Antonia Romeo needs to reinvigorate the civil service

Antonia Romeo, until recently permanent secretary at the Home Office, has been appointed as cabinet secretary and head of the civil service. But by choosing not to split the roles and radically reform the centre of government as part of this appointment process, Sir Keir Starmer has retained the dysfunctional structures of Whitehall which have failed his, and previous governments. In doing so, he has pitched Romeo into an uphill battle.

That Romeo wins that battle is all the more important given the nature of Wormald’s departure. Removing a cabinet secretary as part of a political reset has been damaging for the post, leaving it more politicised, more ephemeral and less robust. Romeo’s success is therefore intimately connected to the legitimacy of the post itself, and with it that of the civil service as an institution.

First and foremost, Romeo needs a trusting and robust relationship with the prime minister

It is hard to overstate the importance of the relationship between prime minister and cabinet secretary. Starmer and Romeo need to take joint responsibility for strengthening this, and to remedy the problems in his relationship with Wormald.

For Romeo, this must be not just a positive relationship, but, as the most senior civil service adviser to the prime minister, a robust one. On policy advice, she will need to show that she is actively leading and driving the implementation of Starmer’s objectives through the civil service – something he and his political team will need to set out more clearly. But Romeo must also have the confidence to tell the prime minister when his approach will not work, and what could be done instead.

Similarly, it is Romeo’s job now to get under the skin of Starmer’s frustration that the machinery of government does not seem to work for him and his ministers. She will need to show that it can work, filling the space between the prime minister’s desire for ‘more effective’ government and the scant plans to get there. But, again, this does not mean always agreeing with the prime minister. Romeo may need to step in – sometimes publicly – to set direction and strengthen the underpinnings of the institution she leads.  

Sound advice – on both policy judgments and the running of government – is frank and fearless. That will not always be comfortable for either party. But a robust relationship will withstand those tensions, and government will be all the better for them.

Romeo needs to get civil servants to understand the scale of the task ahead

Romeo has seen up close the challenges facing the British state as permanent secretary at the Home Office and Ministry of Justice. She will be no under illusion about the scale and complexity of the issues facing the state. Nor should she be under any illusion about the state of the civil service itself – and the institution’s inability to meet the challenges it faces today.

Romeo’s task is now to get the half a million civil servants she leads, and their political masters, to recognise two things at the same time. First, that the civil service as an institution is failing in too many ways, which will continue until something changes. Second, that the civil service – under her leadership – is capable of bringing about that change. This is a delicate balancing act. If the messaging is too complacent she risks being constrained to tinkering around the edges; too catastrophist and she loses the good faith of the institution she is trying to lead. Either could result in trust in the civil service collapsing entirely.

Striking this balance cannot be done behind closed doors. If she is to succeed, Romeo must be a visible cabinet secretary, leading in the open and genuinely connecting with the civil servants she leads.

Romeo must make practical reforms to the civil service now

Together, these are huge asks from one person. But Romeo can hit the ground running – earning the confidence of both Starmer and officials – by taking quick decisive action on civil service reform. 

Radical change to the centre of government remains essential, even if Starmer has shown little willingness to do what is necessary. We need a new Department for the Prime Minister and Cabinet and one for the civil service. We need a civil service on a statutory footing, and a civil service board to hold the prime minister and cabinet secretary to account on reform.

But we also need practical steps and reforms to the ways the civil service functions now. Romeo should start in the coming days and weeks. Some will inevitably take time to implement, and many will face resistance, but that is no excuse not to start with energy.

1. Set out what sort of civil service you need in order to deliver. The government had promised a ‘strategic workforce plan’ setting out what the civil service of the future would need to look like for the institution to be able to deliver on the government’s ambitions. In its continued absence, big decisions on people and skills are being taken with no sense of the direction the civil service is going in.
2. Prioritise digital transformation. If the government is going to succeed in “wholesale digital transformation of the state”, ⁴ Cabinet Office and Rt Hon Darren Jones MP, 'Move fast. Fix things.', speech, GOV.UK, 20 January 2026, www.gov.uk/government/speeches/move-fast-fix-things  the barriers preventing policy and digital officials working together need addressing – mandatory training of digital specialists in the policy design process and clearer mechanisms for secondments would help now. The new cabinet secretary also needs to ensure departments and ministers alike are tackling legacy technology and the cyber risks associated with it.
3. Properly reform performance management. Poor performance, and the failure to address it, is corrosive. Regular compulsory redundancy rounds, performance-based pay and allowing managers to access previous appraisals of internal candidates are obvious first steps.
4. Break open the civil service. Lack of external expertise – exacerbated by the current recruitment freezes shutting out external hires – damage civil service capability. The ‘success profiles’ currently used to recruit are opaque and confusing to outsiders and should be replaced, and all roles need advertising externally by default. 

At a time of political uncertainty and in a volatile world, there are countless challenges that will face the new cabinet secretary. But politicians and officials alike have agreed for some years that the state, and the civil service in particular, needs reform. Romeo needs to use that consensus and the burning platform to start to drive that change now.