You’ve just been made the country’s top civil servant. What does your first day look like?
“It was packed!” Antonia Romeo, the newly-appointed head of the civil service and cabinet secretary, tells CSW. “The first call I made was to my predecessor, outgoing cabinet secretary Chris Wormald. I then gathered my top team together – the permanent secretary heads of departments, who are the people I will be working with most closely to deliver the government’s agenda. We talked about my priorities for the leadership of the civil service: delivery, innovation, and productivity.”
There were several meetings with ministers, the political team in No.10 and the Cabinet Office top team, and Romeo also kicked off a series of one-on-one calls with each of the permanent secretaries, discussing “the priorities and challenges in each department and how we will work together on them”.
She also made some personal touches to her new work space: “First to go up on the wall were two framed photos of all the living female permanent secretaries. The first was taken in 2017, when I had just been appointed to lead a department for the first time (I was the 35th woman to be appointed to a perm sec role), and the second in 2024, when there were nearly 60 of us.”
And she was “really touched” by all the notes, cards and flowers received from colleagues on her first day – “and a helium balloon!”, she says, “which really brightened things up in the oak-panelled office”.
“At the end of the day,” she says, “I wrote my introductory message to the whole civil service, focused on my pride in the remarkable institution for which we work, and some things I would like to change. I’ve come from running big operational departments, so I know the importance of communicating with the whole team – from the operational frontline to policy makers and corporate services.”
That message was sent out to all civil servants the next day – a Friday – and on the following Monday she sent another one, this time written to some 7,000 senior civil servants across government.
“We… are the team that leads the almost half a million civil servants charged with delivery of the government’s agenda and services to the public,” Romeo wrote. “We set the tone, the culture, the values and the example. We translate priorities into action and impact. Every day, every single person in the country depends on our leadership.”
The message described four asks that the new cabinet secretary wants to see from that leadership cadre: to focus on delivery and results; to drive innovation and “lean into” digital transformation; to cultivate talent across the civil service; and to provide “visible and energetic” leadership.
In return, senior civil servants can expect her to provide “energy, direction and the support you need to excel”.
“I will recognise high performance, and be clear about where I think we need to change or improve,” the message says. “I will always take pride in our people and their work, and I will always stand up strongly for the civil service. I will back you when you take appropriate risks and make difficult calls. That is the deal.”
The message also offers more detailed directions on the four asks. To focus on delivery, for example, she calls on leaders to remove or challenge, rather than create barriers to getting things done. They should be clear on what success looks like, “relentless in scrutinising performance” and prioritisation, “ensuring every pound and hour is spent well and on the government’s priorities”.
To cultivate talent, she encourages senior officials to “create a coaching culture” and, by setting high standards and supporting people to meet them, to “build an inspiring, dynamic environment that great people want to work in”.
When it comes to visible and energetic leadership, Romeo urges leaders to “be an ambassador for your team, and for the wider civil service. Be ambitious with the extraordinary resources we have, including our people and the powers of central government and partners who want to work with us”.
And all of this seems to be in service of that second ask: being innovative when leading change –particularly digital change. “We are leading this institution at a time of unprecedented technological change – it is for us to ensure that we understand it and harness it in the service of delivery and efficiency. Lean into digital service transformation.”
Here, it’s clear that Romeo is walking the walk as well as talking the talk – in both the Home Office and Ministry of Justice she indicated the importance she placed on digital transformation by appointing board-level leaders to drive it. And, when CSW asks her about the personal items she has taken to her new office she replies: “Books! Lots of them. I'm an avid reader and I love having books around so I can refer to them after I’ve read them. And before you ask, yes, I have read them all...”
Among her favourites to refer back to are Factfulness by Hans Rosling, and books on the constitution by such grandees as Vernon Bogdanor and Peter Hennessy. “Right now,” she adds, “I’m devouring books on AI innovation, and the role of AI and technology is going to be a major priority for me.”
Driving major change in government is not easy, yet she is adamant that it is not only possible, but essential. "Innovating to deliver better public services isn’t just a ‘nice to have’," she tells CSW. "It’s incumbent on us to take the whole public service into this new world, and obviously that’s a big challenge. But I see a huge amount of opportunity too. It’s a great privilege to lead and work in public service and, while we need to take the responsibility very seriously, we can still be excited about the opportunities.”
Romeo is herself an energetic and visible leader, but not everyone in that 7,000-strong SCS cadre will share those natural tendencies. What would she say to senior leaders who feel daunted by the prospect of leaning into transformation and change, or who might see their role more as providing continuity and assurance over change?
“Good leadership is about helping the organisation to change,” she says. “If there are any leaders that are daunted by it, then it’s my job to provide the direction and support so that we can do this together, because that is what is required of us.”
“I’m fond of saying that leadership is about taking organisations to places where they wouldn't otherwise have got to,” she continues. “That’s the role of leadership: to support our people through times of change, setting the direction with energy and positivity. I want us all to build, and feel part of, an inspiring, dynamic, can-do environment that great people want to work in. I want our senior leaders to lead their teams by example, with the commitment and passion and courage to throw themselves into challenges.
“Our job is to deliver the government's agenda and services to the public – and doing this is going to require transformation. We have got to be curious, to break the mould, and to learn relentlessly from the frontline, communities, other countries, the private sector, and from history.”