25 May 2007
The top tier of the civil service in Scotland has been radically reorganised to fit the slimmer Cabinet introduced by the new Scottish Nationalist Party minority government.
Permanent secretary John Elvidge will head a strategic board that will include five director generals – formerly heads of departments. They will replace the previous nine heads of department.
The slimmed-down management follows First Minister Alex Salmond's decision to reduce the size of the Scottish Cabinet from 11 to six.
Under the new arrangements, each director general will lead work on one of five strategic policy objectives. They will have line management responsibility for a group of directorates that will broadly match the portfolios of a Cabinet 'secretary' – the new title for a minister.
In a memo to staff, Elvidge explained that the role of a director-general will differ from that of a head of department. He said: 'They will work across ministerial portfolios, driving progress towards the government's strategic policy objectives; and provide top-level leadership of change in our organisation.'
He added that with the directorate or executive agency as the centrepiece of the new management structures, it would be easier for people to 'see the Scottish government as a single, coherent unit, rather than a group of departments with separate identities'.
Andrew Goudie, the Executive's chief economist, will be director general for the economy.
The remaining four directors general are Kevin Woods (health and chief executive of the NHS in Scotland); Philip Rycroft (education); Richard Wakeford (environment); and Robert Gordon (justice and communities).
Elvidge told staff: 'The first minister has made it clear that his administration intends to proceed on the basis of consensus and building support for its plans both in Parliament and more widely. He has also made clear that he prizes what we can offer in support of that – professionalism, impartiality, pride in what we do and an ability to deal with complex and difficult issues.'
Elvidge assured staff that while there might be redeployment, there would be no loss of jobs.
Labour, in opposition for the first time since devolution, has appointed Wendy Alexander, a former enterprise minister, as its finance spokeswoman.
Former finance minister Tom McCabe, who is understood to have turned down a senior role in the shadow Cabinet, will be Labour's nominee for a place on the Scottish Parliament's management group, the corporate body.
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