Tweet
divdiv class=story-body readability=32 span class=story-date#13; span class=date29 November 2013/span#13;span class=time-textLast updated at /spanspan class=time22:36 ET/span#13; #13;/span#13;#13; #13;#13;#13; #13; #13; #13; #13; p class=introduction id=story_continues_1The minister responsible for civil service reform, Francis Maude, does not understand leadership, the former head of the service has told the BBC./p#13; pLord Butler of Brockwell said what he called backstairs sniping showed contempt for the civil service./p#13; pMr Maude recently said Whitehall should take more responsibility for errors./p#13; pA spokesman for Mr Maude said the civil service was full of brilliant people but held back by a hierarchical system and rigid culture./p#13; span class=cross-head'Dumped on'/span#13; pIn a recent newspaper interview Mr Maude suggested civil servants should speak truth to power more often./p#13; pHis sentiments have met with a frosty response from the man who was for a decade cabinet secretary and head of the civil service./p#13; pLord Butler told BBC Radio 4's Week in Westminster: I agree with that, but people are not encouraged to speak truth to power when in the same breath in the same interview they are told that they will be dumped on when things go wrong./p#13; pI'm sorry to say, I really think that Mr Maude and some of his colleagues don't understand leadership./p#13; pHe continued: My view is that the relationship between ministers and the civil service works best when they work together in a mutually supportive relationship, with loyalty on both sides./p#13; pAnd backstairs sniping, whichever side it comes from, shows that something is wrong and there's been too much of that backstairs sniping./p#13; pLord Butler, who served under prime ministers Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair, said there was that sort of criticism of civil servants in the media almost every single day./p#13; span class=cross-head'Sweeping under carpet'/span#13; pBBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins said there were clear tensions in Whitehall about both changes to the civil service, and controversies in which the most senior civil servants in government departments - permanent secretaries - had been publicly criticised./p#13; pMr Maude's spokesman said: The civil service has brilliant people but somehow ends up being less than the sum of its parts because of a hierarchical system and a rigid culture./p#13; pIt's not right to patronise and infantilise people by pretending that everything is perfect in the best of all possible worlds./p#13; pGood leadership is not about sweeping problems under the carpet. Francis and the leadership of the civil service have highlighted issues which need to be addressed. The same issues are raised in a survey of 200,000 civil servants./p#13; pWe owe it to the taxpayer, users of public services and civil servants themselves to address these issues in an honest and truthful way. That's just what we are doing./p#13; pWhat Francis said was that 'everybody has to take responsibility for what they were part of' - that's axiomatic and the alternative is no responsibility and no accountability./p#13; p class=transmission-infoa href=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03jsrmbWeek in Westminster is on BBC Radio 4 at 11:00 GMT on Saturday 30 November/a/p#13; /div/divbrbrcentera href=http://www.wizardrss.comPowered By WizardRSS.com/a | a href=http://www.wizardrss.comFull Text RSS Feed/a | a href=http://www.amazon.com/RFID-Blocking-Cards-Identity-Protector/dp/B00CJHZLEWRFID/a | a href=http://www.wpzonbuilder.comAmazon Affiliate/a/center