What led you to pursue a career in the Civil Service?

It all started in Tower Hamlets when Sir Richard Wilson, the late Mo Mowlam MP and former senior civil servants, such as Suma Chakrabarti, visited my school to raise awareness of careers in the Civil Service. I had neither heard nor considered such a career previously but after that visit, I wrote to Suma Chakrabarti asking for work experience.

In the summer holidays that followed, aged 16, I completed a two-week work experience placement at the Cabinet Office and what really struck me was that their work had a real impact on people and communities. The experience stayed with me through my time in university and the early days of my career in the private sector and inspired me to join the Civil Service.

When considering my opportunities, I reached out to Kate Starkey, a fellow LSE alumna, through the LSE Mentoring Programme. Kate gave me some helpful advice and let me spend some time shadowing her in the then Department of Children, Schools and Families. She also arranged a number of introductions with colleagues in other central government departments. I’m very grateful to Kate and she has been a huge inspiration.

In 2017 you were appointed as Deputy Director for Strategy, EU Exit and Ministerial Support at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and local government. What can you tell us about your role?

The focus of my role is supporting departmental priorities, preparing for a smooth and orderly exit from the EU, and considering the impact and opportunities for local communities. 

What that means in practical terms is essentially a lot of briefings, understanding risks and opportunities across the piece, fostering stakeholder engagement and a great deal of listening to what others are saying. 

You are also involved with a new initiative to champion engagement with schools. What does this entail?

In the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy last year, the Cabinet Secretary set out the ambition to become the most inclusive employer in the UK by 2020. Respecting and valuing differences will enrich our work and help to ensure that our policies reflect the needs of the people we serve.

I believe schools engagement has a big part to play in meeting this ambition. I’ve been supporting the Cabinet Secretary with championing engagement with schools across the Civil Service, to promote diversity, inclusion and social mobility. 

Social mobility is about equality of aspiration and opportunity, about background not determining future prospects, and I believe schools engagement has a big part to play in it. 

I want to demystify what we mean by careers in public policy. I believe we can, and must be bolder in our engagement with students to make our offer clearer and more accessible. A Civil Service career has so much to offer in terms of working on the biggest questions facing the country and making a real difference to people’s lives.

Through interactive workshops on the range of challenges we are facing (including artificial Intelligence, housing for the next generation, innovating public service delivery, ageing population, an increasingly interconnected world, etc.) we can showcase the type of work we do, the issues we address and broaden the understanding of the Civil Service as a workplace for people with a diverse range of interests and skillsets.

I am joining forces with the Social Mobility Foundation to promote Civil Service careers to school students, organising policy insight days and interactive workshops that will showcase the type of work we do, and the range of issues we address.

What key measures are implemented centrally from Westminster to support local economies across the country? 

There are a number of policies to support local and inclusive growth that central government has implemented and continues to develop working closely with local areas.

Whether through devolution deals, strengthening Local Enterprise Partnerships and Mayoral Combined Authorities or backing the development of local industrial strategies that align with the government’s national industrial strategy launched last year. 

There are also particular place-based initiatives which are better known, such as the Northern Powerhouse, Midlands Engine, and the Thames Estuary.

More on the Civil Service blog.

This interview was conducted in 2018