Speaking in an interview on his plans for civil service reform, he said: “We will see more corporate management of the senior civil service, more cross-Whitehall work on talent development and career development… in the civil service reform plan.”
A poll by CSW showed that 52 per cent of civil servants think that one of the “three biggest barriers limiting people’s ability or readiness to move between civil service organisations” is “a tendency within recruiting organisations to favour internal candidates.”
Kerslake suggested that “one of the ways we might deal with that is to have more consistency across the civil service in how we assess people’s capabilities, and that’s something we think we’ll look through and have some proposals on in the civil service reform plan.
“If you had more consistency about being able to assess people’s capabilities, people might therefore in interviews be open to looking at someone who wasn’t from their own department. Personally, I’m very strongly in favour of open recruitment and for people to move in and out of that process, and anything we can do to encourage that, I’m up for doing,” he added.
CSW understands Sir Bob plans to publish his reforms in June.