Labour MP Anne Begg was press-ganged into becoming an expert on benefits, but has since learnt to love the topic. She enthuses to Joshua Chambers about her role as chair of the work and pensions select committee

A council officer explains how localism is panning out at the sharp end

The days of departments selecting their own training providers are ending, as all generic learning is channelled through new body Civil Service Learning.

Charged with overseeing all government information & communications technology and the delivery of the coalition's new over-arching strategy, Joe Harley is a man with a big job. Suzannah Brecknell meets him.

The PM has promised to increase procurement from small businesses, charities and social enterprises. Joshua Chambers asks these micro-suppliers how government can help them find success in public contracting.

As the government encourages more use of payment by results Rob Wormald, the DWP’s outgoing head of market development, tells Suzannah Brecknell about his long journey to outcome-focused contracting.

Alan Beith, the Lib Dems' longest-serving MP, scrutinises government as chair of the justice and liaison committees. Matt Ross tries to improve his view of Whitehall still further by dangling him out of the office window.

A community support officer from the Midlands is worried about the effect of overtime cuts

Lord Hutton has recommended changes to public sector pension schemes. Joshua Chambers picks out the winners and losers from the proposals, and explains how they affect both civil servants and government policy. 

Last year, the coalition cut back many branches of government in its 'bonfire of the quangos'. Joshua Chambers looks at how officials can integrate some of the staff and functions of dismembered quangos into their departments.

Which exclusive club contains the PM, the chancellor, the leader of the opposition and the shadow chancellor, the business secretary and, via its affiliated European arm, the deputy prime minister? Some may think of the freemasons, but others will identify a far more shadowy and secretive bunch: special advisers.

Here CSW profiles a publicity-shy group who are crucial to shaping policy – and now, it seems, to providing our political leaders.

An NHS worker wonders why her hospital has a complex IT system but also uses paper records

In a disaster, the UK’s civil servants would be responsible for both helping to manage the emergency response, and maintaining essential services in its aftermath. Suzannah Brecknell and Joshua Chambers report.

The Home Office and Transport briefs are notorious as political minefields. But Lin Homer, who survived the Home Office’s annus horribilis, is keen to see what the DfT can throw at her. Matt Ross meets the department’s new head.

From this month, every big scheme run by Whitehall departments will be overseen by the Major Projects Authority. Suzannah Brecknell meets David Pitchford – the man charged with overseeing and improving your projects.

A sixth form modern languages teacher thinks that schools and teachers should be given more powers to shape their curricula.

A rather traditional type of Tory and a man who thinks carefully before he speaks, Treasury select committee chair is nonetheless getting noisy in the cause of select committee reform. Matt Ross meets a political evolutionary.

These three people have successfully left the civil service for senior jobs in the private and voluntary sectors. But it’s not always easy to cross that divide: Suzannah Brecknell gathers advice on how to follow their lead

A key adviser to three chancellors and three prime ministers, Number 10 permanent secretary Jeremy Heywood has spent twenty years at the epicentre of political power. In his first ever interview, he speaks to Matt Ross.

As public services move online, a CSW round table discussed the importance of persuading rather than forcing users to shift channels. Joshua Chambers heard plenty of ideas for building online services around the user.

Peter Hennessy has spent 40 years observing government. Now ensconced in the Lords, he tells Matt Ross what he’s learned about the need for confidence, the dangers of special advisers, and the joys of the awkward squad.

‘Lean’ management techniques have long been deployed to improve the efficiency of manufacturing industry – and now the same methods are coming to a government department near you. Joshua Chambers reports.

Broadening the focus of environmental monitoring, the PM is ‘mainstreaming’ sustainability into all management and policymaking. Suzannah Brecknell gets an explanation from Defra director-general Mike Anderson.