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Helen Edwards left a career in frontline social work and charity management for a job on Whitehall; now she's the DCLG's deputy permanent secretary. She tells Matt Ross about pursuing change in service delivery, councils, and her own department. Photo by Mark Weeks

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Former head of the civil service Sir Bob Kerslake has said his biggest regret is that the government didn’t publish a civil service diversity plan more quickly.

Oliver Robbins, director-general, civil service, has spoken out in defence of the government’s new Talent Action Plan – designed to promote diversity in the civil service – after a blog about its publication attracted 130 comments on the civil service website.

Leaders across the civil service are wrestling with change management. Here’s how to rise to the challenge

An MBA has long opened doors in the business world – but the qualification is just as valuable to civil servants

A total of 200 18-21-year-olds are this week starting the government’s civil service Fast Track apprenticeship scheme.

Senior civil servants often “don’t know what’s going on” with contracts held by their departments and thus spot problems too late, Joshua Reddaway, the National Audit Office’s director for commercial and contracting, has warned.

Former Cabinet Office perm sec Ian Watmore explains why the Olympics worked so well – and how officials avoided pitfalls such as political meddling and hasty deadlines

Paul Pugh, chief executive of the Passport Office, has been accused of a “complete management failure” by the Home Affairs Select Committee. In a report published today, the committee calls for the office to be abolished and its functions to be returned to the direct control of ministers.

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Perspectives from outside the civil service

Improving board performance would reduce staff turnover and cut the number of costly project failures.

Lord Browne of Madingley, Lead Non-Executive Director, HM Government offers and overview of the progress the civil service has seen in recent years.

Chris Wormald tells Winnie Agbonlahor how he's trying to raise the standard of policymaking across government - without imposing too much central control

More than half of permanent secretaries attended Oxbridge, compared to less than 1% of the public as a whole, according to a report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission which criticises the lack of diversity among the people running the country.

The new set of published perm secs' objectives seem much improved, but are they really what they claim to be? Report by Samera Owusu Tutu. Illustration by John Levers.

A survey of health professionals reveals negativity about NHS reforms across the board. Samera Owusu Tutu reports

Picking the right civil service CEO is important. But, FDA general secretary Dave Penman argues that any candidate will encounter the job's structural challenges.

Iain Rennie, state services commissioner at the New Zealand Government, tells Civil Service World about the strengths and weaknesses of his home civil service

The Ministry of Justice has been served a penalty of £180,000 by the ICO today for losing sensitive data.

Just a month after Dominic Jermey started his new job as chief executive of UK Trade and Investment, he spoke to Winnie Agbonlahor. 

The secret of great leadership lies not in management books, but in learning to identify and understand your emotions.

The new chief executive of the civil service will only have “sufficient authority” if he/she reports directly to the prime minister, rather than Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, John Healey, co-founder of new think-tank GovernUp, has said.