Permanent Secretaries, Public Administration and Public Management
| Date | 01 March 1994 |
| Author | Barry J. O'Toole |
| DOI | 10.1177/095207679400900103 |
| Published date | 01 March 1994 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
7
Permanent
Secretaries,
Public
Administration
and
Public
Management
Barry
J.
O’ Toole
Both
Sir
Terry
Heiser
and
Sir
Michael
Quinlan
were
leaders
of
their
profession
during
the
long
period
of
the
Thatcher
Ministries.
Those
Governments
set
in
train
a
series
of
reforms
which
are
now
commonly
referred
to
as a
revolution
in
the
British
administrative
culture.
Government
departments
were
not
only
to
preside
over
enormous
changes
in
the
policies
which
they
were
responsible
for
implementing,
they
were
also
to
be
subjected
to
enormous
changes
themselves..
It
is
at
least
arguable
that
the
most
affected
department
was
the
Department
of
the
Environment
over
which
Sir
Terry
Heiser
presided.
It
has
directed
what
are
regarded
by
many
as
some
of
the
most
far
reaching
changes
in
the
system
of
local
government
this
century.
In
addition
it
was
a
’prototype’
for the
management
changes
which
were
later
to
sweep
the
whole
of
Whitehall,
having
as
its
Minister
during
the
early
1980s,
the
enthusiastic
and
energetic
Mr
Michael
Heseltine.
It is
well
known
that
he
was
one
of
the
leading
advocates
of
management
change
in
the
civil
service
and
that
he
was
at
least
partly
responsible
for
the
Financial
Management
Initiative,
which
may
be
seen
as
being
modelled
on
his
own
Management
Information
Systems
for
Ministers
(MINIS)
apparatus.
Of
course,
Mr
Heseltine
was
also
at
the
Ministry
of
Defence,
and
again
there
he
was
responsible
for
significant
management
innovations.
The
great
changes
in
policy
in that
department
came
in
the
late
1980s
and
early
1990s
with
the
collapse
of
the
Soviet
’Empire’,
the
end
of
the
’Cold
War’
and
the
implications
for
British
defence
policy
in
what
is
still
a
troubled
world
of
conflicts.
Notwithstanding
the
changes
at
both
the
Department
of
the
Environment
and
the
Ministry
of
Defence,
the
nature
of
government
itself
has
also
changed.
This
is
partly
because
of
the
longevity
of
the
Conservative
Party
in
office,
and
partly
because
of
the
radicalism
of
that
Party
during
the
period.
This
transformation
has
inevitably
affected
the
civil
service.
Indeed,
it
can
be
contended
that
today’s
service
in
many
ways
resembles
the
more
fragmented,
though
admittedly
much
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