Jack Worlidge looks at the Prime Minister's shake-up of government.

Done well, reshuffles can cement a Prime Minister’s authority, rejuvenate an administration, and send a clear message about the government’s direction of travel. Theresa May’s reshuffle does not fall into this category.

At the top level, there was little change. It started badly when Conservative Party Headquarters announced the appointment of Chris Grayling as Party Chairman on Twitter – only for the tweet to be hastily deleted when it became clear that the office’s communication with Downing Street was not what it should be, and that Brandon Lewis had in fact taken the position.

Later, Jeremy Hunt’s insistence that he would not “abandon ship” put paid to May’s plan to move him from Health to Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and even resulted in an expanded brief, which now takes full responsibility for the thorny issue of social care. Elsewhere, the liberal wing of the Conservative Party suffered a significant loss when Justine Greening chose to resign rather than accept a move from Education to Work and Pensions. Esther McVey – re-elected after losing her seat in 2015, and who draws ire from the Left – took on the controversy-prone brief instead.

Lower down the ranks, a number of the 2015 intake of MPs – including Rishi Sunak, Nusrat Ghani, Lucy Frazer, and Suella Fernandes – gained ministerial positions. But while some of the changes allow ministers to play to their strengths – such as Frazer, a barrister, at the Ministry of Justice – others are more confusing, including Jo Johnson’s move to the Department for Transport, and Rory Stewart’s move to the Ministry of Justice from a joint Foreign Office and International Development brief that suited him to the ground.

What will the reshuffle mean for policy? Ken Clarke – with more experience than most of moving between departments – has previously noted the problems reshuffles can cause, when speaking to the Institute for Government:

“[…] after two years, you are sitting in control now, behind your desk, where you are really going to do this, this and this. And then the phone rings and the Prime Minister is having a reshuffle and you move on to the next department and you are back at the beginning…panicking again.”

Ministers inevitably take a while to get their feet under the desk, and civil servants will be keen to shape their thinking from the off. While some ministers, such as Michael Gove when at Education, or Theresa May at the Home Office, will not be afraid to stamp their authority on a department, others will find their thinking being significantly shaped by the Civil Service. Nonetheless, new faces present new opportunities for engagement. Newington can advise on how best to exploit these – whether directly through ministers, or via officials and advisers.

If the government reshuffle lacked a clear message, the simultaneous shake-up of the Conservative Party machinery spoke volumes about May’s plans for its future. Taking the opportunity to create a raft of new vice-chair positions, she sought to give some of the party’s youngest MPs a major say in its future direction.

Key appointments include Kemi Badenoch (responsible for candidate selection), Ben Bradley (youth), and Chris Skidmore (policy) – who may have a significant role in drawing up the next manifesto. In promoting Brandon Lewis and James Cleverly to Chairman and Deputy Chairman respectively, May has also placed relatively young, strong communicators at the top of the party.

While the reshuffle won’t reboot the government, these changes are a clear signal that the Conservative Party is seeking to refresh its image. Whether this is enough to see off Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party remains to be seen.