News

Pruned hard, the civil service will be lost without new skills.

The government is not sufficiently prioritising some fields of government IT work that could produce big savings, delegates at an IT conference last December said in an electronic survey.

Last week the Civil Service Commission published its response to two proposals in the Civil Service Reform Plan for greater ministerial involvement in senior civil service appointments. The most discussed proposal would give ministers the right to choose their permanent secretaries from a number of candidates judged suitable by a selection panel. In our response, the commission actively supports the involvement of ministers in permanent secretary competitions and has agreed some further changes to strengthen that involvement. But we stop short of giving ministers a choice. That would, we believe, be a step too far.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has paused his plans to allow ministers to choose their permanent secretary from an approved shortlist, after the Civil Service Commission intervened to propose a compromise arrangement.

Janice Hartley and Sue Moore started their roles as directors of delivery for Universal Credit at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) on 5 November, replacing Steve Dover, the previous director of programme delivery. Hartley was previously the DWP’s interim service delivery director for corporate IT, and Moore was its fraud and error programme director. A DWP spokesperson told CSW the roles were not “direct replacements” for Dover because “the scope of the roles of senior staff has changed” as the project moves from the design to delivery phase.

The government has repeatedly come a cropper when outsourcing work, but the number of outsourced projects is only going to grow. Mark Smulian attends a round table on how the civil service can become a shrewder customer

The Social Mobility Strategy is facing a gale-force headwind

We were both honoured to attend and be part of the Civil Service Awards last month. From Stranraer to Bournemouth, the outstanding work of civil servants was celebrated – whether they’d delivered roads or the Olympics, run prisons or Jobcentres. In one evening we recognised the very best of the civil service and left in no doubt that we lead some of the most talented professionals.

The government’s new Open Data Institute launched yesterday with an additional $750,000 (£466,000) investment from philanthropic body the Omidyar Network, run by the founder of eBay.

Civil service head Sir Bob Kerslake has told CSW that the turnover of permanent secretaries in the past two years has been too high, and that “in an ideal world” there would not be as much change.

The civil service makes a “huge contribution” to serving the country and its good work should be recognised, Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said at the Civil Service Awards on 22 November.

The Big Lottery Fund (BLF) and the Institute for Government (IfG) are entering into a partnership to build links between civil servants and the frontline workers who deliver services to vulnerable people.

The prime minister’s plan to scrap Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) is “very worrying,” according to Mencap, the charity for people with learning disabilities.

A new Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is to become fully operational in April 2014, under plans to merge the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission.

Two new Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) and a Social Outcomes Fund were launched by the Cabinet Office on 23 November.

The Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC) admitted last month that the personal data of its members was stolen more than two years ago.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport last week appointed members of a steering group to oversee the government’s review of the Public Sector Equality Duty, which requires all public sector bodies to ensure that their policy delivery and internal processes do not discriminate against any groups.

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A gathering of civil service chiefs from around the world has identified a need for western governments to strengthen their horizon-scanning and strategic planning capabilities, with former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell calling for the UK to commission think tanks to develop policy on some of the long-term issues that it’s “difficult” for governments to tackle.

Failure to properly communicate the increase in university tuition fees to £9,000 a year has already caused a large drop in student numbers and may also affect applications this year, Professor Les Ebdon, director of the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) has told Civil Service World.

Arriving at Stockholm’s Cityterminalen bus station in November, the visitor’s initial impressions are that it seems a quiet, grey sort of a place, but that perhaps it holds a few hidden treasures.

A special educational needs teacher considers realistic ambitions, unfair criticisms, and how the EBacc might affect non-academic children.

To encourage poorer and ethnic minority youngsters to consider a career in the civil service, the government has introduced new internships. Tim Fish reports on efforts to ensure Whitehall’s high-flyers are less uniformly white.

Breaking the cycle of welfare dependence is a complex task. Approaching the issue in a more scientific manner can pay dividends, the Department for Work and Pensions’ social justice director explains to Joshua Chambers