Personal news! I'm now managing editor of @CSWnews, which means I'll be editing our quarterly print magazine from now on. If you're a senior civil servant with ideas about what you'd like to see in it, get in touch!

It's been an exciting three months putting together our autumn issue ↓ ↓ as @SuzannahCSW and @jessbowie move on to Exciting New Things (more in the mag) and a delight to hand over the news desk to the ace @TevyeMarkson. Read the autumn issue here:

UN: commission of inquiry says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

More to the point, if no one on your editorial team knows people who rely on benefits like PIP and UC to survive - and the daily stress of accommodating disability and the costs associated with that - there are going to be huge gaps

This is yet another reason why representation and diversity matters. If no one in your editorial team receives any of the benefits you're writing about, and hasn't had regular conversations about it with people who do, there are going to be huge gaps in your reporting

Energy-limiting conditions can be some of the most disabling out there. It would be extraordinary to define a person with severe ME - who isn't able to care for themselves and who may even have to limit their exposure to light and sound - as not severely disabled.

For example: it's very difficult to score 4 points on a single question on the PIP form with dynamic/energy limiting disabilities. I know a handful of people with severe ME - housebound or bedbound and requiring full-time care - who wouldn't hit that threshold...

See also: reporting that people with "less severe" conditions would lose out under the proposed reforms (which were taken out of the welfare bill but will come up again), which is a woeful misunderstanding of the impact it would have.

Something you learn as a journalist is that most journalists are not subject matter experts in everything they write about (myself included). We learn as we go. Most reporting on PIP is done by people who have very limited knowledge of how awards work.

After a social media hiatus, I'm back online - go follow me on the other app if you'd like to keep up to date with what's happening in the civil service:

DHSC set to launch voluntary-exit scheme as PM abolishes NHS England:

A good day to share this as the PM pushes to cut costs with AI & digitisation. @Marthalanefox on how government's digital overhaul can cut down on “sadmin”:

As I told @beckie__smith, civil servants in NI have worked through political chaos for 8 years, politicians shouldn't turn around now and blame them for the consequences of their own lack of political leadership.

Big (but not totally unexpected) news: Simon Case will step down as cabinet secretary at the end of this year. “It is a shame that I feel I have to spell this out, but my decision is solely to do with my health and nothing to do with anything else.”

I thought it was a joke about the length of the headline and I've been laughing for five minutes

Civil servants have been experiencing something rather novel in recent days: declarations of support and respect from their new ministers (can you imagine!). Read our round-up of what incoming secretaries of state have been saying to their officials here:

Civil servants! What have you heard from your new ministers? I'd love to hear about memos, missives, rallying cries... Drop me a message here or at beckie.smith@civilserviceworld.com

Though Vallance (and this is why he's such an encouraging appointment) has a track record of changing the system from within as this excellent profile by @beckie__smith shows https://t.co/UmwQBuAzeq

I've been having fun finding out which of the new MPs used to be civil servants. Among them a former PPS to Nick Clegg, head of the Foreign Office’s Terrorism Response Team and a member of the PM’s Strategy Unit under Brown:

‘He may go down as the most influential chief scientific adviser we’ve had’. Here's your primer on new science minister Patrick Vallance’s time in government: