Modern Civil Service Stories

The Civil Service is driving change through the 5 change priorities. If you or your team has worked on or delivered a project that fits one or more of the change priorities, we want to hear from you. We share blogs, stories and newsletters regularly that showcase the best of what civil servants do from every department and grade. You can submit ideas to us and check out some of the stories here:

Jesika from Department of Work and Pensions

I became a Leadership Essentials Coach which led me to train others across my department. I have built and delivered Leadership and Capability based upskilling sessions to my Directorate and helped to create development opportunities to colleagues working on the front line. I am now working on a new session to train my colleagues how to facilitate meaningful meetings!

Capability

Lorraine from Valuation Office Agency

I led a virtual roadshow in the South West of England via Heads of Place, bringing together 852 cross departmental civil servants. Sessions included discussing diversity in the region, taking control of your personal development, inspirational career stories and wider understanding of the work the civil service is involved in within South West. Feedback on how people have felt more connected has been amazing. 95% of people said it increased their knowledge of SW, 96% said they’d learnt something new about the civil service in the Region, and 89% said it inspired them to take personal ownership of their development.

Place

Michele from Department for Work and Pensions

Now we are back to face to face training, I have introduced a “toy box”, as you often find people do things whilst concentrating and it helps them retain information being delivered on a training course. Toys include: colour me calm, stress balls, shapes, Koochis, yoyos, magic drawing boards etc. Still adding! It keeps people off mobile phones and emails so they are more focused on learning!

Innovation

Zane from the Department of Education

I work as Senior Test Manager on data and digital services products in the Department for Education. One Big Thing has prompted me to create an AI testing strategy. It highlighted the importance of testing and quality assurance of AI products as critical to understanding the benefits of using particular AI services. It also helped me understand the importance of build-in ethical and risk-based requirements coverage.

Digital and Data

Stephanie from Crown Commercial Service

I collaborated with NHS England and other health sector stakeholders to successfully deliver a Healthcare Workplace Services strategy. This required a deep dive into the data on health sector spending. One of the objectives was to deliver a marketplace for services such as cleaning, catering, waste management and linen and laundry services. This included a lot of engagement and collaboration with a range of stakeholders across the health sector and will provide better services for the public – to have clean hospitals, services delivered to save time, money and improve quality.

Delivery