Leadership

Sir Bob Kerslake

Head of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary, Department for Communities and Local Government

Robert Devereux

Permanent Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions

Last week the Civil Service Commission published its response to two proposals in the Civil Service Reform Plan for greater ministerial involvement in senior civil service appointments. The most discussed proposal would give ministers the right to choose their permanent secretaries from a number of candidates judged suitable by a selection panel. In our response, the commission actively supports the involvement of ministers in permanent secretary competitions and has agreed some further changes to strengthen that involvement. But we stop short of giving ministers a choice. That would, we believe, be a step too far.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has paused his plans to allow ministers to choose their permanent secretary from an approved shortlist, after the Civil Service Commission intervened to propose a compromise arrangement.

We were both honoured to attend and be part of the Civil Service Awards last month. From Stranraer to Bournemouth, the outstanding work of civil servants was celebrated – whether they’d delivered roads or the Olympics, run prisons or Jobcentres. In one evening we recognised the very best of the civil service and left in no doubt that we lead some of the most talented professionals.

Civil service head Sir Bob Kerslake has told CSW that the turnover of permanent secretaries in the past two years has been too high, and that “in an ideal world” there would not be as much change.

The civil service makes a “huge contribution” to serving the country and its good work should be recognised, Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said at the Civil Service Awards on 22 November.

A gathering of civil service chiefs from around the world has identified a need for western governments to strengthen their horizon-scanning and strategic planning capabilities, with former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell calling for the UK to commission think tanks to develop policy on some of the long-term issues that it’s “difficult” for governments to tackle.

The head of HMRC has got a hell of a journey to make with this vast and complex organisation. Matt Ross meets Lin Homer, whose inbox bulges with thorny questions around Universal Credit, child benefit reforms and staff morale.

The proportion of women taking new public appointments is “not good enough”, public appointments commissioner Sir David Normington has said.

“Not until I came to Whitehall did I learn that the country was run by two men, neither of whom I had ever heard of”, said Lord Victor Rothschild of his 1970 meeting with Sir Burke Trend and Sir William Armstrong, secretary to the cabinet and head of the home civil service respectively. But increasingly lurid attention from The Daily Telegraph, The Times and the Daily Mail, along with their Sunday siblings, is making sure that latter day grandees will have no such ignorance as to the name and power of the cabinet secretary since January this year, Sir Jeremy Heywood.

It’s been a “challenging and difficult year for the civil service,” cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood said last month at an event held to celebrate the publication of the 200th issue of CSW – and the paper has been helpful as “by far the most effective way... to put out a single message that gets to all civil servants.”

Stephen Kelly, the government’s new chief operating officer, is in charge of streamlining processes and pursuing efficiency on Whitehall. Joshua Chambers meets the man bringing business practice to the public sector

Matt Mercer, who edited Whitehall & Westminster World from 2004 to 2008, recalls its launch and sketches out the paper’s development from a niche Whitehall periodical to an influential, UK-wide publication

A set of interviewees who went on to greater things

Scouring the 5,000,000 words in 200 issues of CSW and its predecessor Whitehall & Westminster World, we’ve picked out the stories that made the news, set the agenda, offered an insight – and revealed something fascinating.

Last year the cabinet secretary’s job was split up, creating three vacancies; and now the third job – that of Cabinet Office permanent secretary – has been filled. Joshua Chambers interviews Richard Heaton

The Ministry of Defence’s new permanent secretary, Jon Thompson, tells Matt Ross how he intends to turn this most complex of Whitehall departments into a more professional operation – and dig it out of its financial hole

The MOD must store institutional knowledge in its armoury

Progress reports on strategic capability submitted by every department show a lack of strategic thinking, the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) has said.

The new head of the Welsh Civil Service, Derek Jones, will take up his position on 8 October after a four year hiatus from the civil service. He replaces Dame Gillian Morgan, who retired in August. Jones was the director of business and partnerships at Cardiff University, and prior to this role he spent 30 years as a civil servant, including as a senior director.

Civil servants should be prepared to see further significant changes to their accountability arrangements, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told CSW yesterday after he announced plans to publish permanent secretaries’ objectives online.

For Foreign Office chief Simon Fraser, his relationships around Whitehall are as crucial as those with Washington. His main mission is to increase trade, he tells Matt Ross, and that means working with a host of other departments