Capability Reviews: Progress and Next Steps - The Civil Service

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• The National School for Government has worked with CSCG to improve thesupport available to NEDs through an induction programme and seminars, andthrough guidance to departments on working effectively with NEDs.• Work has progressed in a range of professional areas to improve corporate skills:– The OGC is carrying out procurement capability reviews across Whitehall.– A group of 40 consultants are producing guidance on embedding financialskills within government.– The IT Academy has been established with support from the National Schoolof Government, offering a range of development opportunities to ITprofessionals, and work is under way to establish an HR Academy.– The National School of Government has set up a policy portal to provide onlinesupport to policy professionals.– The Government Communication Network offers access to a wide collection ofresources, good practice, and learning and development opportunities.• The HR Leaders’ Council is developing as an effective group, with a strongcommitment to addressing key issues for the profession, including thedevelopment of a professional framework, a new talent strategy and academy.Over recent months, departments and the centre have worked together to identifythose issues that need to be addressed collectively. A new ‘people framework’ forthe Civil Service is also being developed.It is clear that performance management must continue to be a strong focus for boththe centre and departments. CSCG currently sets the framework for SCSperformance management; this is operated in departments and made real byindividuals in day-to-day interactions and relationships. This is an area where a fargreater corporate emphasis on identifying good practice and learning from bothinside and beyond the Civil Service would be invaluable.Strong progress is being made in skills development in many of the corporatefunctions. IT, finance, communications and HR are building communities and skills.It will be important to continue to focus on the skills required by those in policy andoperational delivery roles. Further work needs to be done to develop a peopleframework for the whole of government, which will involve identifying the CivilService workforce of the future with its characteristics and skills needs and usingthis as a baseline for departments to assess their people’s skills and develop newbusiness-focused skills strategies.Delivery and performanceWhy does this matter?Capability Reviews look for systems and structures; sustainable capability that willenable departments to deliver excellent outcomes routinely against the significantchallenges of resource constraints and rising expectations.42COMMON CAPABILITY GAPS: PROGRESS AND NEXT STEPS
The recent CSR has emphasised the importance of delivery and performance in arange of contexts:‘While much has been achieved in the past decade, the context in which publicservices operate is changing rapidly, becoming increasingly challenging andcomplex. The social, economic and environmental trends affecting the UK arebuilding into new pressures on public services, and these developmentstogether with the achievements of the past ten years are generating risingexpectations from the public.’2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending AgreementThe response to this includes:• public sector improvement, which includes ambitious priorities, providing moreopportunities and empowerment for front-line workers and setting citizens at theheart of service delivery;• a new framework for performance management, with 30 new cross-cutting PSAsbeing monitored and assured by the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU);• service transformation, as set out in Sir David Varney’s report, including sharedservices, IT professionalism and better delivery; and• embedding efficiency and value for money.These all require a strong focus on delivery and performance in departments.The Capability Reviews identified some key challenges in this area. CapabilityReviews focus on the ability of the leadership teams in departments to drive deliveryand manage performance, with a focus on future challenges rather than on currentachievement of targets. Findings here have been mixed. Whilst 7 out of 17departments had an ‘urgent development area’ or ‘serious concerns’ for Plan,resource and prioritise (D1), a further 7 departments were assessed as ‘well placed’.This demonstrates that there is some strong performance in this area upon whichthe Civil Service can build.CAPABILITY REVIEWS: PROGRESS AND NEXT STEPS43
Page 1 and 2: Capability Reviews:Progress and Nex
Page 3 and 4: This has been an excellent example
Page 5 and 6: 1. Tranche 1 departments: a year on
Page 7 and 8: Department for Children, Schools an
Page 9 and 10: This will act as an innovative and
Page 11 and 12: • ‘Managing for improvement’:
Page 13 and 14: Home OfficeStarting from a low base
Page 15 and 16: Department’s wider agenda. Develo
Page 17 and 18: Ministry of JusticeThe MoJ was crea
Page 19 and 20: A number of significant programmes
Page 21 and 22: 2. Common capability gaps: progress
Page 23 and 24: later tranches have not been able t
Page 25 and 26: or hinder it:‘lack of leadership
Page 27 and 28: All of these aspects came together
Page 29 and 30: Case study: Collective leadership i
Page 31 and 32: • Engaging the wider SCS. This is
Page 33 and 34: Participants’ comments included:
Page 35 and 36: Consequently, the areas of focus su
Page 37 and 38: Building up the supply and demand s
Page 39 and 40: Case study: Development work with d
Page 41: Case study: A skills strategy for g
Page 45 and 46: At six months after the review:•
Page 47 and 48: Our challenge now is to ensure that
Page 49 and 50: • a more comprehensive approach t
Page 51 and 52: The Tranche 3 report identified the
Page 53 and 54: Case study: The Home Office Strateg
Page 55 and 56: The group is expanding to include l
Page 57 and 58: • The Sunningdale Institute facil
Page 59 and 60: Exhibit 3: Change trajectoriesCapab
Page 61 and 62: original reviews. The re-review wil
Page 63 and 64: Departments increasingly have to wo
Page 65 and 66: LeadershipKey questions that test c
Page 67 and 68: DeliveryKey questions that test cur
Page 69: Capability Reviews TeamCabinet Offi

Capability Reviews: Progress and Next Steps - The Civil Service

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