During a recent visit to Nottingham John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office, took time out of his busy schedule to find out more about the work of Civil Service Local.
He met a group of delegates from the 2015 East Midlands Academy to learn about their experience in taking forward the reform based projects they have been working on for the past 9 months and the challenges they have faced.
Projects included running awareness raising and transferrable skills workshops, a job shadowing programme, the creation of a cross-departmental staff engagement network, a resource package for managers to boost engagement in their teams, a resource pack and presentation for schools promoting the civil service as a potential career choice and coffee and cake sessions for frontline staff to meet with senior civil servants to discuss issues in a more relaxed and informal way.
He was very impressed with every project and was keen for them to continue after the initial 12 month period.
He spoke about the future civil service and changes which need to be made - he said the civil service needs to be more diverse, we need to develop new skills sets through specific functions, some of which had already been created, we need to create offices where there is a strong civil service and we need to create technologies we can all share. He also stressed the importance of joining up not just vertically but horizontally too - something which forms the basis of everything Civil Service Local does.
His enthusiasm for CS Local was inspiring -Andy Robinson, Public Health England
1 comment
Comment by Chris Ball posted on
Sounds great. It isn't easy to deliver these cross-Government projects so it is pleasing to hear that someone this senior is giving his time, commitment and support to Civil Service Local and the Academy.