Capability Reviews: Progress and Next Steps - The Civil Service

later tranches have not been able to build on the lessons from earlier tranches toan extent that is reflected in better scores.The importance of learning is discussed further in Chapter 3 of this report. TheSunningdale Institute’s evaluation describes ‘A “learning to learn” culture: withinwhich change is continuous rather than spasmodic and there is a commitment tolearn from anyone who does something better inside or outside the organisation’.Developing such a corporate culture and infrastructure across the Civil Service willbe vital to securing improvement.Exhibit 2: Assessments against each element of the model of capabilityThere are some clear patterns of departmental capability strengths and somecommon areas for development.S2: Base choiceson evidenceL2: Ignite passion,pace and driveS1: Focus onoutcomesL1: SetdirectionS3: Build commonpurposeD3: ManageperformanceL3: Leading deliveryand changeD1: Plan, resourceand prioritiseL4: BuildcapabilityD2: Roles,responsibilities,delivery model(s)Source: Capability Review reports, Capability Reviews Team 2006/07.These scores have not changed significantly since Tranche 3.• High scores in four elements are positively correlated with an overall high score –these are L1, L2 and S2 (three of the four highest-scoring elements), and D2(the lowest-scoring element).• All the ‘strong’ scores are for leadership or strategy, with more than half of thescores for S2 being ‘strong’ or ‘well placed’.• The three ‘serious concerns’ are in leadership or delivery.• Only one department – DCA in Tranche 1 – scored ‘well placed’ in L4.The common capability gaps discussed in this chapter reflect those elements ofcapability for which the scores were lowest. This, however, does not mean that thereshould be complacency in other areas; there is at least one department with anCAPABILITY REVIEWS: PROGRESS AND NEXT STEPS23