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1 month ago | 
civilserviceworld.com | Dave Penman |Tevye Markson
The government’s announcement in October that it was maintaining the 60% office-attendance mandate was as disappointing as it was evidence free. There was no consultation with unions, which is a pity, as we were in the middle of analysing our biggest-ever survey of members – over 7,000 – on the issue of hybrid working.
The response rate itself should tell you something about the concerns civil servants have over the approach of successive governments.
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1 month ago | 
civilserviceworld.com | Dave Penman |Tevye Markson
The government’s announcement in October that it was maintaining the 60% office-attendance mandate was as disappointing as it was evidence free. There was no consultation with unions, which is a pity, as we were in the middle of analysing our biggest-ever survey of members – over 7,000 – on the issue of hybrid working.
The response rate itself should tell you something about the concerns civil servants have over the approach of successive governments.
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1 month ago | 
civilserviceworld.com | Dave Penman |Jim Dunton
No civil servant who has endured the last decade can come away from that experience without being a little bit scarred. They’ve witnessed governments who have played fast and loose with our constitution (proroguing parliament), the rule of law (in a limited and specific way) as well as the relentless attacks on the civil service, its values and any number of individual civil servants.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
civilserviceworld.com | Dave Penman |Jess Bowie |Jim Dunton
A New Year heralds a new cabinet secretary and head of the civil service. Welcome, Chris, all is fine.
It says a lot about the past few years that the most experienced permanent secretary didn’t appear on many people’s lists for top pick as Simon Case’s replacement. A job that used to be defined as being in the shadows has in recent times been a very public one, through necessity rather than choice, I would suggest. Events have thrust the role and its occupants into the limelight.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
civilserviceworld.com | Tevye Markson |Dave Penman
The prime minister has written to civil servants, pledging that his cabinet will provide the leadership officials need to deliver and urging them to “feel emboldened” to “upset the apple cart”.
In a letter sent to civil servants this morning and seen by CSW, Keir Starmer praised officials’ “dedication, professionalism and strong sense of public service”, but said they face “too many obstacles”.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
civilserviceworld.com | Dave Penman |Tevye Markson
Bathgate is a small town in West Lothian. It’s one of those that’s not really known for one big thing. The world's oldest known reptile fossil, Westlothiana lizziae, was discovered in a local quarry. It’s had steel making, quarries, car plants and even mobile phone factories. Most are long gone. Its famous former sons and daughters include motorsport’s Paul Di Resta and Dario Franchitti; it was even home to Hollywood’s Isla Fisher in her youth.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
civilserviceworld.com | Steve Thomas |Dave Penman
Everyone likes a good piece of pantomime this time of year, but the opinion piece by Andrew Moretta recently published in Civil Service World painting Prospect and our colleagues at the FDA as “ugly sisters” and telling us what we think really didn’t fill me with a feeling of solidarity. To put it another way, it did rather feel that that the author was doing all he could to engineer the fear that “he’s behind you”.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
civilserviceworld.com | Jim Dunton |Dave Penman
Whitehall needs a massive influx of special advisers to give ministers the advice and support they need – and bring the UK government into line with global counterparts, according to a new report by think tank Reform.
The paper says the roughly 100 spads who work in the UK government is just a fraction of the 600 politically appointed staff in the Canadian government, while France has around 500 and Australia 400.
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Oct 4, 2024 | 
civilserviceworld.com | Dave Penman |Beckie Smith
Kemi Badenoch’s get the clicks and deal with the consequences later leadership is classic Boris Johnson playbook
Harry Enfield had a character in his sketch show in the 90s called George Whitebread. He was a plain-speaking Yorkshireman, placed in a series of unlikely scenarios like an A
advertising agency’s creative meeting or a therapy session. He would crassly insult everyone, making matters worse, and excusing himself by using his catchphrase “say what I like and like what I bloody well say”.
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Sep 6, 2024 | 
civilserviceworld.com | Dave Penman |Jim Dunton
If you’d been taking bets on the new Labour government’s first big political challenge, you’d have got pretty long odds on a cronyism row involving the impartiality of the civil service. Yet somehow that’s where we’ve ended up.
Starm in a tea cup – or genuine scandal?
First, the facts. The brouhaha mainly centres around three appointments: Ian Corfield, Emily Middleton and Jess Sargeant.
