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  • Who we are
  • What we do
  • Working with departments
• Timeline
• Regulating Appointment on Merit
• Promoting and upholding Civil Service Values
• Our surveys
• Constitutional Renewal Bill
• Progress against Strategy
• Links with others
• Meet the Commissioners
• Appendices
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Working with departments

Link Commissioners

A Commissioner is linked to each of the main departments and the larger agencies.

The Link Commissioner regularly meets the Permanent Secretary or Agency Chief Executive. Usually they meet at least twice a year. Often they will also meet the departmental Human Resources Director and sometimes the departmental Board. There are also meetings with the Government Heads of Profession.

These meetings explore current issues of common concern. Linking Commissioners in this way is a relatively new idea and helps to give us a strategic overview of recruitment in departments and agencies.

The topics covered in the most recent round of Link Commissioner meetings included:

• the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill
• salaries paid to senior civil servants, and especially the disparity that sometimes exists between what is paid to recruits from the private sector and Civil Service candidates
• the results of our compliance monitoring audit
• succession planning within the department
• promotion of the Civil Service Code
• the appropriate involvement of Ministers in Senior Civil Service appointments
• the ‘Home Office Compact’ that seeks to clarify the respective responsibilities of Ministers and Permanent Secretaries
• the role of the Link Commissioner
• the results of the department’s Capability Review
• exceptions to the principle of appointment on merit on the basis of fair and open competition
• how to track the performance of recruits from the private sector to the Senior Civil Service

• Feedback
• Strengthening the role

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