Permanent Secretary, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
What are you most proud of achieving during 2011?
Firstly, the way we managed the change to being a smaller, more flexible department. It was fast, but fair. We all worked hard to keep everyone in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) fully informed throughout the process.
While all this was going on, colleagues were handling a huge amount of business with great professionalism, including the launch of the Higher Education White Paper, and a range of good work on the Growth Review. Steering the Postal Services Bill through Parliament was also a landmark achievement, giving Royal Mail the security and certainty it needs to press ahead with its modernisation programme.
How has the shape and structure of the department changed during 2011?
To live within our spending settlement, we have had to become smaller and more flexible. We decided to act quickly to reduce uncertainty for staff and begin focusing on how best to meet our new challenges. So we took a bold decision to redesign the whole department in one go, cutting out layers of hierarchy and creating teams with flatter structures, while at the same time running a voluntary redundancy scheme and a selection process. We now have a fifth fewer staff in the department than in June 2010, allowing us to focus on our future rather than more restructuring.
So the last year has been a difficult time for everyone. We set out to be as open as possible, including talking to staff about aspects of the process as we were designing it so we could refine it in response to their feedback. Our new team structure started in July, when a quarter of our staff moved to new jobs in different policy areas, bringing new ways of working. We are making good progress towards being not just a smaller but also a more flexible and innovative organisation making the best of the great people we have working across the department.
What is the most important thing the department must achieve during 2012?
A growing economy. Everything we do contributes to sustainable growth and jobs for this country.
Our policy agenda - from investing in higher and further education and skills, to making markets more dynamic and reducing regulation; and from promoting trade, to boosting innovation and helping people start and grow a business ñ helps drive growth. In November we announced £950 million investment from the Regional Growth Fund to boost local economies and jobs. And we work closely across government and with business stakeholders to deliver our goals.
How is the civil service likely to change during 2012?
I believe we will see even more joint teams, better working across departments and more openness to outside stakeholders. This will help us respond effectively to new priorities, including the challenge of slower growth in the Euro zone and perhaps more widely. All of us as civil servants will become more connected through better use of IT, helping us to be more flexible and use our limited resources to best effect.
Which historical, mythological or contemporary figure would you most like to join for Christmas dinner?
Ebenezer Scrooge - after he has met all the Christmas ghosts.