The Financial Times (£) reports that the Sir Bob Kerslake’s dual role as head of the civil service and permanent secretary at the Department of Communities may be coming to an end.
Kerslake – a former Chief Executive of the Homes and Communities Agency – took on responsibility for making the civil service slimmer, more transparent and more commercial on top of his departmental role on the retirement of Sir Gus O’Donnel two years ago.
But last month the Cabinet Office published areview of the first year of the Civil Service Reform Plan in which he and Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude acknowledged the need to accelerate the reforms, saying:
“Despite the very best endeavours of many people, the delivery of the Reform Plan to date has been held back by some of the very things that it was designed to address – weaknesses in capability, lack of clear accountability, and delivery discipline.”
The FT also suggests that Sir Bob’s background in local government has meant that some senior mandarins were unhappy at being told by him how to run their departments.