Thread by @alexwickham

NEW: Mark Sedwill has moved to rein in Dom Cummings in an unprecedented move by the civil service against No10

— special adviser HR rules to be rewritten
— new official hired to deal with HR issues
— officials vow to ensure SpAds treated with "respect”

buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/ci…

A new £60k Special Advisers' HR Policy Lead will “revise and embed a full suite of HR policies, processes and principles”

— comes amid high-level concerns within the civil service about treatment of SpAds
— and fears that No10 has broken employment law

buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/ci…

Civil service intervention comes after special advisers contacted the FDA trade union — which represents civil servants — to discuss their treatment at the hands of Downing Street aides

buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/ci…

Senior civil servant tasked with rewriting SpAd HR rules will have a

— “high profile and stretching role”
— that involves working in “challenging circumstances”
— to produce new HR policies for special advisers based on “treating everyone with respect”

buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/ci…

In what appears to be a rebuke to Cummings’ management style, the civil service job ad says the official will need to “create an inclusive working environment where all opinions and challenges are taken into account”

buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/ci…

Here is a senior official on the changes:

Here is the response to this story from No10 source tonight: “Arrangments for spads have been undergoing change for some time - this is not new” buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/ci…

(tho I would add the job advert and the creation of the role itself are indeed new)