News

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Civil Service Apprenticeship Scheme

The Civil Service Reform programme will introduce a new Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme giving the most talented school-leavers the opportunity to work at the heart of government, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, and the Head of the Civil Service, Sir Bob Kerslake, have announced.

Find out more about the scheme

People Survey results

The Civil Service benchmark scores have been published revealing some great scores around being interested in your work and being clear about what is expected of you in your role but much more work needed around keeping you informed of changes that affect you and managing change.

Read more: Sir Bob’s blog about the People Survey results

Civil Service Awards 2012

Watch the PM’s video congratulating civil servants for all their hard work.

Read more: Civil Service Awards 2012

Wellbeing and policymaking- an update from Sir Jeremy Heywood

Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary, explains why today is an important milestone for the Wellbeing Programme which was launched two years ago by the Prime Minister. The ONS have done some excellent work in this period particularly in defining what we mean by wellbeing and then seeking to measure it.

Read more here: http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/news/wellbeing-and-policy-update

Civil Service Awards – Olympic Award Shortlist Announced

Ahead of next Thursday’s Civil Service Awards taking place at Lancaster House we can now announce the shortlists for the three Olympic Awards for team, individual and Civil Service Games Volunteer.

Following the success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, a one-off category was created for the 2012 Civil Service Awards to celebrate individuals and teams who showed excellence in delivering the 2012 Games.

Read more here: http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/news/civil-service-awards-olympic-award-shortlist-announced

Civil Service Reform: A more digital Civil Service

The actions outlined in the Government Digital Strategy will start to transform central government services and improve the way the government makes policy and communicates with people.

In future there will be a consistent, coordinated approach across the whole of government, to provide better services for users and reduce government costs. By December 2012, each department will publish their own departmental digital strategy.

Find out more about the strategy

Civil Service Diversity and Equality Award Winners 2012 announced

Sir Bob Kerslake, Sir Jeremy Heywood and the Civil Service Diversity Champion Sir Paul Jenkins hosted the winners of the 2012 Awards at a special ceremony at DEFRA’s Nobel House on Friday 26th October.

Find out more about the award winners here: http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/news/civil-service-diversity-and-equality-award-winners

Prime Minister & Sir Bob Kerslake thank civil servants for their work towards London 2012 Games

The Prime Minister and Sir Bob Kerslake, Head of the Civil Service, thanked civil servants for their work toward the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Sir Bob announced that nominations for the Olympics Award are now open as part of this years Civil Service Awards.

You can read the PM’s letter to civil servants and see Sir Bob’s video message here: http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/news/pm-thanks-civil-servants-london-2012

Contestable Policy Making

Contestable policy making became a reality today when the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, announced that the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has won the first contract from the Government’s Contestable Policy Fund to carry out a review into how other civil services work, with a particular focus on accountability systems.

Read more on the Cabinet Office site here: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/government-first-use-contestable-policy-fund

New Olympic Award for civil servants

Following the closing ceremony of the Olympics we are pleased to be able to recognise the efforts of the civil servants who assisted in making the Games happen. A one-off Olympic category for the 2012 Civil Service Awards has been created to celebrate individuals or teams who show excellence in delivering the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. The awards will be judged and presented by Lord Coe.

Further information on how to submit nominations here: http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/news/new-olympic-award-civil-servants 

Whitehall internship day

On 5th July, the Diversity and Equality Team hosted its Secondary School Internship Programme in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The Whitehall Internship Programme is part of the Coalition Government’s social mobility strategy for 2011 – 2015. It has been designed to give young people from under privileged and under represented backgrounds access to internships in every Whitehall department. These include Black, Asian and Minority – Ethnic communities. The internships are part of the Cabinet Office business plan.

The event was attended by 108 students and 22 teachers, from 12 schools geographically spread across the country.

Further information - http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/news/whitehall-internship-day

Facility time

Facility time is paid time off during working hours for trade union representatives to carry out trade union duties and time off for representatives and members to undertake trade union activities. The Government recognises that unions can play a constructive role in a modern workplace contributing to the effective and efficient operation of public services.

Many union representatives give their own time in addition to any facility time, to support their colleagues both individually and collectively through the industrial relations machinery. Where this operates well it serves the interest both of the union members and the employer well.

We are seeking to find a balance between supporting constructive engagement with employee representatives for the good of public services and providing better value for the taxpayer.

Formal consultation is between the Civil Service and its trade unions, however if you are a civil servant and would like to comment, please send us your thoughts to facilitytimeconsultation@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk or post to

Civil Service Workforce Reform Team,
Cabinet Office,
4th Floor – Red Zone – Bank 20,
1 Horse Guards Road,
London
SW1A 2HQ

Civil Service Awards

Nominations are now open for the Civil Service Awards 2012. The closing date for nominations is 27 July

Civil Service Reform Plan launched

The Civil Service Reform Plan was jointly published by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, and the Head of the Civil Service, Sir Bob Kerslake, on the 19th June.

Award winning Civil Service programme begins for under-represented students

On 7th June, the Civil Service Summer Diversity Internship Programme will open again. The programme is aimed at students from under-represented groups such as those from black and ethnic minority communities and lower socio-economic backgrounds. 120 interns will take part in the programme this year.

Sir Bob Kerslake, Head of the Civil Service, will open a reception for the successful applicants which will feature a series of talks and Q&A sessions with Senior Civil Servants and Civil Servants on the Fast Stream graduate programme.

Lets get social

Government Digital Service and Home Office have recently launched new social media guidance for civil servants, but what are your views on them?

Over the next few weeks we’ll be featuring the two different parts of the guidance and inviting your views on them, first up is part one – Guidance on the use of Social Media

Tell us How

Sir Bob Kerslake and Francis Maude today asked Civil Servants to put forward their suggestions on the practical things that could help them to do their job better.

Reform of the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme

The Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude has announced that discussions have now concluded with the Civil Service unions on details for a new Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme to be introduced from 2015.

Rural Payments Agency welcomes Sir Bob Kerslake

Sir Bob Kerslake, visited the Rural Payments Agency to find out more about the work they do and to talk face-to-face with staff from across the Agency.

Sir Bob Kerslake visits the Met office

Sir Bob Kerslake was given a tour of the Met Office in Exeter to see how they use cutting edge science to provide vital information about the weather, natural hazards and climate change.

Sir Bob Kerslake visits staff in DEFRA

Sir Bob Kerslake recently visited staff at Defra as part of his programme of meeting staff around the country.

He met teams working on a wide range of issues, including the centre of expertise on influencing behaviour, the natural environment strategic unit, the food policy unit, and Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency’s export and disease surveillance teams.

Operation StepChange

Civil servants are doing their bit to make sure that London is still ‘open for business’ during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the largest sporting events in the world. London 2012 will be a great moment for the country and civil servants across Whitehall are determined to do everything they can to support them.

Sir Bob Kerslake visits DWP and HMRC staff in Preston

Sir Bob Kerslake recently visited Preston to meet staff working at the benefit and tax centres, to get an understanding of the work they do delivering key services to people in the area. It was the second in a programme of visits that will see him getting out and about round the country to meet civil servants.

New Head of the Civil Service and Cabinet Secretary

Sir Bob Kerslake and Sir Jeremy Heywood are now formally in their new posts and as part of their early introductions they wanted to share a message with the whole of the Civil Service.

Pensions reform update – 21 December 2011

The Treasury has made an announcement about the long term reform of public service pensions – including the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme - http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/press_146_11.htm

The Government has confirmed that the talks have been constructive and have resulted in heads of agreement with the majority of Civil Service unions.

Sir Bob Kerslake announced as new Head of the Civil Service

The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have announced that Sir Robert (Bob) Kerslake will be the new Head of the Civil Service. This follows a competition run by Sir David Normington, First Civil Service Commissioner.

The role of Head of the Civil Service will be separated out from the Cabinet Secretary role when Sir Gus O’Donnell retires at the end of the year. Jeremy Heywood – currently Permanent Secretary at Number 10 – will take over as Cabinet Secretary. Sir Bob will assume his new responsibilities alongside his existing role as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Proposed changes to your pension – update (2 November 2011)

The Government has today set out significant changes to its proposals for public sector pension reform.

Key elements of today’s proposals include:

  • a more generous ‘accrual rate’. This is the rate at which pension entitlement is built up. This has been increased from the 1/65ths offered in October to 1/60ths. This represents an eight per cent increase in generosity on the previous proposal.
  • New transitional protection. The Government’s objective is that anyone within ten years of their pension age on 1 April 2012 will be protected i.e. they will see no change in when they can retire nor any decrease in the pension they receive at their normal pension age.

Sir Gus O’Donnell announces retirement

I wanted to let you know that I am announcing my retirement today, after over six years as Cabinet Secretary, Head of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office. I will be leaving the civil service at the end of the year.

Pensions reform Q&A

In June 2010 the Government commissioned an independent review to look into all public service pensions. The review concluded that current pension arrangements, including those for the Civil Service, need to be reformed.

This page aims to answer some of your questions about proposed changes to Civil Service Pensions.