Institution of Professionals, Managers and Specialists, earlier the Institution of Professional Civil Servants

Scope and Content

Minutes, 1965-70; TUC affiliation files, 1967-76; State Technology/State Service, 1921-69 (incomplete): Review of Energy Policy,1986.

Administrative / Biographical History

The Institution of Professionals, Managers and Specialists was founded on 1 January 1919 as the Professional Alliance, H.M. Civil Service, changing to the Institution of Professional Civil Servants later in the same year and deriving from the Federation of Professional Officers (Admiralty) founded in 1918. It remained a virtually federal body with affiliated associations in various Civil Service departments until 1945 when new rules involving a move towards branch structure were endorsed.

In 1969 the Institution of Professional Civil Servants amalgamated with the Society of Technical Civil Servants and in 1970 with the Medical Staff Association. The Institution affiliated to the TUC in 1975.

As a result of privatisation and the use of agencies and contractors members of the Institution were increasingly to be found outside the Civil Service which led to the adoption of the Institution of Professionals, Managers and Specialists as the union's title in 1989. It became Prospect in 2001.

Reference: J.E. Mortimer and Valerie Ellis, A professional union : the evolution of the Institution of Professional Civil Servants. London : Allen and Unwin, 1980.

Access Information

This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

Other Finding Aids

Custodial History

Publications of the Institution of Professional Civil Servants were placed in the Centre in 1974. This initial deposit and subsequent accruals are listed in detail below.

Accruals

Accruals : 10th April 1974 : published pamphlets and periodicals [gift]; 20th July 1977 : State Technology/ State Service, vol. 1 (1921)-1969 (less vols. 2, 21, 1948, 1952, 1966-7); NEC minutes, 1965-70; 2 files re TUC affiliation, 1967-9, 1973-6 [indefinite loan]. 2003-2004: Additional publications were transferred from the University library. 2005 Review of Energy Policy added from Rodney Bickerstaffe papers (MSS.389).

Additional records deposited (Acc 583) in 2007.

Related Material

Records of the Society of Technical Civil Servants and the papers of James Charles McLauchlan (officer of the IPCS) are held at the Centre