Recommendation 1
a. The Cabinet Office, working with departments, professions and functions, should set out more clearly who is accountable for different activities that contribute to improved leadership capability.
Source · National Audit Office
Civil service leadership capability
This report examines the government’s overall approach to leadership capability within the Senior Civil Service.
Published: 13 Mar 2024
Recommendations: 7
Type: Value for Money
NAO confirmed: 7
Department: Cross-government
Recommendations
Recommendation 2
b. The Cabinet Office should work with departments, professions and functions to set out more clearly the specific outcomes that it wants to achieve from leadership capability as a whole system, and criteria for judging success. The Cabinet Office should link the system objectives to the objectives of individual teams and activities, and set out how it will measure progress against them.
Recommendation 3
c. The Cabinet Office should formally analyse the enablers of and barriers to achieving its objectives for leadership capability, to assess the extent of its influence over those factors. It should build from this analysis plans for action to address barriers where it has scope to do so.
Recommendation 4
d. The Cabinet Office should map for all its leadership capability activities the evaluation that it has already undertaken. It should prepare a strategy and plan for evaluation of activities and outcomes where it identifies gaps in coverage.
Recommendation 5
e. The Cabinet Office should develop and communicate a coherent view of expectations. It should explore ways to test whether leaders are clear on what is expected of them.
Recommendation 6
f. The Cabinet Office should assess where a system-level view of capabilities and needs would be most valuable. It should develop mechanisms for producing this assessment.
Recommendation 7
g. Cabinet Office should develop a plan for external recruitment as part of its work on the new SCS strategy, reflecting assessments of priority areas (for example for particular skills or organisations) and whether the current system is working. It should assess the key factors including how often external recruits leave soon after being appointed, and determine, for example, through exit interviews, the extent of and reasons for this happening and what could be done to make it less likely.