Speaking as the National School of Government announces the creation of a new centre devoted to giving officials the skills, confidence and understanding they need to support ministers, Christopher Jary, Head of the new Centre for Working with Ministers & Parliament, says that ministers are often frustrated at the quality of service they receive, and especially with written materials.  He explains: “If asked, ministers complain that speeches and briefings drafted for them are often boring, too detailed, too long, miss the main point, are full of management-speak, and riddled with abbreviations and acronyms.  But, if ministers think that civil servants can’t write well for them, they are wrong.  There is masses of writing talent in the Civil Service, but releasing it requires individuals to have greater professional confidence based on a solid understanding of ministers’ needs.”

To help provide the required skills and confidence, the Centre offers officials training which provides an understanding of the ministerial and parliamentary environment - what ministers and Parliament need and why - and training in briefing and drafting speeches and replies to Parliamentary Questions and letters from MPs and the public.  The Centre also helps officials prepare for Select Committee appearances.

All these courses are based on the practical reality of working in government and serving ministers, whilst Centre publications such as ‘Working with Ministers’ and the National School e-learning programme, ‘Understanding the Civil Service’, provide context and pointers to those unfamiliar with this area of work.

The National School’s teaching staff all have considerable practical experience of doing these jobs for real.  Jary concludes: “We know what ministers want and need, and we know how to help officials give it to them.  If we can improve the Service’s professional confidence and skill in this work, we’ll have contributed directly to better, more accountable government.  And, in our view, nothing’s more important than that.”

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