HR

Pruned hard, the civil service will be lost without new skills.

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.

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 2012 Civil Service People Survey, published in aggregate last week, shows an overall improvement in staff engagement compared to 2011. The overall score was up by two points, from 56 to 58 per cent, and all the survey themes except ‘pay and benefits’ recorded improvements. Civil servants are happier with their work, which scored 73 per cent, up two per cent on last year. Both the ‘leadership and managing change’ and the ‘learning and development in the workplace’ themes showed small improvements, albeit from a low base.

The schedule for implementing parts of the Civil Service Reform Plan has “slipped”, Francis Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office, has admitted.

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

The Department of Health has agreed a settlement with its former commercial director, Ken Anderson, after taking him to court.

“Irregular” voluntary redundancy payments made by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to its former chief executive officer Phillippa Williamson have led the National Audit Office (NAO) to qualify its audit opinion on the SFO’s 2011-12 accounts.

“Irregular” voluntary redundancy payments made by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to its former chief executive officer Phillippa Williamson have led the National Audit Office (NAO) to qualify its audit opinion on the SFO’s 2011-12 accounts.

The Department of Health has agreed a settlement with its former commercial director, Ken Anderson, after taking him to court.

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

The UK has the highest rate of depression-related sickness in Europe, according to a recent survey by the European Depression Alliance. And alarmingly, over a third of the 792 managers surveyed said they have no formal support in place to help them deal with depressed employees. We have a very long way to go before we can say we’re properly supporting employers and employees in recognising and managing depression in the workplace. And this is certainly true within the civil service.

Privilege days – where civil servants get extra days off following bank holidays or on days significant to the monarchy – are “completely out of line” with what you would see in the private sector and must be reviewed, Sir Bob Kerslake, head of the civil service, has told CSW.

The Department for Transport’s decision to publicly suspend three officials last month when it reopened bidding for the West Coast Mainline franchise was “immoral”, former Labour transport secretary Lord Adonis said last week.

Two thirds of civil servants believe that media and political criticism has “significantly damaged” or “fundamentally undermined” perceptions of the civil service, according to an exclusive poll conducted by CSW.

Phil Wynn Owen has today taken on the role of interim permanent secretary at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). He’ll hold the job until a permanent successor is found to replace Moira Wallace, who announced her departure in July. At the time, DECC said it intended to make a permanent appointment by this point, but this week the Cabinet Office said it is “still in the process of concluding the recruitment.”

Some ministers are frustrated with civil servants who are slow to implement policies, Richard Heaton, the new permanent secretary of the Cabinet Office, has acknowledged. To overcome this, he said, civil servants must push for more clarity from ministers on whether they have made firm policy decisions, or whether they are waiting for more evidence before proceeding.

Alan Cave, a former director of the Work Programme and other welfare-to-work schemes at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), has left to join Serco, the outsourced services provider. The DWP will check his job offer against civil service business appointment rules before he is allowed to accept.

Health department permanent secretary Una O’Brien has written to other permanent secretaries asking them to sign up to public health campaigns designed to improve the health of their staff.