News

Ministry of Justice permanent secretary Suma Chakrabarti has achieved big savings while focusing on evidence-based policy and payment-by-results – but now a political squal has upset his plans. Matt Ross meets him.

Leadership guru Steve Radcliffe has spent years coaching the cabinet secretary, and is now working with several permanent secretaries while planning a series of free lectures for civil servants. Ben Willis catches up with him.

A university lecturer discusses the importance of good decision-making and a holistic education

This week’s interviewee says the coach of NHS reform is heading broadly in the right direction, but wishes the driver would take more care

A college business manager complains that government endlessly changes the rules

In her role as chair of the environmental audit committee, Joan Walley MP is responsible for scrutinising cross-departmental work on sustainability. Edward Davie hears her take aim at the coalition's green performance.

The health select committee chair – and former health secretary – Stephen Dorrell has been instrumental in delaying the coalition’s NHS reforms. Speaking to Joshua Chambers, he sets out his own plans for healthcare.

Tuition fee and student visa policies are creating dangerous uncertainty, a lecturer argues

Labour MP Anne Begg was press-ganged into becoming an expert on benefits, but has since learnt to love the topic. She enthuses to Joshua Chambers about her role as chair of the work and pensions select committee

Alan Beith, the Lib Dems' longest-serving MP, scrutinises government as chair of the justice and liaison committees. Matt Ross tries to improve his view of Whitehall still further by dangling him out of the office window.

A community support officer from the Midlands is worried about the effect of overtime cuts

An NHS worker wonders why her hospital has a complex IT system but also uses paper records

The Home Office and Transport briefs are notorious as political minefields. But Lin Homer, who survived the Home Office’s annus horribilis, is keen to see what the DfT can throw at her. Matt Ross meets the department’s new head.

From this month, every big scheme run by Whitehall departments will be overseen by the Major Projects Authority. Suzannah Brecknell meets David Pitchford – the man charged with overseeing and improving your projects.

A sixth form modern languages teacher thinks that schools and teachers should be given more powers to shape their curricula.

A key adviser to three chancellors and three prime ministers, Number 10 permanent secretary Jeremy Heywood has spent twenty years at the epicentre of political power. In his first ever interview, he speaks to Matt Ross.

Broadening the focus of environmental monitoring, the PM is ‘mainstreaming’ sustainability into all management and policymaking. Suzannah Brecknell gets an explanation from Defra director-general Mike Anderson.

Relations between the Ministry of Defence and its select committee have not always been easy. But its chairman James Arbuthnot tells Ben Willis that MoD officials shouldn’t view the committee corridor as enemy territory.

Una O’Brien has taken the helm at the Department of Health as the NHS undergoes the most fundamental reforms in its history. She tells Suzannah Brecknell that persistence and partnership working will make those reforms work.

This week we meet a hospital doctor, who discusses changes to the medical career ladder

This week, an architect explains why school design matters – and warns that current policies will damage pupils’ education.

BIS permanent secretary Martin Donnelly would like to protect an insipid image while his department handles some political hot potatoes and sheds staff. But Joshua Chambers finds that his job is anything but bland.

Schools have improved in recent years, says a primary school teacher, but the renewed emphasis on testing won’t work for all pupils – and the cuts present a danger to many children’s education

Permanent secretaries are clear about the task ahead, says Matt Ross: supporting and empowering their staff.