ONE in ten government workers in Whitehall say that they are being bullied, a staff survey has revealed.

The research says that the figure rises to one in three in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with black and Chinese employees suffering the worst harassment.

In a further embarrassment to the Government, the survey claims that Whitehall is unable to cope with radical change or tackle underperformance by civil servants.

Civil servants in key departments, including health and education, have been lining up to criticise senior figures across government, labelling them ineffective and weak.

The survey is the largest snapshot of its kind involving 21 departments and about 150,000 employees at the heart of government.

It portrays a group of workers largely content with their job but who believe that they are underpaid, poorly led and unresponsive to the challenges of public sector reform. Average full-time earnings in the public sector are £3,328 a year higher than private sector, plus a generous pension provision.

A third of employees in the Department for Education and Skills, which is pushing through government flagship school reforms, do not have confidence in the senior civil servants running the department. Only a third came to their bosses’ defence, the rest saying that they were neutral.

Only one in ten civil servants at the Department for Health, which is tackling huge deficits across the NHS, feel that change is well managed. Only a quarter believe that the department, which is sending in hit-squads to under-performing NHS trusts, is well led.

Members of the Diplomatic Service have one of the biggest problems with bullying, with 29 per cent saying that they have been bullied or harassed by line managers or colleagues, compared with 10 per cent in many other departments.

There were 115 employees in the Foreign Office who said that they were discriminated against because of their sex, and 69 said that they suffered racism. A little over half took their complaint to a senior manager, and two thirds of those were unhappy with the result.

The Cabinet Office has collated the figures, which will make depressing reading for Sir Gus O’Donnell, the head of the Civil Service. Across government, three quarters of staff believe that the Civil Service flounders when trying to deal with individuals who perform poorly. Only a third say their department is well managed.

The Cabinet Office website urged readers not to jump to conclusions on the basis of the surveys, conducted by outside research companies. It says: “Staff surveys should not be looked at in isolation to develop judgments about the performance of individual departments: these results provide data on the perceptions of staff; these need to be set alongside other data.”

Some civil servants said that they were unable to cope with the speed of reforms being pushed through by ministers. “The pace of change imposed on us . . . is way too much,” says one respondent in the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

In the Department for Education, more than half the staff think managers have failed to reduce levels of bureaucracy — a key government objective.

The surveys also lift the lid on a culture of bullying, for which many blame line managers. At the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister — a typical example — 10 per cent of staff say they have been bullied, 8 per cent have been discriminated against and 6 per cent have experienced harassment.

HAPPINESS INDEX

27% of government staff say poor performance is dealt with effectively

33% say their department as a whole is managed well

35% have confidence in the senior managers within department

25% say they think change is well managed in their department

11% have experienced bullying over past year

52% say they are satisfied with the recognition they get for doing a good job

71% say they believe their department is committed to equal opportunities

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