Leadership

Senior civil servants are used to facing tough questioning from select committees. Elizabeth Bates looks at what the next parliament might have in store for these powerful groups of MPs

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude tells CSW that performance management should move from a system where managers categorise set proportions of staff as performing well, acceptably and poorly to one where employees are individually ranked best to worst

It’s two years since the launch of the Major Projects Leadership Academy, a training school designed to improve the leadership of big public sector schemes. With 100 graduates now under its belt, is the programme achieving its aims? Colin Marrs reports

Lord Falconer is the man entrusted by Ed Miliband with preparing Labour for government. Here he speaks to Matt Foster about the party’s plans for Whitehall, and why he thinks the coalition has got its relationship with the civil service "dramatically wrong". Photos by Louise Haywood-Schiefer

Another inconclusive election will mean uncertainty for the country – and complex challenges for Whitehall, says the Institute for Government's Peter Riddell

With the general election looming, Geoff Mulgan and Stian Westlake of the innovation think tank Nesta​ say any prime minister who wants to get things done needs to seriously consider changes to the centre of government

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg promises above-inflation payrise for public sector from 2019 if party holds "balance of power"

Journalist Jane Dudman assesses the state of Whitehall as it prepares for a new government

Exclusive: Labour peer in charge of preparing party for government says he wants to avoid "civil service wars" associated with creating, scrapping and merging departments, but eyes greater role for Number 10

Changes to civil service media rules dreamt up in Whitehall look very different to officials on the frontline, argues FDA union general secretary Dave Penman

‘Fragmentation’ and coalition wariness will make post-election talks more ‘complicated’, Institute for Government director Peter Riddell tells UCL event

Foreign Office announces that its permanent secretary Simon Fraser is to leave Whitehall at the end of July

Former Scope and Mencap IT director Conall Bullock takes on newly-created Cabinet Office role, reporting directly to permanent secretary Richard Heaton

The civil service’s greatest strength is its people. But are they also its biggest risk?

New study by CSMA club highlights gap between public and private sector attitudes to work

If the next government wants to shake up Whitehall, it must do it in the right way, for the right reasons, says the Institute for Government's Peter Riddell

There’s a long way to go, but civil servants are finally starting to get the IT they need, says the government’s chief technology officer Liam Maxwell

The civil service has taken a battering – but could Sir Humphrey’s time be about to come again?

Exclusive: Cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood sets out revised Talent Action Plan after 'worrying' government-commissioned reports on LGBT, BME and disability representation in the civil service

Report by former Stonewall chief executive, commissioned by the Cabinet Office, says many LGBT staff feel 'pressured to fit into a conventional mould'

SCS requirement for 'supreme flexibility' in working is holding back disabled civil servants, one of three government-commissioned reports on diversity finds

A former police call centre worker tells Freya Pascall about the pressures – exacerbated by central government – that led to their resignation. Illustration by John Levers

 The next government must build on existing Whitehall reforms if it wants to avoid mid-term failures, says think tank the Institute for Government