Ordering treacle properly for the head of a government department (8,7)
I believe the answer is:
director general
'a government department' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'ordering treacle properly for the head' is the wordplay.
'ordering treacle properly' becomes 'general' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'for' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'the head' becomes 'director' (director is a kind of head).
'general' after 'director' is 'DIRECTOR-GENERAL'.
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for director general that I've seen before include "chief executive" , "Head of organisation" .)