Civil service job document attacked by minister

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/08/civil-service-job-document-attacked-francis-maude

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The Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude, has criticised a job description used for the recruitment of top Whitehall mandarins that he says "does not conform with constitutional propriety" as it suggests civil servants are not obliged to follow government policy.

The document, written in 2009 but still in use, states that successful permanent secretaries – the most senior official in each department – should be able to "balance" the immediate needs and priorities of ministers with "the long-term aims of their department".

They act as "a 'pivot point' in terms of knowing when to 'serve' the political agenda and manage ministers' expectations versus leading their department with a strong sense of mission", the document obtained by BBC2's Newsnight explains.

And they should be able to "tolerate high levels of ambiguity and uncertainty and rapid change – and at times irrational political demands".

Maude – who has battled with senior officials over civil service reform and advocates allowing secretaries of state to choose their permanent secretary from a shortlist drawn up by officials – is now having the document "refreshed".

He is thought to have become aware of its contents only in recent days when permission was sought for cash to be spent updating it.

In a letter to fellow ministers, he was reported to have written: "As currently framed [the document] plainly does not conform with constitutional propriety. The civil service aims not to serve the 'long-term aims of the department' but the priorities of the government of the day."

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "The constitutional position is clear that the civil service exists to serve the government of the day, while retaining the potential to serve a future government.

"A document laying out the criteria for permanent secretary candidates from 2009, which predates both this government and the leadership of the civil service, did not reflect that position and is therefore being refreshed. Permanent secretary appointments are made on merit following fair and open competition."

According to the civil service code of conduct, civil servants "serve the government, whatever its political persuasion, to the best of your ability in a way which maintains political impartiality".

The recruitment document said, however, that a permanent secretary "balances ministers' or high-level stakeholders' immediate needs or priorities with the long-term aims of their department, being shrewd about what needs to be sacrificed, at what costs and what the implications might be".

The Conservative former minister Nick Herbert told Newsnight: "I think this is an extraordinary document. This is actually beyond a joke. We can't have a kind of permanent government of an unelected bureaucracy deciding that it has its own long-term priorities which may be different to those of ministers and elected government.

"And I think this does go to some of the problems that we're seeing of a civil service which is sometimes resistant to change."

Lord Butler, who as cabinet secretary was head of the civil service for a decade until 1998, said he could not see a problem with the document.

"There is nothing there that I wouldn't have put down in black and white … some of it could have been a bit more straightforwardly expressed but … I think it does reflect the borders that permanent secretaries can't cross," he said.

"Ministers have a political agenda which civil servants can't get into. Although you're working very closely together, you've got to keep a bit of difference between yourselves."