Civil Service Fast Stream

[Jakolantern]

Has anyone got any experience or advice about applying for this? My son has just graduated from a prestigious university and is going back to do a masters next year. He is planning to apply to the civil service fast stream in October and is very motivated and excited by this prospect. He is highly intelligent, with excellent grades and good work experience and is a hardworking, very likeable young man who is committed to the idea of using his life to provide public service. He is not motivated by money, he just wants to be of benefit of others, but he does need to earn enough money to live obviously. I know he would be an asset to the civil service but as a white, middle class man with a humanities degree I feel as though the odds are stacked against him before he even applies. I haven’t mentioned this to him, of course, and I am just a passive spectator to his life now really, but if there was any help or advice I could give him it would be much appreciated.

Id continue to show interest but I’m not sure there’s much you can do. When I did it years ago I flunked the interview big time. So if he doesn’t have a subscription to a serious news periodical (the Economist?) then maybe get him one of those, and try to argue with him about politics, get him to articulate his views to you.

Im just leaving the comments about his personal characteristics out as there’s nothing anyone can do about that and I’m more than a bit tired of these comments about the poor oppressed middle class white guys.

Why would a white middle class man have the odds stacked against him? The CS is full of senior officials who are white, middle class men. The recruitment will be blind until the interviews anyway. He can join non fast stream and it’s perfectly do-able to go up the grades pretty quickly.

There is a news article on the Civil Service internships today on BBC website that people from working class families will be prioritised. No idea if this affects your son, just really drawing your attention to it.

you have to be prepared to work anywhere. DS didn’t get on the fast stream (he was already working for the Civil Service) because he said he didn’t want to work for the MoD.

Why is he applying for the fast stream if he’s going back to Uni to do a masters?

Ds did it and got pooled at the end but as above limited himself by wanting not to work in London. He was not offered anything in the end after months of waiting and chasing. It was a very long process but the experience is worth it as the interview process is so varied.

Well, given that the Labour government have just announced that only “working class” children will be allowed to have Civil Service internships because the civil service is too middle class, and that they will then be prioritised for entry to the fast stream, then I would say that yes, applying for a job there now as a white middle class man means you probably will have the odds stacked against you.

A friend of mine applied for the Civil Service fast track, the Foreign Office and the Treasury. Got one of the three. Worth looking at all of them to see if he is interested.

I suspect she's read it.

White, middle class man with a degree, with the odds stacked against him, I ask you 🙄

Oh for Christ sake. I'm a civil servant and I assure you, I work with plenty of white, middle-class men.

When you apply for a civil service job, it's name-blind and they ask you to make sure there are no references to your age, sex, university you studied at etc, to try and eliminate any bias.

There are plenty of resources on civil service website to help him prepare and Reddit has an active civil service forum.

A lot of people apply for fast stream every year so best advice would be not to pin all his hopes to this. Last year only 2% of applicants were successful. Hopefully it goes well for him.

My son is a middle class white man with a double First from Cambridge.
He got into an excellent role in the Civil Service at the first attempt despite the terrible, terrible oppression that he faced.
And despite the fact that Mummy didn't get involved with his application.

I also think that he has a nice personality but others may not agree. And he has nice hair which he washes regularly.

Those kind of schemes are just evening things up. White middle class men generally have plenty of advantages to get themselves ahead. The CS wants to be representative of the communities they serve, and recruiting people from certain sectors of society isn’t easy, as those who have had plenty of educational advantages always pip them to the post. Plenty of middle class men (and women) still join the CS. The fast stream is very competitive, but isn’t the only way to join or become senior. I know someone rejected from the fast stream who made it to G7 ahead of when he would have anyway as a fast streamer.

Because the recruitment takes ages and the security clearance is 4 months or so, so october applicants wouldn't start until after he graduates anyway.

The article states "Currently around a quarter of higher education students are from a lower socio-economic background, but the group represented only 12% of successful applicants to the Fast Stream in 2024."

I'm not statistician, but I think that the odds remain stacked in favour of white, middle class men with degrees from prestigious universities, and this move, that affects internships, not the Fast Stream itself, is simply meant to address what appears to be an 88% success rate for people not from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

This stuff about the internships isn't as big a story as it seems.

The internships last 6-8 weeks and the ones who do well get fast-tracked to the final stages of the fast stream application process. They still have to pass the final stages which are highly competitive.

This doesn't rule out white, middle-class men from applying for fast stream at all.

There are also plenty of easier ways of getting a civil service job without applying for fast stream.

Why are the odds stacked against him as a white, middle class man with a humanities degree?

Firstly, it isnt the FS that is being restricted. It is the summer internship scheme, who will then get some priority to the FS. So there will still be plenty of FS places for white, middle class men. For a long time, it has notoriously been known that the FS is less diverse than the Oxbridge intake. Something needs to change to make sure the senior CS is reflective of the population we are supposed to be serving.

Secondly, many very capable candidates do not succeed at the FS first time anyway. I wouldn't worry too much about the changes - the summer internship scheme is quite a lot smaller than the FS. If he's capable, he will be ok. He needs to do his research about how to apply and present his answers in the CS way.

If he isn't successful, he can still look on Civil Service jobs for direct entry roles - I'd aim for HEO level roles as a new grad.

Once in the CS, you can pretty much progress at the same rate as a FS anyway, you just don't get the benefit of the rotational placements and you need to put your own effort into which training courses you want to attend, rather than having the FS do it for you. Nothing that isnt totally doable for someone with a bit of go-getting about them.

No. He won’t have the “odds stacked against him” for being a white educated man. The fast stream is very competitive so he may not get in however talented he is as is the case for many other excellent applicants.

You are right not to try and influence his views. You are driven by evidence if you are a civil servant. If he is actually driven by the kind of Daily Mail drivel you’ve spouted about how terrible things are for middle class white men then he will be a failure and certainly not an asset to public service.

If his motivations are as you describe, why is it only the prestigious civil service scheme he’s interested in? Every local authority and NHS trust will have a graduate intake to their policy/management/professional services roles.

If he actually wants to use his life to provide public service then I don’t think he should join the civil service. What about social worker, police, teacher, care work, nursing? Everyone I know in the education dept joined to get away from actually having to face a class full of children.

I’ve only met a handful of fast streamers who aren’t white middle class men or ‘posh boys’ as a friend refers to them.
the application process may be ‘blind’ and let the odd non-white middle class non Russel group graduate through but that is soon sorted at the in person assessment so don’t worry about your ds chances.
the scheme is really biased in my experience but that’s not the only way to be successful in the civil service. Hard work and delivery does get noticed (especially as a lot of others will be on extended sick leave or under performing but not being managed) so you can be successful without the scheme, it’s just a bit harder.
i left the civil service years ago but am in touch with colleagues who have these views still

From what I've heard from friends and family in the Civil Service, it can be just as good an idea to apply for a regular role in an "entry level" graduate grade (e.g. HEO) and work your way up and around.

Has he taken a look on the jobs board? There are so many in different departments he could try applying to

It is fiercely competitive no matter the colour of your skin or sex. My DD applied for IMPACT along with 8k other grads for approx 150 places. She got all the way through to interviews and was rejected, she then got through to second round of interviews and was rejected again. The process was over 6 months and really drawn out. Luckily she has been offered her dream role out of the civil service but after many many applications and rejections. I would advise to apply for anything that looks remotely interesting.

www.local.gov.uk/our-support/councillor-and-officer-development/impact-local-government-graduate-programme

This is for an internship that helps underprivileged people get onto the Fast Stream. It doesn’t affect actual Fast Stream recruitment.

The only fast streamers ive ever met have been white middle class men, if that helps 😂