Recommendation 5

There is a lack of joined up thinking when it comes to sharing good practice across the civil service. There are some examples of good practice across the civil service but the Cabinet Office needs to do more to promote and disseminate good practice to help drive improvement and learning. The Government People Group has an online hub where it shares summaries of the department whistleblowing statistics. This is a step in right direction, but there is an opportunity to share central insights on this platform as well. Furthermore, smaller government bodies deal with whistleblowing cases less frequently and so can be less familiar with the necessary procedures and protocols. They could benefit from easily accessible information on good practice and support from their parent departments. But departments are Investigation into whistleblowing in the civil service 7 inconsistent in how much responsibility they take for ensuring their arm’s-length bodies have good whistleblowing practices in place. There is a need to ensure that good ways of working both reach and are implemented in smaller bodies. Recommendation 5: a) The Cabinet Office should work with departments to develop a way of disseminating good practice across the civil service. Within this it should pay specific attention to how this will include smaller organisations and arm’s-length bodies. b) It should do this work within 6 months and implement new practices shortly thereafter. 8 Investigation into whistleblowing in the civil service 1 Whistleblowing arrangements in the civil service