The Civil Service Reform Plan published in June included a number of actions that we felt could be a catalyst for lasting reform. The DfE review is the first of those ideas that has been taken to the next stage. Back in June we said: “ could become a practical way to shed much...

What qualities does Letwin’s ideal mandarin need? “It’s not the double first in classics that matters it’s the attitude of mind that matters… it is important to… see that attitude of mind as one we want to celebrate… Unless the intellect is formed in a certain way… that person won’t be able to be...

The Public Accounts Committee recently published its report ‘Managing early departures in central government’. The Institute agreed with many of the PAC conclusions – but the report has a solely technocratic view of the reality of managing reductions in staff numbers. Senior civil servants are people, not just bloodless lightning conductors, punchbags or beasts...

Part-time leadership of the Civil Service is clearly the plat du jour in Whitehall. Muttering from retired grandees condemned the splitting of the Cabinet Secretary role that created the dual leadership of Sir Jeremy Heywood and Sir Bob Kerslake. Witnesses at the Public Affairs Select Committee hearing argued that Sir Bob could not...

This latest case study in our Reforming the Civil Service series should be required reading for the civil servants charged with shaping and implementing various parts of the new Civil Service Reform Plan. The CMPS aimed to be both “a hub for thinking in Whitehall and a body overseeing and providing direction to civil service...

Last week, at the Institute for Government (IfG), the trinity of reform leaders Sir Jeremy Heywood, Sir Bob Kerslake and the Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude set out their thinking behind the reform plan. Our first test asked whether the plan set a direction for reform that is relevant to what most...

Veterans of relations between Number 10, the Cabinet Office, advisers and ministers would find nothing new in the noisy process of producing the plan. Sir Jeremy Heywood was characteristically sanguine at the Public Accounts Committee recently as he acknowledged the ‘frustration’ experienced by those trying to drive change in the Civil Service. Rather than...

They made their first public appearance together to respond to the open letter sent to them by the Institute for Government. The letter drew on the Institute’s research to spell out the six issues that most need attention as they develop their plan for civil service reform. It argues that without urgent reform there...