News

Permanent secretaries have declined in status over the last 50 years, according to the Lib Dem peer Baroness Margaret Sharp of Guildford, a former civil servant.

Civil servants from across Whitehall should make use of a new £5.4m language centre opened by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the department’s permanent secretary Sir Simon Fraser has said.

Government’s efforts to reform the civil service have been “characterised by a hectoring and haranguing tone,” and morale has hit “rock bottom”, Jon Trickett, Labour’s Cabinet Office spokesperson has told CSW.

This week’s interviewee is a biomedical technician looking after ward-based medical equipment in an urban area hospital.

Senior civil servants can no longer expect to remain out of the public eye, according to NHS England chief executive Sir David Nicholson, who has faced attacks from newspapers and patient groups over his involvement in the crisis at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust.

NHS chief Sir David Nicholson has faced a storm of criticism in recent months as concerns over care quality have rocked hospitals across the country. He tells Suzannah Brecknell of his determination to fix the problems

The UK economy is stumbling back into growth, but still remains over three per cent smaller than it was before the global financial crisis in 2008. Real wages have declined in this period – the worse squeeze in living standards for a generation.

The Government Digital Service’s (GDS’s) approach to procurement and project management is “divisive”, according to Chi Onwurah, Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister for digital government.

Some civil servants do not understand how to properly use evidence to formulate policy, a senior Liberal Democrat MP has said.

Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the civil service, has rejected claims that structures within Whitehall are preventing open debates about government policy, and emphasised the need for senior leaders to encourage an “open culture in their department where people feel able to raise issues and concerns about progress”.

From unemployment to drug addiction, the public sector’s approach to helping families with multiple problems has often been fragmented. Joshua Chambers explores the new government scheme to unite these efforts

The split between delivery of health and social care is “crazy” according to care and support minister Norman Lamb, who said that an ageing population is forcing government to re-think the way care is delivered.

The separation between British health and social care has survived far longer than the iron curtain that divided Europe for 44 years. Winnie Agbonlahor looks at the government’s latest efforts to marry the two core services.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has requested flexibility to improve the pay of top staff in order to compete with the private sector, senior officials told two hearings of the Commons’ Defence Committee in the last week.

The Story of the Jews 

BBC Two, Sundays, 9pm

The Department for Transport (DfT) has a “shortage of the commercial skills it needs” to oversee High Speed 2, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) claimed in a report published this week.

Robert Devereux, permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), has said that a good news reporting culture among civil servants delivering Universal Credit (UC), was down to a  “let’s push through and get stuff done mentality” by managers.

The Department for Work and Pensions is reviewing how much of a £303m IT system developed to deliver its Universal Credit scheme can be salvaged after serious problems were identified with it.

The government’s lobbying bill should be extended to include senior civil servants and special advisers, according to the Commons’ Political and Constitutional Reform Committee (PCRC).

Civil service structures are preventing open debates about government policy, and stopping senior officials speaking truth to power, two select committee chairs have told Civil Service World.

Challenge must be encouraged, no matter what the project.

Michelle Cracknell, currently group commercial director at chartered financial planners LIFT Financial, has been appointed as chief executive of the Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) today.

An independent national infrastructure commission should be set up to evaluate the UK’s long-term infrastructure needs, according to a report published today by Sir John Armitt, former chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority and ex-chief executive of Network Rail.