The government started recruiting for the new role in July and seeks, according to the job advert available online, someone “able to demonstrate that he or she has had a successful career in the private sector".
The appointee will attend Cabinet as an observer; they will have responsibilities to Cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood, who will be their line manager, but “day to day he/she will work to the minister for the Cabinet Office, and on efficiency issues, to the chief secretary to the Treasury.”
Heywood will be their line manager, but “day to day he/she will work to the minister for the Cabinet Office, and on efficiency issues, to the chief secretary to the Treasury.”
Speaking at an Institute for Government (IfG) event today, Dugher (pictured) said that the job description of the new role shows that the CEO “will not be a chief executive” in the way the term is understood in “either the public or private sector”.
He added: “The idea of strengthening the central leadership around civil service reform is a positive step but the holder of this new post will not be responsible for either running the civil service or line managing permanent secretaries and he/she will themselves have multiple line managers.”
Asked whether the new CEO would be given perm sec line-managing responsibilities under Labour, Dugher said: “We'd rather the government made the necessary changes now, so we'll have to look at what situation we'll inherit.”
Dugher, who gave a speech on Labour’s plans for civil service reform, also said that a Labour backs greater ministerial involvement in perm sec appointments and that the prime minister should be able to pick from a shortlist of “above the line” candidates.
Labour would also carry out a “refreshed capability plan within the first year of government” and carry out “a full audit of all capabilities within the civil service”, strengthening the civil service professions.
It will also want to reduce civil service churn and staff rotation and introduce “consequences for poor performers”
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