Francis Maude’s latest plan to get the civil service working more effectively sounds very sensible: so sensible, in fact, that it’s a wonder it has taken so long. The problem is that he currently can’t be as sensible as he’d hoped when it comes to appointing senior civil servants.
The headline announcement is that the government has published the personal objectives of 15 permanent secretaries, along with those for Sir Bob Kerslake and Sir Jeremy Heywood. The worst performing 10 per cent of those civil servants will be identified and put into a programme of performance management. Ministers will also have more involvement in assessing their permanent secretaries’ performance. All very sensible.
There’s some interesting detail in the individual plans that’s worth looking at. Jeremy Heywood’s objectives for 2012/13 are rather oblique, with plenty of aims such as ‘good collaborative working across departments’ and ‘strong relationships with ministers’.
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