The evolution of the APS throughout its history since 1901 is an important case study in administrative change and it is very unfortunate that alone among the four national Westminster/Whitehall public services, it has not been the subject of a commissioned history. The occasion of its centenary on 1 January 2001 was merely marked by a celebratory, albeit informative, publication.

What preliminary study suggests is the extent to which so much change depends on external circumstances. The increased educational standards of APS staff in the post-war era depended significantly on rising educational standards in the community, themselves a consequence of expansion of the universities from the late 1950s. The increasing role of women was also heavily influenced by broader community development. But no factor in recent administrative change has been so significant as information technology, both in making desirable change possible and in otherwise forcing change. This, however, is rarely mentioned in studies of change in the APS.

Internal considerations are often portrayed as central to administrative change. This is probably erroneous, the product of narrowly focussed analysis, and, to a degree, the partially autobiographical character of many accounts emanating from individuals and institutions involved. Notwithstanding, such considerations do have their importance, though perhaps more in shaping the timing and extent of change than its actual occurrence. Key figures in a history of change are very significant in mediating application of ideas current in a general environment within the public service itself.

This chapter is partly based on a view that any major transformation experience is as interesting for the continuities with the past as for actual innovations and new directions. Particularly in the past generation, much change has been less important for its own inherent quality than for what may be called counter-inertia tactics, the fight against complacency and stagnation. Transformation is thus a diverse phenomenon (or, rather, a mixture of diverse phenomena), and much of interest would emerge from a deep, systematic and comprehensive study of the matters touched upon in this chapter.