Ask a civil servant anything
Discussion
Right then - I tried to do this a few months ago under a new account and received a virtual smackdown from mods.
But perhaps now is the time to try again under my regular guise while I eat a late lunch.
I am a civil servant in a central UK government department in Westminster. I am not in the senior civil service but nor am I junior. I have a technical role that both supports policy making, implementation and enforcement, and also stakeholders outside government.
There are of course questions that I can't answer, or won't answer, and all views are mine and mine alone.
That said: ask me anything.
But perhaps now is the time to try again under my regular guise while I eat a late lunch.
I am a civil servant in a central UK government department in Westminster. I am not in the senior civil service but nor am I junior. I have a technical role that both supports policy making, implementation and enforcement, and also stakeholders outside government.
There are of course questions that I can't answer, or won't answer, and all views are mine and mine alone.
That said: ask me anything.
I imagine one the biggest challenges faced. Is constant political influence in what you / your colleagues are trying to get done? What’s it like when you’ve got some numpty in government telling you to do “X” when everyone in the team / office / department knows “Y” is the best thing to do?
toasty said:
Is Miller Lite still 35p a pint in the bar? It was last time I worked in the civil service.
Is Papa Bruno's the best place for a fry up near the Home office?
OK a serious one, do you still have flexi-time that allows you to take huge amounts of holiday?
No bar in our building but there is a gym so no idea!Is Papa Bruno's the best place for a fry up near the Home office?
OK a serious one, do you still have flexi-time that allows you to take huge amounts of holiday?
Not been to Papa Bruno's unless it's the one on Marsham Street under the awning, in which case it's great, so, possibly?
We do have flexi but it's capped, so no ridiculous accruals and then months off that I know of.
bockaaarck said:
I imagine one the biggest challenges faced. Is constant political influence in what you / your colleagues are trying to get done? What’s it like when you’ve got some numpty in government telling you to do “X” when everyone in the team / office / department knows “Y” is the best thing to do?
Well I guess that's the job in a nutshell - we are here to support whoever is in the seat at the time. And that varies from minister to minister, party to party.They ultimately make the decisions with the information that we give them and in my time here I can't think of a situation where we've been at complete loggerheads.
Sorry, bit of a boring answer, it's nowhere near as like The Thick of It as I was expecting.
How does anyone working at the Home Office currently live with themselves, given the absolute s
tshow of a Home Secretary we've got, and in fact all those we have had now for 10 years? Windrush, EU citizens not getting the automatic right to remain as promised, hostile environment etc. The list is endless and must be absolutely soul destroying to anyone with a conscience.
tshow of a Home Secretary we've got, and in fact all those we have had now for 10 years? Windrush, EU citizens not getting the automatic right to remain as promised, hostile environment etc. The list is endless and must be absolutely soul destroying to anyone with a conscience.Hate to have to say this - My Ops Director has recently been working with the civil service in Westminster on a procurement issue relating to Covid
He came back and said he would fire the lot of you - sorry
I have never seen him so frustrated, he set up our worldwide supply chain for 1000's of individual components, including the logistics, and he reckons those in Westminster who deal with similar are incompetant. All theorists but unable to actually make anything happen.
So my question - who really does the thinking for MInisters, the Ministers themselves or the special advisors?
He came back and said he would fire the lot of you - sorry
I have never seen him so frustrated, he set up our worldwide supply chain for 1000's of individual components, including the logistics, and he reckons those in Westminster who deal with similar are incompetant. All theorists but unable to actually make anything happen.
So my question - who really does the thinking for MInisters, the Ministers themselves or the special advisors?
ElectricSoup said:
How does anyone working at the Home Office currently live with themselves, given the absolute stshow of a Home Secretary we've got, and in fact all those we have had now for 10 years? Windrush, EU citizens not getting the automatic right to remain as promised, hostile environment etc. The list is endless and must be absolutely soul destroying to anyone with a conscience.
There are certain things that I am thankful that I'm not involved in, and some of those are what you've written.tshow of a Home Secretary we've got, and in fact all those we have had now for 10 years? Windrush, EU citizens not getting the automatic right to remain as promised, hostile environment etc. The list is endless and must be absolutely soul destroying to anyone with a conscience.Contrary to popular / pub belief, and to some level my own belief, most people that I see in the civil service really do care and want to make a difference. There is no doubt that it's a huge machine with some parts that could do with fixing though.
blueg33 said:
Hate to have to say this - My Ops Director has recently been working with the civil service in Westminster on a procurement issue relating to Covid
He came back and said he would fire the lot of you - sorry
I have never seen him so frustrated, he set up our worldwide supply chain for 1000's of individual components, including the logistics, and he reckons those in Westminster who deal with similar are incompetant. All theorists but unable to actually make anything happen.
So my question - who really does the thinking for MInisters, the Ministers themselves or the special advisors?
You didn't have to say it. And I've met a lot of Ops Directors not worth a toss, if we're generalising He came back and said he would fire the lot of you - sorry
I have never seen him so frustrated, he set up our worldwide supply chain for 1000's of individual components, including the logistics, and he reckons those in Westminster who deal with similar are incompetant. All theorists but unable to actually make anything happen.
So my question - who really does the thinking for MInisters, the Ministers themselves or the special advisors?
One of the reasons that outside agencies are brought in is because there is not expertise in every area in the civil service. And the nature of it is that there is deliberation, and thought, and signoff at lots of levels, etc. because it's public money that's being dealt with, for example. But could we be better? Absolutely. The bureaucracy is sometimes infuriating and I do wonder why we employ experts and then don't let them act like experts.
But onto your question - bit of both. Spads are literally there to think, so that's what they do. And they frequently need guidance on specifics as they tend to be generalists. Again, those I've met are not the media cariacatures they're made out to be.
At my place we've been quite lucky here in that we're working with people who at least understand what they are responsible for.
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