To ask the Minister of Finance (i) for his assessment of staff shortages in the NI Civil Service; and (ii) to detail the steps being taken to address these shortages.

Each Civil Service department is responsible for managing its resources – both financial and staff. Each department determines its individual workforce needs and is responsible for ensuring that any additional staffing resources are affordable. Therefore, details of the total vacancies in each department is not held centrally by the Department of Finance.

When a department identifies a vacancy it needs filled, the request is referred to NICSHR in the Department of Finance to initiate the process to fill the post. Where there is an existing live competition merit list, the vacancy is filled from this available supply.

In November 2020, all Civil Service departments conducted a root and branch review of their staff establishments, confirming a total of c4,500 affordable additional posts they needed filled. At end of December, NICSHR has filled 4,509 posts since November 2020.

At the end of December 2021, NICSHR was managing an active vacancy caseload of 2,859 (compared to over 4,500 as at November 2020). Of this caseload, 926 (32%) have start dates agreed / are progressing through offer process.

Approximately 69% (1,971 of the active vacancy caseload falls into the Civil Service General Service occupation group, and 35% (685) have start dates agreed / progressing through offer stage and a further 30% (c600) to follow suit in the next few weeks. Work is underway to finalise the General Service recruitment plan for 2022-23.

The remaining 31% (888) of the active vacancy caseload falls across a wide variety of professional / technical / specialist roles in the Civil Service, and 27% (241) have start dates agreed / are progressing through offer process. Recruitment for the remaining job roles continues on an ongoing basis, based on department’s forecast needs.

In 2019 the Civil Service sought to externally recruit at scale for above entry level grades for General Service positions. This has delivered new talent into the workforce as well as see many existing Civil Servants achieve promotion. For example during the 2020-21 financial year these open recruitment campaigns saw 840 new entrants join the Civil Service. This trend is continuing in the current financial year, with new entrants currently being on boarded from the external recruitment campaigns for General Service positions at the two Executive Officer grades.

NICSHR is working at pace with our service provider, HRConnect, to reduce any recruitment backlog that has arisen as a consequence of the Covid pandemic.