Leadership

BIS perm sec Martin Donnelly requests rare "letter of direction" from minister Sajid Javid after raising value-for-money concerns over plan to gift extra shares to Royal Mail staff

Minister for the Cabinet Office Matt Hancock says new "implementation taskforces" recognise the need for cross-government working, but stresses the need for accountability

Study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies raises concern over private sector's ability to absorb public sector job losses

Former non-exec Dame Sue Street says justice secretary's move "not in the spirit of good governance"

Report by the National Audit Office says the centre of government must do more to support departments struggling to manage the changing Whitehall workforce

Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell calls on new Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock to scrap a rule which means fast streamers must change jobs every six months

FDA and PCS unions sound the alarm over proposals to end "six figure" public sector redundancy pay

In full: "Making the civil service work for modern Britain", Minister for the Cabinet Office Matt Hancock's May 22 speech to the Institute for Government on civil service reform

New man in 70 Whitehall to tell IfG he wants officials to "feel in control of their destiny"

No headcount changes under chancellor's plan to merge Shareholder Executive (ShEx) and UK Financial Investments (UKFI) into one body overseeing privatisations

CSW wants civil servants' questions for the MPs set to replace Margaret Hodge at PAC

PWC partner Charles Lloyd shares his experience of life in Whitehall – and the different style of governments in the Middle East – in a regular Q&A with people who’ve crossed organisational and sectoral boundaries to join a new working world

Tom Karsten – a Royal Navy real admiral – is named as the new CEO of Cefas

Civil servants want to see a light at the end of the tunnel, not five more years of the same, argues the FDA union's general secretary Dave Penman

Jane Dudman​ reads the runes as the civil service adjusts to a changing of the ministerial guard

Civil service chief executive John Manzoni points to end of the "Francis Maude era" in his first speech to the FDA union

FDA union general secretary Dave Penman warns that civil servants have been left "undervalued, exhausted and unclear about the future"

As the dust settles on David Cameron's first post-election reshuffle, Dunstan Hadley – a former private office official in the Department for Education – reflects on the chaos and excitement of change at the top

New Minister for the Cabinet Office Matt Hancock will have the same responsibilities as his predecessor Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office confirms

Former cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell says fixed term parliament act means minority government could be "relatively" stable

As Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude has overseen the biggest shake-up of the civil service in living memory – and earned a reputation as ‘a man trying to fight everyone in the pub at the same time’. It’s a description he’s proud to embrace, he tells Jess Bowie.

Successful leaders mix ambition, resilience, and the ability to ditch ideas that aren’t working, argues Brunel University’s Professor Zahir Irani

Senior civil servants are used to facing tough questioning from select committees. Elizabeth Bates looks at what the next parliament might have in store for these powerful groups of MPs

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude tells CSW that performance management should move from a system where managers categorise set proportions of staff as performing well, acceptably and poorly to one where employees are individually ranked best to worst