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PoliticsHome @politicshome.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

🚨 OUT NOW 🚨 The Mandelson crisis exposes No 10's civil service rift Former Cabinet Secretary Lord Robin Butler, the IfG's @hannahkeenan.bsky.social, FDA's Dave Penman, and CSW's @suzannahb.bsky.social discuss the damaging sacking of Olly Robbins and its fallout Listen now: pod.fo/e/40598c

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Derek Alton @derekalton.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

What are Civic Punks? Today I was able to cross something off my bucket list. To be interviewed by @suzannahb.bsky.social on the @civilserviceworld.bsky.social podcast! Such an honour. Learn more about Civic Punks by listening: www.civilserviceworld.com/more/podcast...

civilserviceworld.com

The Civil Service World Podcast | Civil Service World magazine

Listen to our podcasts and catch-up on the latest news and insights from the Civil Service

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Hannah Keenan @hannahkeenan.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

this is bad for the post of cabinet secretary and so bad for the civil service / good government / everyone.

Chart from the institute for government showing the tenure of cabinet secretaries from 1916 to 2026, showing a clear trend of shorter tenures over time

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Women following with a bucket...or glass cliffs in action? @cmenashejones.bsky.social explored the glass cliff phenomenon as part of wider research on women leaders in government. She wrote about it for us here: www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/art...

civilserviceworld.com

What do senior women leaders wish they could tell their younger selves?

You don’t need to be brave on your own – and other findings from a recent study

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Great analysis here on the need for more visible leadership, and the damage done by dismissing a cabinet secretary in the wake of a political crisis. If Wormald does leave in the near future, a big job ahead for his successor to restore confidence in the role and the civil service

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Cath Haddon @cathhaddon.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Sounds like Cabinet Secretary is departing. If that is the case, some of details in this may have changed, but the overarching challenges for a new Cab Sec remain the same. Which itself tells a story. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

instituteforgovernment.org.uk

The next cabinet secretary | Institute for Government

What lies ahead for the UK's new top civil servant.

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Can a civil service career be creative? Loved interviewing Sherin Aminossehe for the latest @civilserviceworld.bsky.social podcast - we discuss her new book, swapping the private sector for the MoD, and the endless possibilities of working with public sector spaces open.spotify.com/episode/0WAC...

open.spotify.com

Art, railways and the unexpected creativity of the civil service: in conversation with Sherin Aminossehe

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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

Another thing a government could do is increase the number of low-traffic zones so that kids can play outside and build more playgrounds with stuff that's fun to do for kids aged 10 and above, open swimming pools. Like actually nice things that will make people's lives better.

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

All set for our final webinar before the summer - with @jo3hill.bsky.social and @gracewyld.bsky.social looking back on a year of Labour administration and discussing the impact of mission-based government on the civil service. You can watch us here: m.youtube.com/watch?v=oXtQ...

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Nick Davies @njdavies.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

There was a 2nd really positive announcement regarding Total Place in the 10 Year Health Plan - Increased autonomy ✅ - Pooling budgets ✅ - Shifting spending towards prevention ✅ Hopefully the 1st step of a wider public service shift to prevention: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

Text from the 10 year Health Plan which reads: "Where devolution and a focus on population
health outcomes are most advanced, we will
work with strategic authorities as prevention
demonstrators, starting with the Mayor
of Greater Manchester, whose thinking in
this area is most advanced. These will be a
partnership between the NHS, single or upper
tier authorities and strategic authorities to
trial new innovative approaches to prevention
– supported by mayoral ‘total place’ powers,
and advances in genomics and data. We will
support these areas with increased autonomy,
including supporting areas through exploring
opportunities to pool budgets and reprofile
public service spending towards prevention."

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Intrigued by this in newly-published OECD research around how public in different countries perceive societal risks. Suggests the UK public are more open to migration than the OECD average, more keen on UBI, but less keen on investing in skills Full report: www.oecd.org/en/publicati...

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Problems with the structure/support for Starmer in No.10 clearly remain, does it all stem to them not knowing or caring enough about what that structure should or could look like? He assumed the support he had as DPP or LOTO would just scale up?

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 02/07/2025

There’s a fascinating category error in this quote: Campbell was a director of communications. McSweeney is a campaigns guy who’s become chief of staff. Those are three very different roles! That they’re being elided by the speaker (and Number 10) is, arguably, a large part of the problem.

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Some quick reactions to the Spending Review. Darren Jones told @instituteforgovernment.org.uk in March that mission boards were making s)ubmissions which would be negotiated alongside departmental settlements. I can't see any sign of those today.

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

If you don't already get the @civilserviceworld.bsky.social newsletter you missed an excellent line up this afternoon- we ferreted through the SR documents to find the bits which matter for civil servants. Subscribe now and make sure you don't miss our follow-ups over the rest of this week

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Adam Payne @adampayne26.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Reeves has so far used the term "my choice" 17 times in her Spending Review speech, calculates colleague @zoecrowther.bsky.social. It's political framing, contrasting government with Tories / Reform, and seemingly also an attempt at better storytelling — which insiders admit hasn't been good enough

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Tim Durrant @timdurrant.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

When I was working at HMT, during one fiscal event, someone senior came on the building intercom to ask us to stop watching the statement on our computers, to free up some bandwidth so they could upload the documents. Maybe they still haven’t upgraded to fiber?

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Thomas Pope @tompope.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Reeves has been talking for over half an hour and almost all her announcements are about new investment spending (where the envelope is quite generous). There will be fewer good news stories on day-to-day spending where the envelope is much tighter (or this will be a very long speech)

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

{I would like to be clear I am not anti-AI and welcome our robot overlords etc} I'm working on a new series profiling innovation in the civil service. I would love to speak with anyone doing something innovative that does NOT involve AI - any suggestions or connections please?

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

This thread combines two of my favourite things - management advice for officials and out of print books to add to my wonkish collection

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Civil Service World @civilserviceworld.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

The former cabinet secretary and head of the civil service on relations between ministers and officials, dealing with public criticism and his most enjoyable roles www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/art...

civilserviceworld.com

'There will be 10 things going wrong. You’ve got time to deal with three a day': Lunch with... Simon Case

The former cabinet secretary and head of the civil service on relations between ministers and officials, dealing with public criticism and his most...

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Enjoying how the OBR is dealing with its obligation to assume fuel duty rises which have not materialised in over a decade (See also the memo they now include, mentioned in @sfrost.bsky.social's thread)

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Loved joining this discussion - Hannah and Max both have excellent insight, and I start a Pat McFadden fan club...

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Fascinating for the FOI implications rather than his use of ChatGPT which seems pretty much what you'd expect a tech minister to do with it. Worth reading in full as @stokel.bsky.social has delved into those FOI implications as well as Kyle's prompts

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Nick Davies @njdavies.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

There's a decent case for scrapping NHS England but doing so is a major change programme that will take up substantial ministerial and official time. Hard to see how govt can do this while also making good progress on meeting the 18 week target AND the three shifts ahead of the next election

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Patrick King @patrickking.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

To support our work on Whitehall reform, we've launched our second Alternative People Survey with @civilserviceworld.bsky.social If you're a civil servant, we'd love to hear from you! It only takes a few minutes to complete & will help build insight into realities of life in the Civil Service 👇

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Tickled by this description of aubergine in a 1980s vegetarian cookbook

A recipe introduction which reads: Stuffed Cucumber Rings. in this recipe chunks of cucumber are stuffed with a delicious pate made from aubergines. Aubergines are not for the faint-hearted, but their unique, strong flavour is a taste worth acquiring. be sure to chill the pate well because it firms up in texture when cold.

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Jess Bowie @jessbowie.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Empowering, humble, candid, sweary (!) & v witty opening keynote speech from Baroness Louise at CSW’s inaugural Collaboration Conference #CSWcollab25

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Stefan Czerniawski @pubstr.at · 27/01/2025

It is a particular irony that government can't even remember and build on the work it has done to improve how it remembers and builds on the work it does. www.gov.uk/government/p...

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Among several great pieces in today's CSW newsletter is this on the challenge of retaining and using knowledge in a huge and every-changing set of organisations www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/art...

civilserviceworld.com

Why the civil service should do more to protect its institutional memory

As churn rates fuel a new era of amnesia, Susan Allott asks if we can ever escape from Groundhog Day

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Sarah Crook @sarahcrook.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Striking how many times his parents reached out for help and how many times it was thrown back to his mother

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Very different work environment today...chairing a day-long conference on AI in the public sector with IBM, featuring a robot dog and scale model of a quantum computer

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

A colleague sent his pic of me at working away at the Civil Service Awards last night and I love how unconcerned I am by the grandeur.

Suzannah sits frowning at a laptop beneath some beautiful art hung on panelled walls

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

The Civil Service Choir is sounding beautiful as ever at the 19th annual Civil Service Awards - always a great evening to celebrate the work of civil servants across the country

The civil service choir all dressed on black stand at the foot of a grand staircase with red carpet and marble panels on the walls above

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

A big day for civil service news - Wormald brings deep Whitehall experience to the role and his first message is of the need to "embrace the change agenda in how the British state operates".

civilserviceworld.com

Chris Wormald named cabinet secretary

DHSC permanent secretary will replace Simon Case as head of civil service

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Suzannah Brecknell @suzannahb.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Coming out of lurking mode to share this excellent deep dive on desk space across government by our excellent senior report @tevyemarkson.bsky.social www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/art...

civilserviceworld.com

Is DESNZ’s HQ the government’s most crowded office?

CSW takes a look at recently-released data on desk space across government

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