Leadership

Sharon White, currently director general for public services, has been appointed as the second permanent secretary at HM Treasury.

There is a "shortage of project management skills" in the Department for Transport (DfT), according to Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

A group of King’s College academics have launched a draft code of practice for the appointment and management of government ‘tsars’, arguing that the lack of an existing framework leads to failed appointments and wasted public funds.

Senior managers should make time to meet apprentices who have joined the civil service under a new Apprenticeship Fast Track scheme, the head of the civil service has said.

Senior civil servants can no longer expect to remain out of the public eye, according to NHS England chief executive Sir David Nicholson, who has faced attacks from newspapers and patient groups over his involvement in the crisis at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust.

Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the civil service, has rejected claims that structures within Whitehall are preventing open debates about government policy, and emphasised the need for senior leaders to encourage an “open culture in their department where people feel able to raise issues and concerns about progress”.

Civil service structures are preventing open debates about government policy, and stopping senior officials speaking truth to power, two select committee chairs have told Civil Service World.

Challenge must be encouraged, no matter what the project.

An independent national infrastructure commission should be set up to evaluate the UK’s long-term infrastructure needs, according to a report published today by Sir John Armitt, former chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority and ex-chief executive of Network Rail.

Sue Owen, currently director general of strategy at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), has been appointed the new permanent secretary of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Oliver Morley, currently chief executive of the National Archives, has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

PASC chair Bernard Jenkin is highly critical of aspects of the civil service – but he’s sympathetic to civil servants themselves, and earlier this month an audience of officials gave his arguments a warm reception. Matt Ross reports.