The Cabinet Office is recruiting for a civil servant to revise HR policies for ministers’ special advisers, known as Spads.
The role, which offers a salary of up to £60,635 a year, has been created in response to concerns within the civil service about the treatment of staff by No10, according to a report by BuzzFeed News. The report claims that the move is one to ‘rein in’ Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings.
The new role is described on the government’s website as a “HR policy lead” who will have a “key role in establishing the cross-government special adviser HR function”.
There have been concerns raised in recent months over the treatment of Spads. In August, Sonia Khan, an adviser to former chancellor Sajid Javid was escorted from Downing Street by police after she was sacked by Dominic Cummings. Earlier this month, Sajid Javid quit as Chancellor after he was told to sack all of his aides.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said;
“In December 2018 the then government announced it would be reviewing how special advisers’ terms could be made clearer and more consistent.
“This is a routine appointment to the existing team to support this ongoing work and does not constitute a change to the way special advisers are managed.”
The job is open to applications until 26 February 2020.
Photo Credit: Howard Lake via Flickr under licence (CC BY-SA 2.0)
