Special: Becoming A Minister Part 3 – Working with the civil service

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There is no job quite like that of a government minister – and no training manual for how to do it. So what happens on the first day in the job? How can ministers manager the demands on their time? Are particular skills needed to get the best out of civil servants? Is there a trick to working with Number 10? What is the best way to handle a multi-billion pound departmental budget? And how can ministers master the art of navigating parliament? In this special six-part series from the Institute for Government, former ministers and civil servants reveal what it is really like to hold ministerial office and how to do the job well. You will hear all about the challenges, confusion, decisions and drama of a job which really is like no other. Presented by Tim Durrant, with Dr Nicola Blacklaws. Produced by Milo Hynes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The department usually have what I call multiple choice recommendations, usually three, three options,
0:16.0	two of which would be rather bonkers than you wouldn't do and then the middle one would be the recommended
0:21.2	one that they wanted you to do. The reality was better than my expectations actually. I love
0:26.7	working with the civil servants. Hello and welcome to the latest episode of our special
0:32.3	inside briefing series becoming a minister. In this series, former ministers and the civil servants
0:37.4	who worked with them
0:38.2	reveal what it is really like to hold ministerial office and how to do the job well. You will hear all about the challenges, the confusion, the decisions and drama of a job which really is like no other.
0:49.3	My name is Tim Durant, program director for ministers at the IFG. In this episode, we're talking about how ministers can work with the civil service.
0:57.0	As a new minister, you now have access to the civil service machine, an army of officials
1:02.0	whose job it is to serve the government of the day and deliver on its agenda.
1:06.0	From your private office team who provide your close day-to-day support, to policy development and
1:11.1	communication specialists to civil servants responsible for actually implementing government policy.
1:17.0	But what should new ministers expect from the civil service? What are the common misconceptions?
1:21.8	And how can ministers get the best out of their departments? We'll hear advice and recommendations
1:26.8	from ministers in several recent
1:28.3	governments and hear why the civil service being compared to a Rolls-Royce isn't necessarily a compliment.
1:38.3	Justine Greening worked in several departments during her time in government with her first job as a junior minister in the Treasury.
1:45.7	She didn't really know what to expect when it came to working with the civil service.
1:49.4	I had absolutely no idea.
1:51.2	There are some politicians who will say, oh, they're all going to be terrible.
1:54.8	They'll need to be sort of knocked into shape that kind of attitude.
1:58.0	Even ministers who don't take that view often have preconceived ideas of what civil
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