Leadership In Whitehall

An entertaining and authoritative study of leadership in the British civil service from one of the top authors in the field. Kevin Theakston draws the lessons of how change in central government can be managed and implemented from a series of biographical studies of the acknowledged leaders in the civil service in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - from Charles Trevelyan, the founder of the modern civil service, to modern Mandarins such as Robert Armstrong and Margaret Thatcher's personal adviser the outsider Sir Derek Rayner. The case studies are linked to the wider themes of leadership and administrative culture in Whitehall, illustrating the patterns of change and continuity over time. This highly readable and innovative study will appeal to students of British politics and government, public administration, public policy, political history and comparative politics as well as policymakers, civil servants and others interested in the policymaking and governing process.

John Seddon explains how successive governments have failed to deliver what our public services need and exposes the devastation that three decades of political fads, fashions and bad theory have caused. With specific examples and new evidence, he chronicles how the Whitehall ideas machine has failed on a monumental scale - and the impact that this has had on public sector workers and those of us who use public sector services.

The book uses a biographical approach to analyse the potential for, forms of, and constraints upon bureaucratic leadership in modern government. Case studies, written by experts in the different fields, assess the impact of particular officials operating in Whitehall, the United States federal government, the health service, local government, and Europe. The book brings together an innovative methodology with a wide policy coverage.

There are some policies which represent genuine efforts to confront long-term challenges on a cross-government basis, such as the Better Care Fund, which aims to improve the integration of health and social care services for older and disabled people. Whitehall is developing useful tools. The National Risk Register assesses probabilities like natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Whole of Government Accounts provide deeper understanding of matters such as the £2,893 billion long-term liabilities of Government. However, there is no comprehensive understanding across Government as a whole of the future risks and challenges facing the UK. The most surprising and urgent gap found was in HM Treasury. There is not sufficient evidence that it has absorbed a key lesson of the 2007-08 financial crash. The Treasury does contingency planning, and the Bank of England's role and structures have been strengthened. Yet financial and economic risks are not included in the Government's National Risk Register, so the Government does not consider these systemic risks alongside other, non-financial risks, such as pandemic flu and antimicrobial resistance. Furthermore, different responsibilities and functions are divided between the Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority and the Treasury. The Treasury should undertake planning for a range of crisis scenarios, based on a broad range of forecasts, data sources and assumptions, and which may be triggered by non-financial as well as financial events. It should conduct desk-top exercises to test institutional responses and systemic resilience. This should inform a wider programme of cross-government exercises to test policy resilience.

John Seddon's uncompromising account of Whitehall’s effect on our public services.

Although it is seldom recognised as such by the public, the civil service is a profession like any other. The UK civil service employs 400,000 people across the country, with over 20,000 students and graduates applying to enter every year through its fast-stream competition alone. Martin Stanley's seminal How to Be a Civil Servant was the first guidebook to the British civil service ever published. It remains the only comprehensive guide on how civil servants should effectively carry out their duties, hone their communication skills and respond to professional, ethical and technical issues relevant to the job. It addresses such questions as: How do you establish yourself with your minister as a trusted adviser? How should you feed the media so they don’t feed on you? What’s the best way to deal with potential conflicts of interest? This fully updated new edition provides the latest advice, and is a must-read for newly appointed civil servants and for those looking to enter the profession – not to mention students, academics, journalists, politicians and anyone with an interest in the inner workings of the British government.

It has been said that happiness comes from within. Yet, no one has ever really elaborated on how to find it there. We are often led to believe we must traverse a dark, treacherous, and seemingly endless maze in order to find that ever-elusive enigma called "happiness" in the infinite expanse that is our soul. When a young man that Adam has known all of his life tries to kill himself, he struggles to understand why. As the young man lies in a hospital bed, his impending death looms over them, and they go on a journey of self-discovery. During their search for Truth, they find that the walls of the maze to happiness are made up of lies. Lies we have been told by others and lies we tell ourselves. Lies about what depression really is and how it can be "cured." Lies about suicide. Lies about the meaning of life, and our true nature. Lies about what it is to be a human being. They find that maybe the best path through the maze is not around the walls built of deception, but over them. Because the more Truth one finds, the faster those walls crumble. And all one must do is simply step over them.