The civil service’s fast stream needs urgent reform as many graduates are leaving before the end of the scheme amid dissatisfaction with pay and progression, according to a report.

The Institute for Government (IfG) thinktank found the flagship graduate talent scheme lacks a clear purpose and direction at a time when the government is trying to overhaul the civil service to make it more productive.

In a survey of more than 230 fast streamers, the IfG found about four in 10 had left before the end of the scheme for better jobs elsewhere in the civil service.

It also found that more than 60% of former and current fast streamer respondents were dissatisfied with pay and benefits on the scheme.

The IfG recommended increasing fast streamer pay to be at least equal to the median pay for civil servants at the same grade level outside the scheme.

The report found the scheme requires an overhaul in terms of size, pay and location to help the government achieve its objectives of rewiring the state.

The fast stream is the government’s highly competitive talent development programme, taking about 1,000 new entrants a year with a goal of identifying civil service leaders of the future.

Teodor Grama, the author of the IfG report, said: “The civil service wants the fast stream to do too much, all at once. Its role in developing future civil service leaders has been watered down under pressures to fulfil shorter-term departmental resourcing needs, which has created tensions within the scheme and made it less effective in supporting civil service capability.

“Civil service leaders should restore the fast stream’s focus on preparing future generations of senior civil servants, which is what a programme like this is best suited to, and reflect on how it can open up and demystify other graduate pathways into the civil service.”

The IfG’s report found the scheme was being let down by the variable quality of postings, patchy development support, early departures for better-paid jobs and a lack of promotion opportunities.

It recommended a sharper focus on training future civil service leaders, taking on fewer fast streamers every year and investing more in their development.

The IfG also called for more direction from the centre of government on the work fast streamers do, including by setting the expectation that all of them will go on secondment outside central government while on the scheme.

Robert Eagleton, a national officer of the FDA, the trade union for senior civil servants, said it backed the IfG’s recommendations on improving pay and progression opportunities.

“The fast stream is very prestigious and has no problem with getting people to apply, but it’s about keeping people on the scheme,” he said. “In their second or third year they might still be earning about £35,000 and thinking they could become an SEO [senior executive officer] and get £45,000-plus.

“We find people leave the scheme prematurely. Some of it is around pay and some of it is around whether they are confident of getting the roles they want at the end of scheme.”

The fast stream has been operating for decades and has had a pipeline of permanent secretaries passing through its schemes. It was last overhauled under the early years of the coalition government, and more recently recruitment was briefly paused by Boris Johnson as he sought to bring down civil service numbers.

The government has recently shown its willingness to make changes to traditional civil service recruitment by restricting its internship scheme to working-class students as part of a drive to make Whitehall better reflect the country.

At the same time, ministers have pledged to cut the size of the civil service, with tens of thousands of roles expected to go over the coming years.

New figures show the workforce had grown to a 20-year high of almost 550,000 people as of March this year, with most of them manager level or above and the growth attributed to more operational frontline roles.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The civil service fast stream is a world-leading graduate programme that offers significant opportunities to develop professional skills.

“In 2024, the fast stream was reformed to align to civil service professions, with an improved learning and development offer to develop and enhance leadership skills, and we have recently announced an ambition to have 50% of fast stream roles outside of London by 2030 – strengthening our regional talent and supporting the ambition to bring the civil service closer to the communities they serve.”