Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from the Permanent Under Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth
Office
We have just completed our 2008 FCO Stakeholder
Survey. As part of our wider commitment to provide the Committee
with prompt information on management issues, I am forwarding
the results to you.
The survey was conducted in May and June this
year by a specialist research agency. They interviewed senior
representatives from a range of our most influential stakeholders
(Parliament, the media, NGOs, business, think tanks, academics
and faith groups). They were asked how they rated the FCO and
the service we provide. We undertook similar research in 2002
and 2006 and so these results allow us to benchmark our progress.
An additional feature of this year's survey was a parallel exercise
in which we sought the views of our other Departments on the FCO's
Departmental Strategic Objective 1 (DSO1) (providing a global
network for HMG overseas).
The results are encouraging. Overall satisfaction
with FCO staff is high (90%) and stakeholder perception of the
organisation is positive (82%). 88% of stakeholders think the
FCO is important to their own work. When stakeholders were asked
to identify how the FCO had changed for the better of the last
two years, many said it was now more strategically focussed and
placed much greater emphasis on delivery. The FCO is also seen
to be more efficient, makes better use of its resources, and is
more proactive. The research also highlighted some areas we need
to work on. Stakeholders commented on some inconsistency in the
FCO's level of service across our network of overseas posts and
expressed concern that diminishing resources may exacerbate this
issue. There was also concern over rapid turnover of staff, leading
to loss of knowledge and expertise. Another common theme was frustration
over a lack of a clear directory on who to contact in the FCO.
I am already addressing these concerns.
We intend to survey Government Departments again
next year to help us chart how this key relationship is developing.
We will run the full stakeholder survey again in two years time.
Sir Peter Ricketts
28 July 2008
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