What should the new chief secretary to the prime minister do?

The government has never had a “chief secretary to the prime minister” before.

Previous PMs have brought ministers into No10, though with mixed results. Boris Johnson made Steve Barclay his chief of staff at the same time as being a minister in the Cabinet Office. It was a brief and unsuccessful experiment. David Cameron had more success when Jo Johnson worked as a minister as head of his policy unit at the end of the coalition government.

There is no easy model for Darren Jones to adopt in his new job, but the IfG welcomes the appointment. Last spring, our Commission on the Centre of Government called for prime ministers to appoint a “first secretary”. This “senior minister, with ownership of the government’s policy programme”, would “work closely with the chancellor to manage tensions between the government’s fiscal objectives and the rest of the government’s agenda” as well as taking on other responsibilities according to the needs of the prime minister. Jones’s new “chief secretary” role looks a lot like our proposed model.

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Jones will need to work quickly to define the role if he is to succeed. One lesson from previous successes and failures is that key to his success will be whether Jones can bring clarity to the roles and remits of the staff in No10. One of the problems the reorganisation needs to solve is that too many people have been purporting to speak for the prime minister on policy. It must be crystal clear how decisions are being taken inside Downing Street, and who has the prime minister’s authority to communicate them.

Everyone inside the building also needs to understand the new organisation chart. Which teams in No10 and the Cabinet Office work to Jones? Which political appointees report to him? And how will he work with Morgan McSweeney as chief of staff and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden? These different functions, and individuals, will need to dovetail and keep their disagreements constructive and private. Any signs of a power struggle should ring immediate warning bells for the prime minister.

Structural changes to the civil service and to departments will also be needed to make the new No10 work. Neither No10 nor the Cabinet Office are fit to serve a modern prime minister. The Cabinet Office has lost its way, and No10 does not have the strategic clarity to support a prime minister who must, more than ever, be the chief executive of government. The logical next step is to create a new department of the prime minister and cabinet and a separate department for the civil service.

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That would also create an opportunity to rationalise the top of the civil service by separating the role of cabinet secretary from the head of the civil service. The cabinet secretary would then work hand-in-glove with Darren Jones to advise on and implement the government’s programme and lead the prime minister’s department, while the head of the civil service would be accountable for the reforms to that institution that are so badly needed.

Jones’s last job gave him insight into departments across the government as well as the Treasury. He is also a minister on the up, a strong media performer, and has – so far at least – passed the essential ministerial test of combining administrative skill with political nous. The prime minister needs him to bring that governing craft to No 10.

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