Minister Donohoe Launches People Strategy 2017-2020 and Senior Public Service Leadership Development Strategy 2017-2020

19th October, 2017

The Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD, today (Thursday) launched the People Strategy 2017-2020 and the Senior Public Service Leadership Development Strategy 2017-2020, in the Aviva Stadium, at the first of what is intended to be an annual People Management Conference for the civil service.

 

The Civil Service People Strategy sets the overarching strategic HR agenda for the civil service to 2020.  The Strategy builds on what has been achieved under the Civil Service Renewal Plan in terms of improving how civil servants work for and engage with the people to whom they deliver services. The fundamental aim of the Strategy is to create the right conditions to improve performance of all civil servants, and to create a high-performing civil service by focusing on four key strategic HR priorities shared by all Departments and Offices:

 

  • Be an employer of choice;
  • Build the workforce of the future; and
  • Build, support and value managers as people developers;

all of which are underpinned by

  • Positioning HR as a strategic driver. 

 

The Senior Public Service Leadership Development Strategy will support the People Strategy through providing a framework, within which initiatives to strengthen high performance, collaboration and continuous personal and professional development across the civil service leadership cohort are delivered.

 

The Conference included sessions on “Excellence through our People” and “Enhancing Leadership Capability” which encapsulate the key aims of the Strategies, and which generated considerable debate among the speakers and attendees.

 

In launching the Strategies, Minister Donohoe said ‘both the People Strategy and the Senior Public Service Leadership Development Strategy are focused on ensuring that the civil service has the capacity and capability to meet the challenges facing us. They are a roadmap which will help us to build on achievements under the Renewal and Reform Programmes and develop a high performing Civil Service that delivers better services for the public.’

 

 

Robert Watt, Secretary-General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, who led the session on “Excellence through our People”, noted that ‘the key resource of the Civil Service is our people. It is vital that all civil servants are supported to perform to the very best of their ability, that we attract people with the skills that we need to meet current and future challenges, who are from diverse backgrounds and with diverse life experiences so that we have a civil service that is sufficiently agile and innovative to effectively serve the State.’

 

For further information on the People Strategy see www.hr.per.gov.ie

For further information on the SPS see www.sps.gov.ie