The Welsh Government is going to appoint a Chief Operating Officer

Wales' is to appoint a chief operating officer to operate alongside the nation's top civil servant.

Dame Shan Morgan would be to stand down as Permanent Secretary the coming year and a recruitment process has already been underway to replace her in the role, which pays between lb162,500 and lb180,000 annually.

The permanent secretary is easily the most senior civil servant in Wales and leads the nation's civil service.

She accounts for delivering the agenda set by the First Minister, their ministerial team and also the Cabinet Secretary. Wales has 5,000 civil servants, 1 / 2 of whom are based in Wales.

Mr Drakeford said he has looked at how it works in Whitehall and it has decided that appointing a chief operating officer would assist whoever is appointed to that role.

Some Whitehall departments have chief operating officers. This past year the Secretary of state for Defence advertised such a post having a salary of lb70,000 a year.

First Minister Mark Drakeford told a meeting of the Senedd that: "A brand new permanent secretary was advertised on Monday of a week ago, I believe I said before that the adjective permanent is a bit of a misnomer. Permanent secretaries are appointed on fixed 5 year terms, and also the current permanent secretary's term of office can come to an end at the start of the next twelve months.

"I think I've come to a conclusion that certain of the methods in which some Whitehall departments operate has something to offer us here.

"In a number of Whitehall departments alongside the permanent secretary, there's what's known as a chief operating officer. The chief operating officer's job would be to deal with the mechanics of how a department operates. They cope with staffing matters, terms and conditions, who gets to park their car where. Those sort of things.

"At the moment in Welsh Government they all wind up around the desk of the Permanent Secretary. I want a lasting Secretary whose time can be obtained to make the programme from the government succeed and i believe the brand new person will be helped should they have a Chief Operating Office alongside dealing with more with the mechanics of government.

"I'd opportunity of a conversation with Simon Case, head from the cabinet office in Whitehall, and I think learnt some useful things from what he said in my experience about how exactly he may learn some of those lessons here."