If the govt is looking to improve SEB representation, it should go further than the limited change it has made to the summer internship programme. We wrote in Whitehall Monitor that the Social Mobility Commission's 2021 action plan would be a good starting point to make more progress (2/2)
I’ve written on the new @instituteforgovernment.org.uk report on employment support in today’s newsletter:
PAC’s report on the BoE’s successful RTGS transformation programme made recs to govt – a great e.g. of reporting good practice & showing that successful digital transformation is possible!
publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...
New people survey demographic data for 2025 has been published - the numbers on socio-economic background of civil servants does not seem to have changed significantly from 2024 data. A very slight (1pp) increase in representation at SCS of civil servants from a lower SEB, but broadly static (1/2)
Good to see the new (but still interim) govt CTO talking about creating stronger data infrastructure & foundations. It's positive that govt wants better join up - building public trust and giving careful thought to where & why, when it identifies what data/systems to link, will be v important.
We talk about similar themes in Whitehall Monitor's digi transformation & AI chapters: addressing legacy systems before they become critical problems; collab btwn different teams; leadership w/ a strong understanding of the area; and importantly the absence of a full-time govt chief digi officer
This briefing by @adalovelaceinst.bsky.social provides a great toolkit to evaluate claims about AI. Alights on the same point in Whitehall Monitor: productivity gains are more complex than time savings alone. Govt is an org w/ existing problems - there needs to be a clear purpose for AI adoption
Excellent to see Darren Jones announce "performance based pay progression" for the senior civil service.
It hopefully starts to change some bad incentives in the system as it is at the moment...
This is just the kind of testing and learning government should be doing to better understand how to support people out of work due to ill health (£) www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
There's so much to write about everything that's happening with Mandelson vetting fight (and always happy to explain the process, others have done so v well on here). But the v. aggressive approach from no10 is over the weekend is just so damaging - so have tried to capture some of that
Heloise Dunlop
Evaluating claims about AI and productivity in the UK public sector
