The challenge for new civil service CEO John Manzoni

Mr Manzoni starts with a number of advantages. While he has the private sector experience at a top level which ministers wanted, he has also had eight months as head of the Major Projects Authority, which means he is not a complete outsider. He has already got a feel for Whitehall and has earned the respect of key officials. This should minimise the risk of tissue rejection which has doomed many previous outsiders. The problem has been that outsiders have too often been recruited on a sink or swim basis, rather than being supported in making a transition from the private sector. The strong backing of David Cameron, Francis Maude and Sir Jeremy Heywood will be crucial, not just at first but as Mr Manzoni develops and defines the role. Critics have pointed out that the new chief executive will not line manage permanent secretaries and his position is, as I have previously blogged, surrounded by a new web of ambiguity and complexity. Persuasion rather than command will be the key. Success will depend on Mr Manzoni’s relationship with Sir Jeremy, so that all involved have clarity about their respective roles. This needs to be made explicit in public statements of their job roles and their objectives. It is crucially in Sir Jeremy’s interest for the new post to work. Mr Manzoni will have a number of important levers. He will be in charge of the key functional units at the centre, such as commercial and property activities, the Major Projects Authority, digital, skills and shared services, as well as efficiency and civil service reform (The other parts of the Cabinet Office will remain under Richard Heaton as accounting officer.) Moreover, Mr Manzoni will chair the corporate management board, a sub-committee of the revamped Civil Service Board, which will include the functional leaders and the main permanent secretaries responsible for operational delivery. He will also work closely with the Treasury on the efficiency programme. He will deliver reports on the performance of departments as part of the regular appraisal of permanent secretaries – where the lead non-executive directors will also have an increased role to assist Sir Jeremy. Despite recent improvements, not least in the timing of the publication of objectives, there will be close interest to see whether these new arrangements for performance management, with more players involved, strengthen appraisal in practice. Mr Manzoni will also need to remember his wider responsibility to hundreds of thousands of civil servants around the country, to be visible to them, to stand up for them and to promote them, especially given the prospect of further austerity. What will success look like? It would be wrong to ignore what has been achieved in the last few years, in cost savings, restructuring and improving capabilities, or what is under way at all levels. But as Sir Jeremy has pointed out, there are clear challenges in taking forward digital across government services, in improving commercial and contract management capability ( highlighted by some of the outsourcing problems), in improving leadership skills and in diversity. And before Sir Bob Kerslake is written out of history, it would be worth looking at some his comments in his recent valedictory speech at the IfG, notably reviewing whether the current model of departments is sustainable, not just through mergers but also through shared platforms of services in policy ministries. All this is for after the general election – and in his speech at the Institute, Michael Dugher, Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister, not only backed the creation of a civil service CEO but argued for a strengthening of the role to hold permanent secretaries to account on specific issues such as civil service reform. Mr Manzoni will both have to establish his position and role within Whitehall before the election and to be fully involved with the Treasury in the spending review afterwards. The reform agenda is central to the success and sustainability of the further, and more painful, round of spending cuts to come in the next parliament.