I recently completed a shadowing day at the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) in Birmingham so thought I would write about my experience. I work in the Parliamentary Business team in the Defence Infrastructure Organisation of the Ministry of Defence so was looking for something completely different to my day job.
I was admirably looked after by Mark Foley who gave me a broad introduction to DCLG and what his particular part of it does - Mark works in the European Funding team. I found this really useful in increasing my wider knowledge of Government Departments.
Next I had a more intricate description of what Mark’s team does on an operational level with Peter, who is the same grade as me which was immensely detailed and very useful and made me think of possibly completing Prince 2 to further my personal development. He also gave me some information about State Aid which I took back to the office and shared with my team.
I then had a talk about European Structural and Investment Funds sub committees, which although brilliantly described, was a little complicated. It did tie in nicely with everything else, though, and showed me how changeable the roles of unprotected government departments can be.
I moved onto the planning team which was great as this team has overlaps and connections with the Ministry of Defence. They also showed me work that is sent to their Minister which is good knowledge to have in my everyday role.
Lastly I had a wash up session with Mark who gave me some tips about Prince 2.
The day was extremely well structured and everyone was very kind and accommodating. Thank you to CS Local and all those who were involved on the day - I really enjoyed the experience and would highly recommend it to others.
If you think you would like to find out more about the work in another department please contact Janice Smith