Mandarins are urged to work together

The Civil Service pushed through radical cost-cutting measures for itself and the wider public sector after the last election but will struggle to repeat the process after next year’s general election, the Institute for Government (IfG) warned.

It warns that Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, Sir Bob Kerslake, head of the civil service and Treasury permanent secretary Sir Nicholas Macpherson are not seen to be giving the Civil Service the corporate leadership it needs to deal with further departmental savings.

“Most important, however, is the lack of effective corporate leadership at the heart of the Civil Service,” the report states. “At the centre, power and authority are highly centralised and personalised in the form of the Cabinet Secretary, the Head of the Civil Service and the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury.

“Much clearer and more joined-up leadership ahead of the challenges coming in 2015 could provide the permission and support required, but at the moment, the message from the centre is weak and confused.”

The IfG found that departments agreed to harsher budget settlements under the coalition without carrying out full analysis how to meet them, but the “low hanging fruit” has now gone.

Improvements must be made to the way departments work together and plans made now for further rounds of savings in preparation for the difficult decisions that will have to be made whichever party wins, it warns.

“This will require working in very different ways to the current and historic norms.”