In my first week as a reporter for CSW, I was sent to Petty France – on what remains to this day the best outing I’ve been on for work – to meet a group of extremely friendly dogs brought in to help boost civil servants’ wellbeing and promote a charity. I spent a happy hour chatting to officials and fussing over a retriever who also couldn’t believe his luck (although when writing this, I was unable to find any evidence on CSW’s website that this ever happened, and I am beginning to wonder if it was a fever dream).
Over more than seven years of interviewing civil servants since then, I have been introduced to many animal companions – most remotely, regrettably – and I have been delighted every time. This issue’s special guest was Charlie, a large, black cat who snoozed through my interview with RSPCA chief exec Joanna Rowland.
That was one of a series of fascinating interviews I did for our feature exploring why so many former senior civil servants seem to end up leading charities. I heard about funding, governance and what it’s like to run an entire organisation without ministerial oversight. Much of what drew Rowland to the RSPCA, as well as her love of animals, was the strong sense of purpose among the charity’s staff and volunteers – a common theme among the interviewees, who all drew parallels with the way civil servants are driven by a sense of mission in improving services and citizens’ lives.
One of my favourite observations came from Michelle Dyson, who moved from DHSC to Alzheimer’s Society last year and who said her biggest reflection after three months on the job was that “leadership is leadership”. So much of her new role – from working with executive teams to conversations about performance – was familiar, she said.
Another theme that emerged during those conversations was the need to react quickly to unexpected challenges – something CSW’s editorial team had to do following the shock staffing change at the top of the civil service shortly before we went to press. Sir Chris Wormald’s departure was unexpected and highly unusual – as our columnist Prof Jon Davis demonstrates in his potted history of cabinet secretary sackings on page 13. By the time Dame Antonia Romeo was named as his successor, we had already interviewed her to appear – as Home Office permanent secretary – on the cover of this issue, which has a special focus on security and policing.
Always ready to pivot, we went back to the freshly minted cabinet secretary a week into her new job to ask about her plans and her approach to civil service reform. Like the charity chiefs I spoke to, Romeo said her role as a leader is about supporting people through times of change, “setting the direction with energy and positivity”, and embracing innovation. The interview also looks at her priorities at the Home Office and explores what her leadership there could tell us about how she will approach leading the whole civil service.
We can also take some valuable leadership lessons from our story about younger civil servants managing teams who are much older than them. Becoming a line manager early in your career might sound like a dream, but the “young bosses” we spoke to shared what it’s like to experience pushback from older – but more junior – colleagues, not-so-subtle references to things they’re “too young to remember” and hearing through the grapevine that a co-worker has referred to you as a “jumped-up little prick”. It’s well worth a read to find out how they deal with the pressure in good humour.
And fear not – though our cover star may have moved out of the Home Office, there’s still lots to read in our security and policing special. Dr Michelle Haslem shares some of the biggest national security threats the UK faces and how the Homeland Security Group is tackling them; experts take a look at what’s in the government’s Violence Against Women and Girls strategy and why youth work is an essential part of violence prevention; and we hear about evidence-based innovations in police forces – and what civil service policy professionals can learn from them.