Issue 307 | June 2021 | www.civilserviceworld.com FORWARD THINKING Alex Chisholm KICKSTARTS CIVIL SERVICE REFORM DOM AND GLOOM DAVE PENMAN AND ANDY COWPER ON CUMMINGS BOLT AT THE DOOR INSPECTOR’S HOME OFFICE REFLECTIONS OFFICIAL PROTEST A CIVIL SERVANT’S ETHICAL DILEMMA 01 CSW307 cover.indd 1 09/06/2021 11:55:41 ai1621941567144_Appian June event - PlanesTanksShipsPhone.pdf 1 25/05/2021 12:19:28 Planes, Tanks, Ships, and Smartphones How defence integration can improve military capability Tuesday 15 June 2021 from 12:00 - 13:30. Richard Johnstone, acting editor, CSW, is hosting a virtual roundtable with senior spokespeople from across the defence sector and our partners at Appian, to explore: • How transformation can happen • Can intelligent automation deliver critical support faster and more efficiently Spaces are limited, to register your interest in attending please RSVP to: Bella Frimpong at [email protected] In partnership with: Appian June event - PlanesTanksShipsPhone - 230x300 PRINT READY.indd 1 09/06/2021 11:37:54 CONTENTS June 2021 Editorial Published by ON THE COVER [email protected] A photo of 020 7593 5569 Alex Chisholm taken by Photoshot Advertising [email protected] www.civilserviceworld.com 020 7593 5606 RED BOX 4 INBOX Comments and your letter from the editor 6 NEWS New procurement rules, and a call for more ministerial training OPINION 8 THOMAS POPE How to make a success of post-Brexit subsidies 9 DAVE PENMAN Cummings is playing the blame game, but he hasn’t backed up his claims 10 COLIN TALBOT Did the government really not have a plan for the pandemic? 11 PETER SCHOFIELD The permanent secretary reflects on 20 years of DWP 12 ANDY COWPER DHSC’s future lies in the school funding row DIGITAL AND DATA 26 CONTROL SHIFT 28 This year has seen the biggest White- hall tech leadership shakeup in a decade FEATURES 14 HELLO, OPERATOR Alex Chisholm on his first year as civil service COO and his plans for reform 18 HOME IMPROVEMENT How the Home Office is acting on the findings of the Windrush review 22 BOLT OUT THE DOOR The former immigration inspector reflects on the Home Office’s challenges 28 CIVIL RIGHT? 12 22 How an official and activist’s two identities gave her an ethical dilemma civilserviceworld.com | June 2021 | 3 03 CSW307 Contents.indd 3 09/06/2021 11:57:30 ❯ RED BOX EDITOR’S COLUMN Edited by ❯ RED BOX Sarah Astion FROM THE EDITOR ominic Cummings’s server watching the ses- marathon seven-hour sion, though, was that much Devidence session before of Cummings’s critique of the health and social care and how the government failed science and technology select was familiar to those who committees last month was have studied his writings compelling Whitehall theatre. on the civil service before. Here was the man who until He said at one point late last year had been the that the failings that were prime minister’s top adviser revealed by the govern- giving us a behind-the-scenes ment’s coronavirus response it is also telling that after well fl ective about what we can take look at the government’s pan- were “programmed by the over a year in government, from the pandemic and, in- demic response as ministers wiring of the system”. Cummings was still more deed, from the EU exit process, and offi cials grappled with He added: “If you have able to describe the prob- the Integrated Review and unrelenting waves of Covid-19. something this bad and you lem than to have solved it. other experiences about what The unprecedented event have got tens and tens of This is perhaps no sur- needs to be done diff erently is being met by an unprec- thousands of people who prise – the civil service is a and better,” Chisholm tells us. edented response in the have died who did not need large and fairly decentralised We await details of what pages of CSW this month. Not to die and massive economic organisation, and it takes time these changes will be, but the one, not two, but three of our destruction... that did not to change anything. But we will tale of Dominic Cummings regular columnists look at the need to happen if we had soon begin to see the fruits of has another lesson – events session and try to weigh up sorted things out earlier, the reform drive that Cum- can, and will, get in the way. Cummings’s assertions: Dave everyone in this country needs mings will always be associ- Life is what happens when you Penman takes on the cross- to face the reality of this.” ated with. In this issue, civil are making Whitehall plans, government claims, Andy These comments chime service chief operating offi cer but for civil service reform to Cowper the alleged failings at with his 2014 comments that and Cabinet Offi ce permanent work, it needs to be clear what the Department of Health and the “huge system in Whitehall, secretary Alex Chisholm sets the problem is that is being Social Care, and Colin Talbot in my opinion, is programmed out the next steps for reform, solved, what plan is to change the pandemic preparedness – to go wrong, it can’t work”. saying that after a period it, and what clear steps are to or lack thereof. All are worth Perhaps Cummings had of “biding our time”, a plan get there. The best civil service reading and cover the initial been right all along and Covid will be published “shortly”. organisations share this clar- skirmishes of what will likely simply exposed problems in There has been consulta- ity of vision and leadership, be the ground that is contested the system that he had long tion on with civil servants for and as the country emerges at the looming public inquiry. spotted – and to some extent, ideas on what should change. fom the pandemic, we will What struck this ob- that is probably the case. But “We’ve also been quite re- need it for the recovery. 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Articles written by contributors 020 7593 5588 Max Dubiel UK public sector: £49 do not necessarily refl ect the views of Antonello Sticca UK private sector: £99 the organisation ACTING DEPUTY EDITOR Beckie Smith PHOTOGRAPHY Visit www.civilserviceworld.com/ POSTAL ADDRESS [email protected] Alamy, Adobe Stock, subscriptions for details Dods, 11th Floor, The Shard 020 7593 5687 Photoshot, unless stated otherwise London Bridge Street SE1 9SG ADVERTISING TELEPHONE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS EDITOR 020 7593 560 020 7593 5500 Geoff rey Lyons FAX geo [email protected] 020 7593 5501 DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS EXECUTIVE ISSN 2515-0235 (Print) Charlotte Newbury (Jessica Bowie and Suzannah Brecknell are on maternity leave) 4 | June 2021 | civilserviceworld.com 4-5 CSW307 redbox.indd 4 09/06/2021 11:58:08 ❮ CORRESPONDENCE RED BOXEdited by ❯ RED BOX Winnie Agbonlahor cut from the right cloth, not point to perceived successes from the right university. I later of your ever distant past…” gained a degree but never did But not everyone thought INBOX enough to quite fit in… I hope the project was a bad idea. “I [email protected] this report is a catalyst for real like the clear statement that twitter.com/CSWNews change and the 18-year-old ver- it will be built in the UK and sion of me joining today as an giving it a dual role (perhaps) AA can fulfil their full potential, might further increase the value not just for their sake but for the for money equation: eg Britan- CLASS ACTION information, if you are invited sake of the civil service overall. nia has a secondary role as a Readers weighed in on a to meetings – there are many He added: “Moving jobs and hospital ship and was actually Social Mobility Commission people who are not and do opportunities outside London used in this function in the report that found people from not experience the privilege will help bring more [people Falklands,” Simon Hall wrote. lower socio-economic back- of being included and being from a lower socio-economic “My inclination is to slow down grounds are still underrep- ‘one of us’. This can create an background] in, but a radical on the cries of ‘vanity project’ resented in the civil service, unhappy workforce... Privilege change in culture is required and let’s hear the details first. and can struggle to get on if is relative and not tied to class to enable a true meritocracy It might even be a good idea!” they have not picked up the but to socio-economic status.” to take hold and allow eve- unwritten codes of practice Sunny Thompson wrote: ryone to progress fairly.” and ‘studied neutrality’ “What I would not like to see COMMERCIAL SENSE that benefit those from more is for this to become about And new guidance for on gov- privileged upbringings. equipping people from lower YACHT FOR ME ernment procurement, which “This resonates,” Mo- socio-economic backgrounds Readers were less than instructed departments to not hammed Aziz said. to mimic the methods by which impressed to hear No.10 is automatically give contracts “This is true in my experi- their more privileged col- forging ahead with plans for to the lowest bidder before ence, if you’re not in the ‘club’ leagues rise to the top through a new national flagship, the considering wider benefits, there’s no chance of progression ‘studied neutrality’.