HR

Commissioners from across the public sector can now apply to join a virtual Commissioning Academy, launched last week.

It is the duty of civil servants to challenge weak policy ideas, the director general of civil service reform, Katherine Kerswell, has told Civil Service World – even if officials risk being seen as “obstructive”.

Senior civil servants have become even more dissatisfied with their pay arrangements, are more inclined to leave the civil service, and less inclined to work extra hours than they were a year ago, according to a survey carried out by the FDA and Prospect trade unions.

Stephen Lovegrove, chief executive at the Shareholder Executive since 2007, has been appointed permanent secretary at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. He will take up his new post on 4 February. The role was originally set to be taken by David Kennedy, the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change, but prime minister David Cameron vetoed Kennedy’s appointment last year.

Most Whitehall departments will have to move their transaction services – meaning HR, payroll, and accounts processes – into a shared service project by 2014, according to the Cabinet Office’s shared services strategy, published in December.

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.