Sources
1. Books
Michael Barber, How to Run a Government: So That Citizens Benefit and Taxpayers Don’t Go Crazy, Allen Lane, 2015.
Gavin Barwell, Chief of Staff: Notes from Downing Street, Atlantic Books, 2021.
Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century, Hutchinson Heinemann, 2024.
Jack Brown, No. 10: The Geography of Power at Downing Street, Haus Publishing Ltd, 2019.
Alastair Campbell, The Alastair Campbell Diaries. 1: Prelude to Power: 1994 – 1997, Arrow, 2011.
Alastair Campbell, The Alastair Campbell Diaries. 2: Power and the People: 1997 – 1999, Arrow, 2011.
Alastair Campbell, The Alastair Campbell Diaries. 3: Power & Responsibility: 1999 – 2001, Arrow, 2012.
Amy Walters Cohen, Ruthlessly Caring: And Other Paradoxical Mindsets Leaders Need to Be Future-Fit, Wiley, 2023.
Terence Daintith and Alan Page, ‘The Civil Service: The Continuing Failure of Reform’, in Executive Self-Government and the Constitution, Oxford University Press, 2025.
Amy Gandon, Civil Unrest: A Portrait of the Civil Service through Brexit, the Pandemic and Political Turbulence, 2023.
Andrew Greenway, Ben Terrett, Mike Bracken, and Tom Loosemore, Digital Transformation at Scale: Why the Strategy Is Delivery, Perspectives on Business, London Publishing Partnership, 2021.
David Halpern, Owain Service, and Richard H. Thaler. Inside the Nudge Unit: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference, Allen, 2015.
Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention. WH Allen, 2024.
Suzanne Heywood, What Does Jeremy Think? Jeremy Heywood and the Making of Modern Britain, William Collins, 2021.
Christopher Hood and Ruth Dixon, A Government That Worked Better and Cost Less? Evaluating Three Decades of Reform and Change in UK Central Government, Oxford University Press, 2015.
Frédéric Laloux and Ken Wilber, Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness, First edition (revised), Nelson Parker, 2014.
Michael Lewis, Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service, Allen Lane, 2025.
Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund, Get in: The inside Story of Labour under Starmer, The Bodley Head, 2025.
Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume One: Not for Turning, Volume 1, Allen Lane, 2013.
Jonathan Powell, The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World, Vintage, 2010.
Anthony Seldon, Johnson At 10: The Inside Story, Atlantic Books, 2023.
Anthony Seldon, The Impossible Office? A History of the British Prime Minister. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Anthony Seldon, Truss At 10: How Not to Be Prime Minister, Atlantic Books, 2024.
Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge, Brown at 10, Biteback, 2011.
Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon, Cameron At 10, William Collins, 2015.
Anthony Seldon, Peter Snowdon, and Daniel Collings, Blair Unbound, Simon & Schuster, 2007.
Tim Shipman, All out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class, William Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2016.
Tim Shipman, Fall out: A Year of Political Mayhem, William Collins, 2017.
Tim Shipman, Out: How Brexit Got Done and the Tories Were Undone, William Collins, 2024.
2. Reports
David Atkinson and Emma Truswell, ‘Supporting Heads of Government: A Comparison across Six Countries – Working Paper’, Institute for Government, 2011.
Cabinet Office, ‘Cabinet Manual: A Guide to Laws, Conventions and Rules of the Operation of Government,’ October 2011.
Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, Government Response to the Public Accounts Committee Twelfth Report of Session 2023-24.
Cabinet Office, ‘Response to Generalist Fast Stream Statistics – a Freedom of Information Request to Cabinet Office’, 22 May 2024.
Cabinet Office, ‘Organogram of Staff Roles & Salaries’, 25 July 2025.
Cabinet Office, ‘Headcount and payroll data for May 2025’, 27 June 2025;
Jo Casebourne, ‘Why Motivation Matters in Public Sector Innovation’, December 2014.
Civil Service Commission, ‘Recruitment Principles,’ April 2018.
Civil Service Commission. ‘Review into Appointments by Exception Delegated to Departments,’ 2024.
Tom Collinge and Adam Terry, ‘Into Power 01: Lessons from Australia and the United States’. The Future Governance Forum, 28 February 2024.
Constitution Committee, ‘The Cabinet Office and the Centre of Government – Constitution Committee, Chapter 3: Supporting the Cabinet’, Accessed 24 July 2025.
Jim Dunton, ‘Special Delivery: How has Government’s approach to implementation evolved?’, 17 October 2024.
Edelman Trust Institute, ‘2025 Edelman Trust Barometer: Trust and the Crisis of Grievance.’ 2025.
Edelman Trust Institute, ‘2025 Edelman Trust Barometer: Trust and the Crisis of Grievance.’ 2025.
The White House, ‘Executive Orders’, The White House, 11 August 2025.
Paul Fawcett and Oonagh Gay, ‘The Centre of Government – No. 10, the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury,’ House of Commons Library, 21 December 2005.
Government Digital Service and Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, ‘Artificial Intelligence Playbook for the UK Government: Created by the Government Digital Service,’ 2025.
GOV.UK, ‘AI Opportunities Action Plan’, Accessed 24 July 2025.
GOV.UK, ‘Cabinet Office Annual Reports and Accounts’, 20 December 2024.
GOV.UK, ‘Cabinet Office: Our Governance’. Accessed 24 July 2025.
GOV.UK, ‘Cabinet Office Outcome Delivery Plan: 2021 to 2022’, Accessed 24 July 2025.
GOV.UK, ‘Civil Service People Plan 2024-2027’, Accessed 24 July 2025.
Understanding the Civil Service, ‘Report of the Machinery of Government Committee’, 1918.
David Halpern, ‘The Catalytic State: A Practical Theory of Government’, The Policy Institute at King’s College London, 2024.
Stuart Hoddinott and Alex Thomas. ‘Reform’s “DOGE” Is a Superficial Response to Deep Problems in Local Government’, Institute for Government, 9 June 2025.
House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, ‘Cross-Government Working: Twelfth Report of Session 2023-24’, 5 February 2024.
House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, Government Preparedness for the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons for Government on Risk. Forty-Sixth Report of Session 2021–22, 2022.
House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution, ‘4th Report of Session 2009-10: The Cabinet Office and the Centre of Government’, 2010.
House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution, ‘Executive Oversight and Responsibility for the UK Constitution’, 2025.
The Right Reverend James Jones KBE, ‘The patronising disposition of unaccountable power’, 1 November 2017.
The Institute for Government, ‘Power with purpose’, 10 March 2024.
The Institute for Government, ‘Part 2: The State of the Civil Service’, 16 January 2025.
International Centre for Health and Society/Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, Council of Civil Service Unions, and Cabinet Office, ‘Work, Stress and Health: The Whitehall II Study.’ 2004.
Sabine R Kunz-Ebrecht, Clemens Kirschbaum and Andrew Steptoe, ‘Work Stress, Socioeconomic Status and Neuroendocrine Activation over the Working Day’, Social Science & Medicine, Health inequalities and the psychosocial environment, vol. 58, no. 8 (2004): 1523–30.
The Labour Party, ‘Change: Manifesto 2024’, 2024.
Sir Brian Langstaff, ‘Infected Blood Inquiry: The Report’, 20 May 2024.
Michael Marmot and Andrew Steptoe, ‘Whitehall II and ELSA: Integrating Epidemiological and Psychobiological Approaches to the Assessment of Biological Indicators’, In Biosocial Surveys, National Academies Press (US), 2008.
Sir Martin Moore-Bick, ‘Grenfell Tower Inquiry: Phase 2 Report’, September 2024.
Mariana Mazzucato, Sarah Doyle, Nick Kimber, Dan Wainwright and Grace Wyld, ‘Mission Critical 01: Statecraft for the 21st century’, The Future Governance Forum and UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, 30 May 2024.
Erenie Mullens-Burgess and Teodor Grama, ‘Explainer: Cabinet Office’, Institute for Government, 21 September 2020.
National Audit Office, ‘Cabinet Office and HM Treasury – Integration across Government’, 2013.
National Audit Office, ‘Lessons Learned: Cross-Government Working’, 7 July 2023.
National Audit Office, ‘Civil service workforce: Recruitment, pay and performance management,’ 29 November 2023.
National Audit Office, ‘An Overview of the Cabinet Office for the New Parliament 2023-2024’, February 2025.
National Centre for Social Research, ‘Trust and Confidence in Britain’s System of Government at Record Low,’ 2024.
OECD, Global Trends in Government Innovation 2024: Fostering Human-Centred Public Services, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, 2024.
OECD, ‘Steering from the Centre of Government in Times of Complexity’, 19 April 2024.
Office for National Statistics, ‘Civil Service Statistics QMI,’ Accessed 13 August 2025.
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), ’The Role and Status of the Prime Minister’s Office, First Report of Session 2021–22,’ 2021.
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), ‘Propriety of Governance in Light of Greensill,’ 2022.
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), ‘The Role of Non-Executive Directors in Government – Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee,’ 2023.
Alexandra Spicer. ‘Pay, Autonomy, and the Desire to Make a Difference – Three Key Factors for Motivating Public Sector Officials,’ Blavatnik School of Government, 17 January 2022.
Shuang Li and Yang Chen. ‘The Relationship Between Psychological Contract Breach and Employees’ Counterproductive Work Behaviors: The Mediating Effect of Organizational Cynicism and Work Alienation’, Frontiers in Psychology 9 (July 2018): 1273.
UK Government, ‘Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010’, Statute Law Database, Accessed 16 July 2025.
Yannis Georgellis, Elisabetta Iossa, and Vurain Tabvuma, ‘Crowding Out Intrinsic Motivation in the Public Sector’, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 21, no. 3 (2011): 473–93, 6 December 2010.
Nehal Panchamia and Peter Thomas, ‘The Next Steps Initiative’, Institute for Government, 2014.
Nehal Panchamia and Peter Thomas. ‘Public Service Agreements and the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit,’ Institute for Government, 26 March 2014.
Phil Tinline, ‘Into Power 02: The Conservative Party’s 2010 Transition from Opposition to Government’, The Future Governance Forum, 9 April 2024.
Charles Trevelyan and Stafford Northcote. ‘Report on the Organisation of the Permanent Civil Service (the Northcote-Trevelyan Report),’ 1854.
Josh Harris and Jill Rutter, ‘Centre Forward: Effective Support for the Prime Minister at the Centre of Government’, Institute for Government, 2014.
Jordan Urban and Alex Thomas, ’Opening up: How to Strengthen the Civil Service through External Recruitment’, Institute for Government, 2022.
Sir Wyn Williams, ‘Volume 1 of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry’s final report’, 8 July 2025.
Hanbing Xue, Yifei Luo, Yuxiang Luan, and Nan Wang, ‘A Meta-Analysis of Leadership and Intrinsic Motivation: Examining Relative Importance and Moderators’, Frontiers in Psychology, 13 August 2022.
3. Blogs and news articles
BBC News, ‘“We did it!” Starmer’s Speech to Supporters in Full’, 5 July 2024.
BBC News, ‘Laura Kuenssberg: Inside the High-Stakes Soap Opera That Led to Political Chaos’, 9 September 2023.
Deepak Bhargava, Shahrzad Shams and Harry Hanbury, ‘The Death of “Deliverism”’, Democracy Journal, 22 June 2023.
Dr Michelle Clement, ‘The Art of Delivery: The Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit 2001-2005 – History of Government,’ 26 August 2022.
Dr Michelle Clement, ‘Filling ‘the Hole in the Centre’: The No.10 Policy Unit – 50 Years on – History of Government,’ 2 May 2024.
The Constitution Unit, ‘Reshaping the Core Executive: 1997 to 2025’, The Constitution Unit Blog, 22 May 2025.
Dominic Cummings, ‘Gesture without Motion from the Hollow Men in the Bubble, and a Free Simple Idea to Improve Things a Lot Which Could Be Implemented in One Day (Part I)’, Dominic Cummings’s Blog, 16 June 2014.
Dominic Cummings, ‘The Hollow Men II: Some Reflections on Westminster and Whitehall Dysfunction’, Dominic Cummings’s Blog, 30 October 2014.
Dominic Cummings, ‘Covid / Inquiry Snippets’, Dominic Cummings Substack, 1 November 2023.
Dominic Cummings, ‘People, Ideas, Machines IX: A) Britain’s “Organization of Victory” 1793-1815 and B) Metternich & European Community’, Dominic Cummings Substack, 19 August 2024.
Dominic Cummings, ‘#5 TSP: What Comes in 2025-6 as Both Parties & Whitehall Fail? What Can Be Done?’, Dominic Cummings Substack, 13 February 2025.
Dominic Cummings, ‘People, Ideas, Machines X: Freedom’s Forge – the Story of American Business and Industrial Production in World War II’, Dominic Cummings Substack, 6 March 2025.
The Economist, ‘Why Boris Johnson Is Recreating Tony Blair’s “Delivery Unit”’, 13 May 2021.
Lucy Fisher, ‘Former UK prime ministers call for reform of ‘centre’ of government’, Financial Times, 10 March 2024.
Institute for Government, ‘Civil Service Staff Numbers’, 15 December 2017.
Laura Kuenssberg, ‘Inside the high-stakes soap opera that led to political chaos’, 9 September 2023.
Tevye Markson, ‘“Very Worrying”: Interest in the Civil Service Fast Stream Plummets’, Civil Service World, 8 March 2024.
Tevye Markson, ‘Brown, Major and O’Donnell: Cabinet Office and No.10 are too big and inefficient’, Civil Service World, 12 March 2024; and
Tevye Markson, ‘“Regrettable Losses” in Senior Civil Service Jump to 83%’, Civil Service World, 5 June 2025
McKinsey Quarterly, ‘Corporate Purpose: Shifting from Why to How’, 22 April 2020.
Tom McTague, ‘Rebellion in the Air’, The New Statesman, 25 June 2025.
Mark McVitie, Chris Curtis and Lola McEvoy, ‘Britain faces a revolutionary moment. Labour must respond’, New Statesman, 21 July 2025.
Chris Mullins, Making Things Happen at the Implementation Unit – Civil Service Quarterly, 16 April 2014.
Stefan Stern, ‘Has Corporate Purpose Lost Its Purpose?’, Financial Times, 13 January 2025.
Alex Thomas, ‘A Re-Energised Civil Service Must Not Forget That Tougher Times Are Ahead’, Institute for Government, 15 July 2024.
4. Websites, podcasts and speeches
Mike Bracken, ‘Digital Government: The Strategy Is Delivery’, The Institute for Government, 20 October 2014.
BCG Global, ‘From Oversight to Action at the Center of Government’, 7 February 2024.
Cabinet Office and Government Communication Service, Permanent Secretary Director of Communications appointed, 30 July 2025.
Innovation Explorers podcast, Episode 16: Mike Bracken on Innovating Digital Public Services, 30 May 2023.
Margaret Thatcher, ‘Civil Service Management’, 18 February 1988.
Modern Wisdom podcast, ‘Episode #819 – Dominic Cummings – The Secrets Behind A Crumbling British Government’, 1 August 2024.
Moment of Zen podcast, Dominic Cummings on Elon, Techies in Politics, and New Elitism, 12 February 2023.
Money Maze podcast, ‘Dame Kate Bingham on Healthcare VC, Biotech & Leading the UK’s COVID-19 Vaccine Taskforce’, 17 November 2022.
Opinion podcast, ‘#94: Bringing Behavioral Science to Government with David Halpern,’ 8 April 2024.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, ‘Plan for Change Speech’, GOV.UK, 5 December 2024.
Prime Minister’s Office, ‘PM speech on AI Opportunities Action Plan’, 13 January 2025.
Prime Minister’s Office and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, ‘Appointment of Matt Clifford CBE as the AI Opportunities Adviser’, 13 January 2025.
Nathan Yeowell, ‘“Now is the time for the Prime Minister to double down”: Reflections on Mission-Driven Government’, The Future Governance Forum, 28 April 2025.
‘UK Covid-19 Inquiry: Witness Statement of Alex Chisholm’, UK Covid-19 Inquiry, 31 January 2023.
‘UK Covid-19 Inquiry, ‘Witness Statement of Dominic Cummings’, UK Covid-19 Inquiry, 12 October 2023.
‘UK Covid-19 Inquiry: Witness Statement of Helen MacNamara’, UK Covid-19 Inquiry, 1 November 2023.
The Rt Hon Lord Maude of Horsham, ‘Independent Review of Governance and Accountability in the Civil Service’, GOV.UK, Accessed 24 July 2025.