Articles

Bronwyn Hill explains why she loves going to her rowing club every weekend – and she hasn’t picked a genteel West London group! 

The appointment of women to the boards of public bodies has reached a record high, according to the commissioner for public appointments, Sir David Normington.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra’s) flood defence resources are limited and current spending is “insufficient to meet many of the maintenance needs” identified by the Environment Agency (EA), the National Audit Office (NAO) said today.

Katherine Kerswell has criticised the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG) for attacking local authorities over parking fees.

Björn Conway, EY Government and Public Sector Leader, gives his outside perspective of the civil service

The public sector will have to work smarter and redesign key services to tackle the deficit and start reducing debt by 2018, according to Deloitte’s annual State of the State report.

The think tank The Centre for London has called for greater fiscal power and power over services to be transferred from Whitehall to City Hall.

Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People wants to speed things up

Call for power to classify protected characteristics to be devolved to Scotland

Crown steps up efforts to tackle historical sexual abuse

Mark Serwotka was re-elected for a fourth term as general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union on 23 October. 

Atam Verdi, Director at the property regeneration consultancy, gives and outside perspective of the civil service

Almost two thirds (65%) of civil servants have suffered from ill health as a result of stress at work, one fifth (19%) of which have taken more than 40 days off within a 12 month period as a result of stress-related ill health, new surveys from the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union reveal. 

The Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) decision to close the Independent Living Fund (ILF) for disabled people was challenged by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on 22 October. 

Margaret Hodge today stated that confusion at the centre of government is impacting on the government’s ability to “deliver value for taxpayers’ money”.

Fathers in the civil service will receive the same parental leave as mothers from April 2015, Nick Clegg will announce this week.

DWP are now facing an “escalating problem” with housing benefit error from both claimants and officials, according to National Audit Office (NAO).

I rundown of a key piece of legislation; what are its aims and how will it affect you? This edition we look at the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill.

John Manzoni, the chief executive of the Major Projects Authority, has been named as the new chief executive of the civil service.

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

The Public Accounts Committee has warned the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) that it lacks the data to ensure that local authorities are receiving “value for money with their funding” in some targeted grant schemes.

Perspectives from outside the civil service

On 27 March, Lucy Powell MP asked 21 departments to explain: what proportion of civil servants, of each sex and grade, work part-time.

The Department for Work and Pensions’ failure to pilot its Personal Independence Payment (PIP) programme has led to delays, backlogs and “unnecessary distress for claimants”, according to a report published today by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).