Capability Reviews: Progress and Next Steps - The Civil Service

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‘urgent development need’ against each element. However, in the higher-scoringareas there should be more good practice to build on and learn from, anddepartments should be better placed to address their performance improvementwithout significant extra corporate effort.Overarching pictureThe report Capability Reviews: Tranche 3: Findings and Common Themes: CivilService – strengths and challenges (Cabinet Office, 2007), published alongside theTranche 3 Capability Reviews (‘the Tranche 3 report’), identified some key areasof strength for the Civil Service. It also identified four common overarchingcapability gaps:• leadership;• skills, capacity and capability;• delivery and performance; and• delivery models.This chapter sets out the progress that has been made to address these capabilitygaps, both in individual departments and also across the Civil Service as a whole.It also sets some ongoing challenges for the Civil Service that are picked up furtherin Chapter 3, which considers the future of the programme and the futuredevelopment of the corporate capability of the Civil Service.LeadershipWhy does this matter?The Capability Reviews programme focuses on leadership; it forms one of the threecomponents of the capability model and, as applied, the model focuses on the roleof each department’s leadership team in the areas of strategy and delivery.The Sunningdale Institute’s evaluation of the programme commented that:‘Establishing a strong top management team committed to change is one ofthe essential first steps of transformation – necessary but not sufficient.Therefore, the focus on top-management capabilities is the right choice at thisstage, provided that the limitations are recognised.’Research conducted with Senior Civil Servants has found that effective leadershipwas cited frequently as a key factor that could help change:‘… a clear decisive direction from the top – corporate behaviour by other seniormanagers and a recognition that the whole is greater than the sum of thepart[s]’24COMMON CAPABILITY GAPS: PROGRESS AND NEXT STEPS
or hinder it:‘lack of leadership from the top’‘lack of continuity and commitment from departmental leaders’.Capability Reviews: research with Senior Civil Servants byOpinion Leader Research (OLR)The Tranche 3 report identified the ability to set a clear direction for the organisationand to demonstrate pace and passion as strengths for the Civil Service. This remainsthe case, with 13 out of 17 departments having at least a ‘well placed’ score inone or both of these elements. As positive scores in both of these elements havebeen demonstrated as positive drivers of overall performance, this is encouraging.These capabilities have been tested during the significant changes in machineryof government, the transition to a new Prime Minister with new and different strategicgoals, and the CSR with its cross-cutting PSAs setting 30 key priorities acrossgovernment – from tackling climate change to making communities safer.Consequently, the areas of focus suggested by the Tranche 3 report were as follows:Collective leadershipChallengeLeading changeBuilding leadershipBoards acting as role models to exhibit an effectivecorporate culture of teamworkEffective challenge on boards, including externalchallenge, to support them in their role of managingperformanceManaging change effectively; in particular, boards drivingthrough and sustaining change in the long termEngaging the wider SCS in the business of departmentalleadershipHigh-level view of progress on leadershipEffective departmental leadership is the key to unlocking capability throughout theorganisation; consequently, departments rightly look to make early progress in thisarea, where capability gaps have been identified.Of the four common capability gaps identified in the Tranche 3 report, this is thearea against which there has been the most progress in departments. Permanentsecretaries and boards have taken this area seriously and many departments areimproving well.Executive teams are working hard on their own development and are makinggood progress. We are seeing good use of coaches and a willingness by boardsCAPABILITY REVIEWS: PROGRESS AND NEXT STEPS25
Page 1 and 2: Capability Reviews:Progress and Nex
Page 3 and 4: This has been an excellent example
Page 5 and 6: 1. Tranche 1 departments: a year on
Page 7 and 8: Department for Children, Schools an
Page 9 and 10: This will act as an innovative and
Page 11 and 12: • ‘Managing for improvement’:
Page 13 and 14: Home OfficeStarting from a low base
Page 15 and 16: Department’s wider agenda. Develo
Page 17 and 18: Ministry of JusticeThe MoJ was crea
Page 19 and 20: A number of significant programmes
Page 21 and 22: 2. Common capability gaps: progress
Page 23: later tranches have not been able t
Page 27 and 28: All of these aspects came together
Page 29 and 30: Case study: Collective leadership i
Page 31 and 32: • Engaging the wider SCS. This is
Page 33 and 34: Participants’ comments included:
Page 35 and 36: Consequently, the areas of focus su
Page 37 and 38: Building up the supply and demand s
Page 39 and 40: Case study: Development work with d
Page 41 and 42: Case study: A skills strategy for g
Page 43 and 44: The recent CSR has emphasised the i
Page 45 and 46: At six months after the review:•
Page 47 and 48: Our challenge now is to ensure that
Page 49 and 50: • a more comprehensive approach t
Page 51 and 52: The Tranche 3 report identified the
Page 53 and 54: Case study: The Home Office Strateg
Page 55 and 56: The group is expanding to include l
Page 57 and 58: • The Sunningdale Institute facil
Page 59 and 60: Exhibit 3: Change trajectoriesCapab
Page 61 and 62: original reviews. The re-review wil
Page 63 and 64: Departments increasingly have to wo
Page 65 and 66: LeadershipKey questions that test c
Page 67 and 68: DeliveryKey questions that test cur
Page 69: Capability Reviews TeamCabinet Offi

Capability Reviews: Progress and Next Steps - The Civil Service

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