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Cross-department team behind HR reform proposals wins Reimagine Challenge. Matt Ross reports

Jonathan Powell, the former diplomat, chief of staff to Tony Blair and Northern Irish peacebroker, is currently trying to negotiate a ceasefire in Libya. Matt Ross asks him about the FCO, sofa government, and the ups and downs of liberal interventionalism

For the last five years, Civil Service World has rounded off December by publishing a set of articles written by permanent secretaries and other key figures. This year, Matt Ross finds perm secs focusing on skills, Scotland, global threats – and the creeping advance of Xmas

Facing the coalition, the civil service’s labour movement is split between outright opposition and constructive engagement. Matt Ross examines the tensions between – and within – Whitehall’s unions. llustration by John Levers

Since 2008, the civil service has seen huge change. Now it’s time for me to follow its lead

The director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, started in the job just as phone hacking and sex abuse trials put her organisation under the media spotlight. She tells CSW about a turbulent first year leading the Crown Prosecution Service. Photo by Mark Weeks

As the government’s chief operating officer Stephen Kelly returns to the IT industry, he tells Matt Ross that the civil service is being transformed by changing systems, inspirational leaders – and ‘the great reformer’

Francis Maude’s tweaks to a core facet of our democracy have the support of key players. But what about everybody else?

Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell has spoken up for evidence-based policymaking – an approach often distorted by poor data or trumped by anecdotes

The civil service must foster “a more vibrant, competitive marketplace” of government contractors and rebuild its skills in contract management, the government’s outgoing chief operating officer Stephen Kelly has told CSW.

The government should introduce five-year spending plans and independent assessments of its infrastructure plans, former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell told an audience at the Royal Statistical Society last month. 

After seven years running the Met Office, John Hirst is returning to the business world. CSW gets his views on leading civil servants, working with politicians, and being in charge of the weather

Whitehall needs to build stronger specialist skills; CSW editor Matt Ross argues, it will only succeed if it’s willing to challenge the status quo

John Manzoni, the chief executive of the Major Projects Authority, has been named as the new chief executive of the civil service.

By chance, two service delivery heavyweights have shared a single message. Ministers and officials alike should listen up

Helen Edwards left a career in frontline social work and charity management for a job on Whitehall; now she's the DCLG's deputy permanent secretary. She tells Matt Ross about pursuing change in service delivery, councils, and her own department. Photo by Mark Weeks

First civil service commissioner Sir David Normington is normally the one asking the questions: it's his job to chair top-level Whitehall recruitments. Matt Ross turns the tables, quizzing Normington on his battle to defend an impartial civil service. Photos by Mark Weeks.

CSW magazine is full of white men. But don't shoot the messenger: we're depicting the reality of Whitehall's top leadership.

As the search begins for a new head of the civil service, read the last interview by incumbent Sir Bob Kerslake – interviewed with the new titular head of the civil service Sir Jeremy Heywood. Words by Matt Ross; picture by Mark Weeks

Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell has welcomed the government’s plan to recombine the jobs of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, telling Radio 4’s Today programme this morning that “having one person doing both jobs is a big step forward.”

The head of Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government is a fan of the British civil service – but it’s being battered by some heavyweight global forces, she says, and must learn a new fighting style. Matt Ross meets her