Head of the Civil Service and Cabinet Secretary
From January 2012 The new Head of the Home Civil Service is Sir Bob Kerslake and the new Cabinet Secretary is Sir Jeremy Heywood.
Sir Bob Kerslake will combine his new role of the Head of the Civil Service with his current role as the Permanent Secretary for the Department of Communities and Local Government. The Head of the Civil Service is responsible for providing professional and corporate leadership to the Civil Service.
Sir Jeremy Heywood has moved from his Permanent Secretary role in No10 to Cabinet Secretary. The Cabinet Secretary is the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister’s most senior policy advisor, acting as Secretary to the Cabinet, responsible to all Ministers for the running of the Cabinet Governments.
Both roles report directly to the Prime Minister, with the Head of the Civil Service also reporting to the Minister for the Cabinet Office.
The Home Civil Service is made up of all HM Government organisations (except for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office). It also includes the Welsh Assembly Government and the Scottish Government.
Permanent secretaries
The most senior civil servant in a department is a permanent secretary. Each supports the government minister who heads their department and who is accountable to Parliament for the department’s actions and performance.
The permanent secretary is the ‘accounting officer’ for their department, reporting to Parliament. They must make sure their department spends the money allocated to them appropriately.
The permanent secretary leading a department is also responsible to the cabinet secretary and head of the Home Civil Service for the effective day-to-day management of their department and its civil servants.
The permanent secretary of the Scottish Government is accountable to the Scottish Parliament. Likewise, the permanent secretary of the Welsh Assembly Government is accountable to the National Assembly for Wales. The permanent secretaries for both the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly Government contribute to the Civil Service governance along with other permanent secretaries.
Our governing bodies
Our leaders need to set a clear overall direction for the Civil Service so that all our different organisations work as a coherent and effective whole.
The head of the Civil Service is supported in this by all his permanent secretaries through the Civil Service Governance Boards. These boards consider the issues that are important to all departments and decide on the best way forward for the whole Civil Service.
The Civil Service Steering Board (CSSB) chaired by the head of the Home Civil Service is responsible for the strategic leadership of the Civil Service.
Beneath this is there are also sub-groups which develop policies and proposals on long-term issues such as leadership, employee relations and capability.
In this way all of the permanent secretaries are involved in the long-term development of the Civil Service.