some improvements, including enhanced governance arrangements with the establishment of a People Committee, a new People Strategy for 2025-30, and the launch of new apprenticeship, student, and work placement programmes.

However, it concludes that without sustained, collective leadership and urgent delivery, the NICS is at continued risk of failing to demonstrate value for money for its pay bill, which exceeded £1.27 billion in 2024/25 (before 2024 and 2025 pay awards).

Recommendations

The Audit Office acknowledges that all outstanding recommendations from the 2020 NIAO report and the 2021 PAC report have been integrated into the Civil Service’s People Strategy 2025-2030. The report calls on Civil Service leadership to deliver all nine key initiatives by 2030, with the roadmap of actions planned within the next two years delivered on schedule.

The report also says that the Civil Service has “a unique opportunity, with the introduction of new technology, to support the reform of its workforce management as set out in its People Strategy”.

“The NICS must ensure that it can demonstrate how it has optimised this significant investment to transform how it manages the capacity and capability of its workforce, delivering value for money across all NICS departments.”

To effectively develop a NICS-wide Strategic Workforce Plan, the report states that each department must commit “sufficient resources and expertise” and deliver the required outputs in time to meet the Integr8 detailed design timeframe.

“In establishing workforce baselines, departments must take this opportunity to improve efficiency and effectiveness by identifying cost inefficiencies, removing redundant activities, and redirecting resources towards improving outcomes and fostering innovation.”

Contextualising that the Civil Service can measure the efficiency and effectiveness of its workforce, the report says: “To maintain public confidence and deliver on government priorities, a highly skilled workforce must be able to demonstrate value for money in its implementation of policies and statutory services.

“Following the development of a strategic workforce plan, we recommend that the NICS establishes data-driven metrics to evaluate performance and outcomes in alignment with its strategic objectives.

“These measures should include clear key performance indicators, benchmarking against best practice, and regular reporting to senior leadership. This monitoring and reporting mechanism should enable the NICS to identify underutilised capacity, optimise resource allocation, and ensure that staff are skilled and performing to maximum strategic effect.”

Comptroller and Auditor General Dorinnia Carville says it is “very disappointing that progress on implementing such reforms has fallen short of expectations arising from previous commitments, and that sickness absence rates remain high”.

“The NICS is such an important workforce for Northern Ireland’s public services and therefore publication of a five-year People Strategy in April 2025 is welcome. Strong, collective leadership and urgent action from the NICS board and senior civil servants will be key in delivering it.

“There is an opportunity now to utilise new technologies to accelerate the scale of transformation needed to improve efficiency and effectiveness and maximise the value for money of the NICS.”