Navigating the Labyrinth: An Executive Guide to Data Management

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There’s so much Latin and that really is real. You know, I know that is a bit of a stereotype but it is so real. You know, you’ll be in a Ministerial meeting and they’ll sort of talk in Latin but they’re sort of making what you’ll realise later is a sort of joke about Brussels that everyone sort of understands and laughs. Figure 11 Civil Service by parental occupation (3-class version of NS-SEC) and ethnicity in 2019 Civil Service People Survey The Civil Service, like many other institutions, made the assumption that an open and fair recruitment process would encourage candidates who reflect modern Britain. The Fast Stream is ahead of many peer employers in applying inclusive recruitment practices. But it is now clear that this alone is not enough. So, we must respond by taking further steps to ensure we attract and pull through a more representative diversity of talent. The cross-departmental plan, which would have to be coordinated by the Cabinet Office, should set targets for the number of Senior Civil Service, private office and policy roles moved out of London, to help career progression in the regions.

Yeah, I will certainly be trying to, like, leave that positive impression… be charming… and I would certainly try and agree with as much as, you know, was appropriate, but not too much… you don’t want to be a sycophant.” — Aarash, Grade 6, high SEB Only 12% of those working at the Treasury are from a low SEB versus 45% at the Department for Work and Pensions. those from low SEBs are particularly under-represented in departments such as Treasury and DCMS, and within the policy profession Boyd also finds a slight increase over time in the openness of the higher Civil Service between 1939–1970 (Boyd, D. Elites and their education, 1973). ↩ there are more top-grade posts available in London and proximity to Ministers is critical for increasing one’s ‘visibility’ and progression prospects within the Civil ServiceWe sought to corroborate this using official Civil Service data but unfortunately the Civil Service was unable to give us an occupational breakdown of roles within the SCS. ↩ Look out for times of organisational ambiguity and seek to negotiate opportunities in these moments – drawing on the organisational wisdom of your experienced guide. Securing a leading role during a national crisis – and performing well – is a great career progression accelerator. civil servants seeking advancement of grade or salary routinely face situations where formal guidance on behaviour is unclear There is no benefit to being a working class girl, there absolutely isn’t. Whereas being a bit laddish working class is almost quite a nice thing for middle class men, and they like, see it as down-to-earth or whatever. But I mean there are no traits that I can think of immediately that I would display as a positive demonstration of being a working class woman. The Civil Service does not include government Ministers (who are politically appointed), members of the British Armed Forces, the police, officers of local government or NDPBs of the Houses of Parliament, employees of the National Health Service (NHS), or staff of the Royal Household.

So, my sense from quite early on was that there was a secret code as to how to get on. There were these folk that worked in the Treasury, had done certain things… they knew about ‘the velvet drainpipe’, as you hear it described. The way up and through. And they’d clearly done it, and they had a language to speak about it.” — Aaron, Director, high SEB

Finding the networks out there: Defra Social Mobility Network and Ministry of Justice Social Mobility Ambassadors

As Figure 3 shows, HMT is the most socio-economically exclusive department, HMRC is one of the most socio-economically diverse departments, and DfT and CO are ‘average’ performers, sitting in the middle of the Civil Service departments. HMT is also dominated by higher-grade civil servants and has a strong policy focus, as does CO, whereas HMRC and DfT have a strong operational focus, and HMRC employs a large percentage of civil servants at junior grades. ↩ Victoria: So, there’s this thing about ‘bringing your whole self to work’. But, I think most people don’t actually do that. Because, I would have thought if people are actually bringing their whole selves to work, there would be less consensus [laughs]. Cabinet Office, Civil Service statistics 2019, 2019. The latest 2020 figures indicate the Civil Service has grown to 456,410 but we use 2019 figures in this report as our analysis draws on the 2019 Civil Service People Survey. ↩