Susan Corby, who is Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations at the Manchester Metropolitan University, looks at industrial relations developments in the new ‘Next Steps’ Civil Service agencies which carry out the executive functions of government. She argues that the initiative is turning out to be a very large ‘step’ indeed. There is a trend towards agency autonomy on terms and conditions and away from Service‐wide prescription. Against this, however, are countervailing pressures. Thus Treasury control for macro‐economic reasons sits uneasily with agency autonomy. Collectivist traditions operate against the new individualism and the public services ethos operates against entrepreneurial management.