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Facts

Capability Reviews

The Capability Review programme aims to strengthen the Civil Service to enable it to meet the Government's objectives today and be ready for the challenges of tomorrow.

Background

In October 2005 the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, announced to the Public Administration Select Committee that one of his key priorities as Head of the Home Civil Service was to improve the capability of the Civil Service to meet today's delivery objectives and to be ready for the challenges of tomorrow.

He announced that he would work with permanent secretaries to develop departmental Capability Reviews that would both assess how well equipped departments are to meet these delivery challenges and provide targeted support to make any improvements required.

The programme is run for the Cabinet Secretary by the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit (PMDU). The review programme targets underlying capability issues that impact on effective delivery, such as:

• Do departments have the right strategic and leadership capabilities?
• Do they know how well they are performing, and do they have the tools to fix their problems when they underachieve?
• Do their people have the right skills to meet both current and future challenges?
• Do they engage effectively with their key stakeholders, partners and the public?

The review teams work closely with permanent secretaries and their management boards on a 'no surprises' basis.

This is not Whitehall reviewing itself. Each Capability Review Team includes business and public sector leaders from outside government with national recognition for their achievements and successes.

The reports include:

• The Review Team's assessment of the department's capability for future delivery with a ‘score’ against each element of the model.
• The Review Team's findings regarding the department's capability in the three areas of leadership, strategy and delivery.
• The key areas for action which the Review Team believe are critical for the department to address to assure ministers that the Civil Service leadership team is leading the improvement of the department.
• The Department's response – A statement by the Permanent Secretary of the actions that the Department will take in response to the review.

The key actions are developed by the Department's top team in the final phase of the review in discussion with the Review Team. The key actions are agreed with the Cabinet Secretary who will hold the Permanent Secretary to account for taking the actions to improve the Department's capability to deliver.

The reports are signed off by the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, Ian Watmore, Head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit and the Department's Permanent Secretary.

Reports published so far

The Capability Reviews for the Cabinet Office and Departments of Constitutional Affairs; Communities and Local Government; Education and Skills; Home Office; Trade and Industry; Work and Pensions, Culture, Media and Sport; Ministry of Defence; Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Foreign and Commonwealth Office; International Development, Crown Prosecution Service, Health and Transport have all been published.

For more information go to www.civilservice.gov.uk/capabilityreviews[External website]