Civil service leaders share their highlights and toughest calls, and remember Christmases past
It has been a challenging year for civil service leaders, but there have been achievements to celebrate too. In the 2022 edition of CSW's annnual perm secs round-up, permanent secretaries and leaders across government reflect on an eventful year and share their goals for the next one. Plus, we asked them to share their best, worst or weirdest experiences of working during the festive season.
"It’s my birthday on 27 December and on one occasion when parts of the country had been hit by devastating flooding, David Cameron phoned and said 'I know it’s your birthday but you are coming with me to visit the communities that have been impacted.' That was a festive experience to remember." Simon Case
"My biggest challenge as a leader is knowing that many of my colleagues in the system are exhausted after three years of a public health and NHS crisis, but that there is unlikely to be much of a respite in the coming year." Chris Whitty
"Making financial allocations when we have so many competing priorities across the justice system, as well as a changing fiscal backdrop, has been an ongoing challenge." Antonia Romeo
" My challenge is to make time to listen to people, and to be available for colleagues to share their experience so we can do what we can to support them." Peter Schofield
Cost-of-living crisis ‘means extremely challenging times ahead’– Charity Commission chief Helen Stephenson
"Last year I spent my Christmas break on potential legal challenges around bird management plans, to avoid bird strikes, near RAF airfields. Definitely not a case of turkeys voting for Christmas!" David Williams
"Making sure we keep the benefits of collaborative working, while recognising the changes in culture brought about by the pandemic, has been a challenge and we’re still working through what it will mean long term." Mark Chivers
"Our staff are experiencing the toughest cost of living increases in many years. Doing my very best to help them through this period is a big issue for me as leader of the organisation." Gareth Davies
"BEIS has been in the front room of everyone in the UK this year." Sarah Munby
"My advice is never pick up a ringing desk phone that isn’t yours on Christmas Eve." James Heath
"I have reduced the size of the central GCS team by 55% this year. Choosing what work to stop and telling people who had worked exceptionally hard that we were closing their team was extremely difficult." Simon Baugh