🏛️ The civil servant's view: how to work with ministers

The keen-eyed among you will notice Andy has been on Policy Unstuck before. Last time, he explained why the Civil Service operates the way it does, arguing its perceived slowness comes down to the sheer scale of the challenges it faces, and that a powerful finance ministry is a good thing.

Today, we’re exploring a recurring theme of this newsletter: what do ministers actually want? Previous guests on this include current Minister Kirsty McNeill, former Secretary of State Gillian Keegan, and former civil servant Reza Schwitzer.

Andy recently developed a training course with us that answers exactly that, exploring how ministers and their civil service teams want external organisations to engage with them. Today’s interview serves as a primer so you can see if the full course would be useful for you or a colleague.

I especially enjoyed his translation of what civil service phrases actually mean: we could probably do a whole separate interview just on that.

Tom

P.S. We are hiring a brand/social media consultant (£35k-40k salary). Know someone? Please do forward the job description on.

What civil service phrases actually mean

‘The government is minded to' means we have only briefly thought about this and we're worried it might not be the right thing, so please tell us quickly before we go further. 

Another one is 'when parliamentary time allows.' This phrase generally means that while you feel this issue is important, it is not yet important enough for the government, so it's not going to happen for a while. Just ask anyone working on audit reform over the past six or seven years how many times they’ve heard those words.

Are you meeting the right people at the right point in time?

Map what stage the policy development is at and what kind of policy development is happening because that sets your scope for opportunity to influence.

If you're having a meeting early on in the policy development phase and you understand that ministers are fairly open then you have a massive opportunity. Don’t be afraid to ask direct questions: Have you got a clear sense of where you're headed? What is it? What is it you need from us? Are you open to ideas or do you just need help making this successful in reality?

That assumes that policy is actually in development. If what you want exists within the current bounds of political preference then engage with officials to shift things within that window. If not, go and make noise. 

The category error to avoid

Don’t waste the first 25 minutes of a meeting. The best people move quickly through the credibility setting: 'Here is what we know, the policy work we've done, our position in the sector and ask: what can we help you with?’

For example, on private sector rental policy in 2013, the government had no budget for communications or legislative change; we wanted to involve organisations in the development of the 'How to rent' guide and have their support in communicating it. 

The organisations who were useful (and had influence) said ‘here’s the data, here’s the policy work we’ve done, and if you incorporate some of our suggested changes, we will use all of our channels to get this out to the people who need it.’ That is what happened–and that guide is now given to every tenant in England nearly 15 years later.

Not every minister wants to talk detailed policy

At one end, you have the expert—often from the House of Lords, having spent years in an area and often a relevant sector before that. They spend time on the details. Baroness Barran [read Baroness Barran’s Policy Unstuck] is one who utterly cared about that. 

Others might be slightly less engaged in a particular area but focus on working for the Secretary of State and delivering their agenda, willing to make trade-offs. Then there are some who are only big picture—focused on communications and winning political arguments. Engaging them in policy can sometimes be challenging. 

How do you know which camp a minister falls into? Officials are always up for giving you a sense of how much is being led directly by the minister versus how open they are to advice. A good clue is the specificity of a politician’s answers to questions in parliament. If you're getting lots of advocacy without much specificity, they are probably more of the big picture breed.

Categorise your civil servant partners

Generally, officials are collaborative by nature, want to understand problems, and enjoy working in government as a means to enable change. Within that, some care deeply about being the expert. They take pride in understanding the detail and outlasting the external people seeking to influence them. 

Then there are those who move around quickly, climb the ladder, ask the right questions, and trust others to know more while navigating change through the system. This ‘mover and shaker’ might sometimes be a better ally to make stuff happen quickly, whereas the long-standing expert is someone you want a deep relationship with to shift policy over time.

You should work out if the person can help you achieve your policy objective. Do they have influence internally? Quite often, movers and shakers have more influence, even though they know less. To be a trusted partner to someone influential, you need to be responsive. If they're with a minister and need a quick view, you can't take three days to respond.

Yes, use powerful stories, but situate them and connect to solutions

It's important for people to tell emotive stories in policy influence. But some people almost require policymakers to come and live that story with them. Policymakers are required to be objective: the challenge is getting the right level of detail without being drawn into stuff which risks tilting you away from the full evidence base.

For example, working on modern slavery, you'd hear a really hard-hitting story, but to include it within policy formulation you would need to understand where it sat within wider prevalence data. 

So can you say more about what it shows regarding the nature of the crime and what policy interventions you think might help protect this person and others. (Freedom Fund were one organisation we worked with who did this brilliantly.) 

Want to learn more from Andy about how to work with ministers and officials? Here is who the ‘What ministers want’ course is for, and what you’ll learn.

The course is for people who have been working for a few years publishing reports and engaging with policymakers, but haven't quite had the impact you hoped for. This course will help you reflect on your approach and come away with concrete actions for next time. There are broadly three things we cover:

• Decode Whitehall: Build a true insider's understanding of how government functions (and stalls).

• Think like a policymaker: Step outside your organisation's bubble to understand what civil servants actually need (and want) from you.

• Master ministerial reality: Understand what ministers' lives are actually like and how to effectively use your time with them once you secure it.

Through course exercises, you’ll apply what you are learning directly to your current work, like writing policy briefs or preparing for engagements; you will take things you are already working on and build a progressively deepening understanding of how to improve them.

What ministers want starts on the 5th March. It is a 5 week online course, costing £375+VAT per person. We offer organisational discounts for purchases of 5 or more seats. Find out more about the course and sign up.

Thank you to the 97 readers who have referred a colleague to Policy Unstuck.