Simon’s on the Case

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2020

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s all change at the top of the Civil Service as the youngest Cabinet Secretary in over a century begins his job next week. But who is Simon Case? Why has he got the job? And what are the big tasks lining his in-tray? Plus - despite everyone around him taking the fall, Gavin Williamson still remains in post at the Department for Education, but what does this say about the accountability of ministers? And as schools reopen and people are urged to return to the office, we’ll look back at Government decision making in the first phase of the pandemic. “The key is having the Prime Minister’s confidence in your own authority” - Cath Haddon “The real issue in terms of ministerial responsibility is that other people have gone” - Cath Haddon “The Dept for Education made grade inflation their issue, which is why we ended up where we did” - Chris Wilkins “At DfE you fix the last battle and another one comes onto the horizon” - Alex Thomas “How much sympathy do you give the Government for a lack of information?” - Cath Haddon Presented by Bronwen Maddox with Cath Haddon, Alex Thomas and Sarah Nickson. Audio production by Alex Rees. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government. I'm Bronwyn Maddox.
0:16.2	Summer is meant to be a little quieter in the world of politics, so surely the last two weeks of August would be a good time to take a few days off our podcast? Wrong. An awful lot has happened in the last
0:26.5	fortnight, and we're back in the virtual studio to make sense of it all. We saw the appointment of the
0:31.6	new cabinet secretary, who at 41 is the youngest in over a century? Who is Simon Case? Why has he got the job?
0:39.1	What will he need to do?
0:44.6	Then there was the fiasco over the exam results, just the latest in government education policy since the lockdown, and that led to the departure of both the permanent secretary at the
0:48.8	Department for Education and the head of Offqual, the exams regulator. But Gavin Williamson,
0:56.2	the education secretary, is still in place.
1:01.2	What does this say about accountability and the relationship between minister and his civil servants?
1:05.1	And as schools reopen and ministers urge people to return to their offices,
1:08.8	will take a look back at government decision-making in the first phase of the pandemic.
1:11.4	We've published a new IFG report out this week,
1:16.9	which explores the mistakes and successes and what needs to be done to get things right this autumn.
1:22.0	Joining me in the studio today is a terrific lineup, Alex Thomas, who leads to the IFG's civil service work. Hi, Alex. Hi, Bronwyn. And Kath Haddon's joining us. She heads up our ministers program as well as all things constitutional.
1:29.8	Great to have you with us, Kath.
1:31.0	Thanks.
1:31.6	Great to be back.
1:32.3	And I'm delighted that we're joined by Chris Wilkins, a former number 10 director of strategy, special advisor at the Department for Education, and now managing partner and strategy consultants.
1:41.6	Audley.
1:41.9	Thanks for joining us, Chris.
1:44.1	Hi, Vonman.
1:45.9	Let's start with a case for case, if you like, the appointment of the cabinet secretary.
	...

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