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.

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.