The Treasury announced this week that Sir Michael Barber – former head of the Blair-era Prime Minister's Delivery Unit – will be heading up the latest in a long line of reviews of civil service efficiency. Adrian Brown, who has worked closely with Barber, spells out what Whitehall can expect.

With the appointment of Mark Sedwill, Britain is now on its fourth national security adviser since 2010. Dr Joe Devanny asks whether such churn at the top really makes for effective government

FDA general secretary Dave Penman takes the former Cabinet Office minister to task after he said civil servants in line departments rely too heavily on jargon and management skills to get by

Without publishing the rationale for its spending decisions, the government risks being bounced from crisis to crisis, unable to restore the public finances or ensure quality

Lesley Ann Nash, the Cabinet Office's director for public bodies reform, explains how the government's new code is aiming to shift relationships between departments and arm’s-length bodies away from compliance and control towards a proportionate, risk-based partnership model

As the civil service Fast Track apprenticeship programme opens for a new round of applications, the Cabinet Office's deputy director of early talent Greg Hobbs explains how the scheme can offer a springboard into a variety of government careers – and introduces two apprentices who've benefited from it

Most of the challenges the Workforce Plan purports to tackle are ones that Whitehall has bumped up against for decades. Perhaps it's time to start interrogating the civil service's Victorian structures – rather than simply adding layers of reform on top, argues Andrew Greenway

The US is giving us an ongoing education in the importance of an impartial civil service, argues the FDA union's general secretary 

From pensions to student loans, actuaries play a vital role in analysis risk right across government. Here, the government actuary explains his work

Proper management of outsourced services is the only way to avoid the contracting fiascos of recent years, argues the IfG's Tom Gash

Automation will need to be handled with sensitivity by managers – but any upgrade in public services must start with the workforce, argues Alexander Hitchcock of the Reform think tank

As Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, Kings College London research fellow Joe Devanny looks at the tensions that arise between administrations and considers parallels with Whitehall

Reducing sickness absence is a vital task for leaders, and it must start with some difficult conversations if real progress is to be made 

Worrying projections about our “unsustainable” public finances mean the rhetoric around decentralisation must now become a reality

Having cut the calendar of major fiscal events from two a year to just one, chancellor Philip Hammond must now use his extra time and energy to add some grit to the tax policymaking process

CSW editor Jess Bowie responds to concern over the lack of ethnic diversity on CSW's December cover

The "guided distribution" constraints put upon HMRC officials can worsen the financial hardship of tax credit claimants, argues Bangor University's Sara Closs-Davies

 As Whitehall comes under attack, Downing Street needs to lead from the front, argues Sue Cameron

Exactly why the UK's EU ambassador resigned will remain a mystery for some time. But, says former special adviser Dan Corry, top officials usually quit when subject to constant criticising, whispering and gossip from politicians

The recent attacks on the civil service paint it as being incapable of making Brexit work. But senior officials are increasingly alarmed that the government is forcing them into positions that make them look stupid and out of control

Many talented civil servants have stepped forward to work on Brexit, says Dave Penman of the FDA union. So why aren't ministers doing more to defend them?

Opening up the government's data sets will make public service commissioning more effective as well as helping service users, argues Andrew Weston of charity think tank New Philanthropy Capital

Complaints are an opportunity for public services to learn and improve, says Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Dame Julie Mellor, as the watchdog publishes fresh research on how departments respond to public concerns

From social mobility to industrial strategy, the new prime minister must act now if she wants her big priorities to get off the ground, says the Institute for Government's Emma Norris