A major restructuring programme at the Foreign Office is hampering the government’s ability to respond to the conflict in the Middle East, and could undermine its response to future conflicts, critics have claimed.
FCDO 2030, a four-year restructuring project, is expected to result in nearly 2,000 redundancies – about a quarter of the workforce – as the department grapples with modernisation and real-terms funding cuts.
However, several sources told The Observer the ongoing changes are undermining morale and risk damaging the UK’s ability to pre-empt and react to crises.
In recent weeks, the FCDO has closed down four directorates: migration and conflict; security and sanctions; early warning; and women and girls. These have been brought under a single humanitarian banner, which in turn sits within the global issues directorate. Several employees have already left, although the FCDO was unable to confirm precise numbers.
Staffers hoping to keep their jobs have been asked to submit a 500-word essay defending their work. Sources told The Observer this was distracting and demoralising staff at a vital moment in foreign affairs.
One insider said: “They are making the environment so hostile, people are choosing to leave before finding out if they're going to be made redundant or not. The signalling is all wrong. It felt like the FCDO couldn't properly staff the crisis centre [over Iran] but also wants to cut 2,000 jobs.”
Although three regions – Ukraine, Sudan and “Gaza-plus” – have been identified as areas of continued focus, experts said the slimmed-down department risked missing emerging problems.
Another source said the department’s hold on its longstanding combined approach to development, conflict resolution and humanitarian aid was “unravelling”. They said: “Cuts, partnership uncertainty and low morale are contributing, but the deeper issue is a loss of strategic clarity. A once-coherent approach that blended regional, in-country and thematic expertise is being dismantled at precisely the wrong moment.”
Another staffer said: “This approach will inevitably result much more in putting out the fires, rather than trying to stop them from starting… The UK has been relatively good at that in the past decade, 15 years or so, and that is something we should all be watching out for.”
Labour MP Emily Thornberry, chair of the foreign affairs committee, said: “I worry that the Foreign Office restructuring shows signs of shedding large numbers of valuable people who have the sort of experience and contacts that can make all the difference to ambitious British projects, or to whether we succeed in getting other countries to sign up to our agenda on an issue.”
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The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which represents the civil service, is balloting its members at the Foreign Office over industrial action, arguing that the job cuts are undermining the department’s ability to respond to the escalating crisis in the Middle East.
PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “Is this really how the government intends to handle major international emergencies – by cutting jobs and stripping out experience?”
A recent PCS survey found that 69% of members lacked confidence in the impact of the proposed changes while 77% did not believe FCDO leadership could be trusted to present the results of its own consultation exercise in a fair and balanced way.
There are also lingering concerns about overseas aid, after the department narrowly avoided further cuts to expenditure. Last month, the FCDO announced a cut in spending allocations for overseas aid from 0.7% of GNI (gross national income) to 0.3%. The announcement was delayed amid backroom wrangling over further cuts – to the alarm of MPs and those working in international development.
Development minister Jenny Chapman is understood to have personally contacted the PM about Treasury plans to take a further chunk out of the dwindling ODA budget. “She got a clear decision that the cut wasn’t going to happen, which has increased the sense she is one of the team,” said a source.
An FCDO spokesperson insisted the restructuring was allowing greater focus on conflict prevention and resolution, and highlighted the department’s work in Sudan. “This shows what matters... is not what teams are called, but the priorities they are focused on,” they said. “We will continue to ensure our resources and activities are rigorously targeted on the biggest threats and challenges we face around the world, and on delivering growth, stability and security for people back home.”
Photograph by Leon Neal/Getty Images
