03 May 2002
As civil servants settled down after hearing news of his appointment to the top job in Whitehall last week, he seemed to be riding on a huge wave of popularity. On and off the record, he was described as 'enormously capable, hugely experienced, thoroughly decent, charming and approachable'.
It will take every ounce of his political skill to maintain that popularity over the next three years as he tries to drag the lumbering civil service kicking and screaming into the modern world.
Turnbull's appointment was not a huge surprise to those in the know. He had emerged as a favourite alongside Sir David Omand, the former permanent secretary at the Home Office, despite much gossip about whether Downing Street was preparing to buck the trend and appoint some hot-shot outsider as Whitehall's chief.
Despite being an archetypal mandarin, Turnbull, 57, has managed to win the confidence of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has appointed him to the top job for a three-year period (all civil servants retire at 60).
Blair has famously said he has 'scars on my back' from his own attempts to reform the civil service, but it is Turnbull who will have to risk the scars over the next three years if he is to make a success of the job.
Without doubt, his overwhelming priority is to transform the old-fashioned, poorly managed and painfully slow Whitehall machine into a top-notch delivery arm of the government.
To be fair, Whitehall has been changing its outlook. Buffeted from all sides over the past few years, it has had its poor management practices pointed out by several highly critical reports. It has also been accused of sidelining women, ethnic minorities and other talented people who did not 'fit the mould'. Although the image of Sir Humphrey is certainly clichéd, Whitehall has found it hard to shake off its stuffy and exclusive culture.
Turnbull is unlikely to be daunted by the prospect of making the changes. He has led large-scale reform at the Treasury where he has spent most of his career, apart from a break to become principal private secretary to Margaret Thatcher and then John Major.
As permanent secretary at the department since 1997, he will certainly leave a legacy. He is widely credited with modernising the Treasury, appointing younger people, directly recruiting graduates from non-traditional universities and building much-praised links with the private sector. In an interview with Public Finance last year, he said: 'Bringing people in from the outside brings a fresh perspective. It has changed the ethos here, allowing for people with different styles and creating wider access to different viewpoints.'
It is an approach he is certain to expand to the rest of Whitehall as he seeks to convince the government that departments can deliver its reform agenda.
And Whitehall knows it cannot avoid change any longer. Whether this government wins the next election is partly dependent on how far Turnbull can reform Whitehall.
Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the First Division Association, which represents senior civil servants, said his members were aware of the need to win and maintain the confidence of the government.
'Turnbull does have a big challenge and his main focus is bound to be delivery,' he told Public Finance.
'We do need to put more emphasis on the way we train and develop people. We need to professionalise the whole human resource function in the civil service to ensure we have better ways of training, developing and bringing on people. It is widely acknowledged that we are not doing it effectively.'
The civil service will face real difficulties if Turnbull is not successful at carrying out the reform agenda, Baume believes.
The government has huge ambitions for its term in office and the civil service faces a major challenge in trying to deliver this agenda. But, as Baume said: 'That is what we are here for – to make things happen'.
PFmay2002
