Cabinet Office Homepage
Last updated: 30 November 2008
As head office of UK Government, the Cabinet Office has a dual role: to set an example to the wider Civil Service, but also to develop its own capability.
Building a better department
Last July's all staff event
The Cabinet secretary is holding permanent secretaries to account on progress against four corporate objectives: skills, diversity, sustainability of the Government estate, and health and well-being.
Developing the skills of the Civil Service is at the forefront of the Government's agenda.
But more action is needed to achieve the stretching targets set out in the December 2006 Leitch review [External website]. In his landmark report Lord Leitch called for ‘radical change right across the skills spectrum’ to avert a 2.2 million skills shortage by 2020 and to enable the UK become a world leader in skills.
Led by Government Skills [External website], the sector skills council for central government, the Civil Service signalled its determination to meet the challenge within its own workforce through the signing of a skills pledge in April 2007. Permanent Secretaries came together committed to helping all eligible employees gain basic skills and a Level 2 qualification (broadly equivalent to 5 GCSEs at grades A* – C). The commitment covers more than 475,000 people working to deliver public services in 17 main government departments.
Jonathan Slater and Nicholas Holgate from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport
Permanent Secretaries across the UK also put their combined support behind the Skills Strategy for Government [External website], completed by Government Skills in January 2008 and launched at Civil Service Live [External website] in April 2008. Building Professional Skills for Government [External website] sets out how government employers will step up to meet the skills challenge over a three-year period from now until 2011.
Implementing this will provide Civil Service staff with clearer career paths, improved access to accredited skills and better mobility prospects within government and beyond.
Government Skills has subsequently transferred from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills [External website] (in April 2008) in a machinery of government move designed to increase momentum for the next phase of the Skills Strategy for Government.
For more on Government Skills, visit http://www.government-skills.gov.uk/ [External website]
Prosperity for all in the Global Econmy: World Class Skills, By Lord LeitchIn the 21st century, our natural resource is our people – and their potential is both untapped and vast. Skills will unlock that potential. The prize for our country will be enormous – higher productivity, the creation of wealth and social justice.
Barbara Cooper and Freddie Puttman, both cleaners at No.10, described Skills for Life [External website] – the national strategy for improving adult literacy, numeracy and Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) – as a life-changing experience:
“We wanted to improve our spelling and grammar, and we had the perfect opportunity when tutors of Skills for Life came to explain what courses were available to us.”
“We took a 10-week intensive course which consisted of two hours a week learning areas of the new National Curriculum for adults. It went really well. Sophie, the tutor, was great – so understanding and helpful. We have achieved so much in such little time, from improving punctuation to boosting our self-confidence. It's not just about textbooks. We have improved our skills for everyday life.”
Diversity, one of the five core Cabinet Office values, is a strong priority both for the Department and across government.
The Cabinet Office is driving forward a range of initiatives aimed at ensuring the workforce truly represents the citizens it serves, and unlocking the potential of every member of staff.
Cabinet Office People Week last October saw the launch of a new diversity framework and plan, which sets out practical steps for achieving a more inclusive culture within the Department. The week helped bring these issues alive through a series of workshops, with unconscious bias, dyslexia and deaf awareness proving especially popular.
The diversity plan has set into motion a number of innovative programmes, one being the private and public sector partnership programme designed to boost the confidence and career prospects of women managers. The Department has also improved accountability by assigning a Board level champion to each of the Cabinet Office diversity networks to help mainstream its work within the Department. The Cabinet Office Black and Asian Network (COBAN), Rainbow (for gay and lesbian staff), the Women's Network, the Carers' Network and Disability in the Cabinet Office (DisCO) all have their own champions, who report back to the Board on progress every six months.
Cabinet Office Diversity Workshop
The plan also details other initiatives for getting senior managers involved in diversity issues, including Trading Perspectives. This is a reverse mentoring project which enables staff from groups under-represented at senior level to mentor a Senior Civil Servant. Each party gains unique insights into what makes the other tick: Senior Civil Servants get a stronger grasp of diversity issues, while staff from under-represented groups see at first hand the challenges senior staff have to grapple with.
The Cabinet Office is leading on a range of measures across government including:
Visit http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/ [External website] for more on the 10–Point Diversity Plan.
Climate change is the biggest environmental challenge facing the world today, and UK citizens have been working to tackle its effects – from recycling waste to cycling to work. As part of the drive for a greener approach across government, Gus O'Donnell announced a new centre of excellence in March 2008 to help departments achieve ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions and waste.
The new Centre of Expertise for Sustainable Procurement is a direct response to the Sustainable Development Commission's latest report on how the Government is meeting its own targets for tackling climate change. The report found improvements in the Government's overall performance, including a 4% fall in carbon emissions across the estate by the end of 2006/7. But the Commission has called on government to lead by example on sustainability. The new centre will continue to respond to the increasing targets that government has set itself.
The Cabinet Office is also coordinating targeted ‘eco’ measures across government. These range from phasing out bottled water in meetings to requiring almost all new vehicles used by Ministers and Permanent Secretaries to have carbon emissions below 130g /km.
Improving sustainability across its own estate is also a priority for the Cabinet Office. A recent audit singled out the Department's Environmental Management System (EMS) as an exemplar, saying it was one of the most effective within government and that the Cabinet Office was well-placed to mentor similar schemes.
Over the past year, the Cabinet Office has implemented a series of small but significant initiatives as part of a broader strategy to improve its own sustainability. These include:
Projected Cabinet Office savings
“Encouraging people to take personal responsibility for their actions is key if we are to make a real difference,”
says Nigel Hutcheon, Sustainable Development Policy Adviser.
“We recently set up a network of Green Coordinators to help the Cabinet Office achieve its environmental goals by championing green issues within our management units and teams.”
“We're keen to work in partnership with other government departments to promote greener initiatives. Last December we helped colleagues from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [External website] to organise a ‘green fair’ for civil servants.”
In addition, bio–degradable food containers will shortly be provided in all restaurants on the Cabinet Office estate. Of all food supplied, 57% is UK produced and 71% is farm assured; 67% of all tea and coffee supplied is FairTrade.
| Key indicators | Direct Company impacts | |
| Climate waste and resource indicators | Financial performance 2007-08 |
Targets and narrative |
| Emissions | ||
|---|---|---|
| CO2 equivalent emissions | 3,743,322kg CO2 | Reverse the current upward trend in carbon emissions by April 2007 |
| Reduce carbon emissions by 12.5% by 2010-11, relative to 1999 /2000 levels. | ||
| Reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2020, relative to 1999 /2000 levels. | ||
| Waste | ||
| Sustainability | £20,116.00 | Reduce their waste arisings by 5% by 2010, relative to 2004 /2005 levels. |
| Total disposal cost | £138,598.94 | Reduce their waste arisings by 25% by 2010, relative to 2004 /2005 levels. |
| Finite resource usage | ||
| Water | ||
| Operating expenditure | £65,865.00 | Reduce water consumption by 25% on the office and non-offfice estate by 2020, relative to 2004 /2005 levels. |
| Sustainability expenditure | £544.00 | Reduce water consumption to an average of 3m3 per person /year for all new office builds or major office refurbishments. |
| Energy consumption | ||
| Operating expenditure | £1,402,338.00 | Departments to increase their energy efficiency per m2 by 15% by 2010, relative to 1999 /2000 levels. |
| Sustainability expenditure | £29,164.00 | Departments to increase their energy efficiency per m2 by 30% by 2020, relative to 1999 /2000 levels. |
Estimates suggest that staff ill-health costs UK employers some £13.4 billion per year, mostly from absences and reduced productivity. It is also widely acknowledged that healthy, motivated staff perform better and can directly increase an organisation's productivity. By ensuring that the Cabinet Office is a place where people want to work, the Department is well-placed to gauge the knock-on effect in terms of public delivery.
The Department has put in place a number of health and well-being measures over the last few months, including:
Working from the centre of government, the Cabinet Office drives forward a range of initiatives that cut across departmental boundaries.
At its all-staff conference in July 2007, the Cabinet Office launched an ambitious People Strategy. This provides a framework for how the Department will lead, manage and develop its people and deliver its priorities over the next three years. Underpinning it was a People Plan, setting out specific actions to deliver the strategy.
People week
The People Plan has led to:
To promote the new strategy and bring together its people, the Cabinet Office held its first ever People Week in October 2007. The week gave staff the unique opportunity to participate together in a range of events, from career workshops to coffee with Board members. About a third of Cabinet Office staff took part.
The week was structured around the five key values launched at the July staff conference – partnership, empowerment, cohesion, diversity and innovation – with each day themed on a different value. There were over 80 individual events to bring the values to life; one example of partnership in action was COBR, the Cabinet Office Briefing Room, which coordinates quick responses across government to deal with national emergency. The event was led by John Toker, Director of Communications for Counter Terrorism – who left the audience in no doubt that there was never a dull moment in a COBR day. Diversity was also high on the agenda.
Looking ahead, key priorities in the People Strategy are leadership development, improving management capability, introducing a new approach to reward and moving to a shared services platform for HR and finance services.