About the Civil Service
Capability Reviews
Background
In October 2005, the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell announced to the Public Administration Select Committee that he would work with permanent secretary colleagues to develop Capability Reviews that would both assess how well equipped departments are to meet their delivery challenges and provide targeted support to make any improvements required.
The programme is run for the Cabinet Secretary by the Capability Reviews Team in the Cabinet Office. The review programme targets underlying capability issues that impact on effective delivery, such as:
- Do departments have the right strategic and leadership capabilities?
- Do they know how well they are performing, and do they have the tools to fix their problems when they underachieve?
- Do their people have the right skills to meet both current and future challenges?
- Do they engage effectively with their key stakeholders, partners and the public?
The reviews are conducted using a standard model of capability developed by the Capability Reviews Team through consultation with senior leaders in Whitehall and external experts.
The Capability Review programme is part of the wider reform of the civil service. The objectives of the programme are to:
- Bring about a step change in the capability of departments for future delivery.
- Improve the capability of the Civil Service to be ready for the challenges of tomorrow as well as to meet today’s delivery challenges.
- Assure Ministers that departments’ Civil Service leadership is suitably equipped to develop and execute Ministerial strategies.
The overarching aim is to achieve a Civil Service which is better at delivery - that can deliver its existing targets, understand its future challenges and rise to meet them efficiently and effectively.
The first four reviews were conducted in the Home Office, Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Department for Education and Skills (DfES). The reports were published in July 2006.
The next three reviews were conducted in the Cabinet Office, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Communities and Local Government (CLG). These reports were published in December 2006.
In March 2007 reports on a further 5 departments were published. These were on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Department for International Development (DFID), Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Ministry of Defence (MOD).
In June 2007 reports were published following the reviews of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Department of Heath and Department of Transport (DfT).
Most recently, in December 2007 reports were published on HM Revenue & Customs and HM Treasury.
The review teams included business and public sector leaders from outside Government with national recognition for their achievements and successes. The conclusions are evidence based and the findings have been reviewed for consistency by an external moderating panel.