A more effective Whitehall

The scale of reform facing Whitehall over the coming years is enormous. David Cameron has promised to "turn government on its head" while the civil service is also facing the biggest spending cuts since demobilisation after the Second World War. Supporting Whitehall to be better as well as smaller in the coming years is core to the Institute's work.

The Institute set out its view of the challenges on civil service reform in early March 2012 in an open letter to Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, and Sir Bob Kerslake, the Head of the Civil Service.

Sir Jeremy and Sir Bob, together with Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude offered their response to the letter at an event held at the Institute to launch the publication of the letter.

Find out more about the open letter on civil service reform.

Projects in this theme

Civil service capabilities
Capability has been a continuous focus in attempts to reform the Civil Service, identified by a series of landmark inquiries dating back to the Fulton Committee in the 1960s and beyond. The recent Civil Service Reform Plan includes a substantial strand of work aimed at “building capability by strengthening skills, deploying talent and improving organisational performance” – objectives that many governments have pursued but none can claim to have fulfilled.
Civil service reform - past lessons
The history of civil service reform in Britain dates back to the seminal 1854 report by Sir Charles Trevelyan and Sir Stafford Northcote. It introduced competitive examinations and promotion on merit.
Fiscal consolidation
The UK's public sector faces a deep fiscal squeeze over the coming decade. No one in Whitehall has had the experience of managing a fiscal challenge of this scale.
Fixing the flaws in government IT
IT should be a tool enabling government to improve public services as well as the relationship between citizen and state. We have made recommendations that have been adopted by the current Government ICT Strategy. We followed up this work by a one-year-on review of progress on the changes set out in the strategy.
The Whitehall Monitor
The Whitehall Monitor is our space for collecting and analysing relevant data published on the state of the civil service following the spending review.
Transforming the civil service
By any international benchmark, successive governments have driven an extraordinary range of public service reform in the UK over the last 25 years. As a result the civil service is now a very different place from the world portrayed by Yes Minister.
Transforming Whitehall
The Institute for Government has been researching how to effectively lead and manage major change in Whitehall departments since 2009.