Dominic Cummings warned that civil service 'cannot be changed overnight'

Lord Kerslake said Mr Cummings would "have to work with the civil service"
Dominic Cummings has been warned about the Prime Minister's planned 'seismic changes' to the civil service
PA
Stephanie Cockroft3 January 2020
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The former head of the civil service has warned Boris Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings that the organisation cannot be changed overnight.

Lord Kerslake said the service was "open to improvement and change" but that Mr Cummings would "have to work with the civil service" to make that happen.

Lord Kerslake told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We need to wait to see the detail of this. But what I would say is of course the civil service should be open to challenge, to improvement and change - that's part and parcel of how it stays a good civil service.

"What I would guard against is getting into a war with the civil service where they get given the blame if you like for anything that doesn't quite go right - it works a lot better if you deliver change with the grain of the civil service."

Lord Kerslake has issued a warning to Dominic Cummings over the Prime Minister's reported 'seismic changes' to the civil service
PA

Lord Kerslake said: "My point would be Government's come in at this situation and the biggest risk for them is hubris - they think because they've won an election they can do everything and change everything overnight and it isn't like that. If they don't want to hear that then so be it.

"But there's plenty of evidence that change is possible in the civil service, it was achieved when I was there, it has been achieved since, but you have to work with the civil service and try to carry them with the process of change."

He added: "There's a balancing act here between getting things done and also making changes to the way the civil service works and that's something they're going to have to work through, and I would advise them to work it through in some detail."

General Secretary of the First Division Association trade union also warned Mr Cummings' call for changes into how government works was "worrying".

Political advisor Dominic Cummings arrives at 10 Downing Street
Getty Images

Dave Penman told BBC's Radio 4's Today programme: "But it's quite an unusual approach and I think what's more worrying rather than the kind of dynamics of his blog and some of the language in it, is the kind of approach being taken by Government, or certainly being signalled by Government about what it thinks of the capability of the civil service just now and what needs to change."

Pushed on whether it is right for a political figure such as the Prime Minister's aide to lead this, Mr Penman added: "The civil service is recruited on merit, it's a really fundamental principle. You are employed in the civil service because of what you can do, not what you believe."

He continued: "If you surround yourself with people who are recruited simply because they believe the same as you believe, and whose employment is at your behest, is that the best way for the civil service or advisers to speak truth unto power? I don't think it is, and I think some of those approaches are quite dangerous as well."

Mr Cummings posted an apparent job advert on Thursday saying Number 10 wants to hire an "unusual set of people with different skills and backgrounds" to work as special advisers and potentially officials.

The former Vote Leave director said he hopes to be made "largely redundant" within a year by the recruitment drive.

He called for officials including "weirdos and misfits with odd skills", data scientists and policy experts to apply to a gmail account if they think they fit the bill.

Mr Cummings warned that there is "some profound problems at the core of how the British state makes decisions" and that he currently makes decisions "well outside" his "circle of competence".

And he says the need for change comes with Brexit requiring large policy and decision-making structure changes and a Government with an 80-strong majority having "little need to worry about short-term unpopularity".

Under a subsection on hiring "super-talented weirdos", he writes that the Government needs "some true wild cards, artists, people who never went to university and fought their way out of an appalling hell hole".

Mr Cummings' post came after Rachel Wolf, who helped draw up the blueprint of Tory election pledges, said civil servants could be made to take regular exams to prove they are up to their Whitehall jobs.

Under "seismic" changes being planned by Number 10, she also said that civil servants are "woefully unprepared" for sweeping reforms that Mr Johnson is keen to push through.​

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