MoD's new 'truth to power' team, Radiological and Nuclear terrorism focus & Digital Regulation
Plus new Investment Security Unit in DfT, Mental Health Bill spinning up, prisons performance push, rail data plans... and more
In this issue
MoD seeks Director for new 15-strong team to speak ‘truth to power’
New teams signal Homeland Security focus in Home Office
DfT establishes Investment Security Unit
Digital Regulation policy capacity increased in DCMS
DHSC Mental Health reform Bill Team spinning up
New strategy and policy reforms for adult social care in workforce
Policy performance focus to raise prison standards
Little wafts: rail data, sustainable aviation fuel, free trade agreements
Firstly, mumbled apologies that this issue is late. But the fact it’s a bumper edition jam-packed with data-science mined policy nuggets hopefully helps take the edge off your ire.
Amid the high drama and cake ambushes of Downing Street, behind the scenes in Whitehall the policy wheels have evidently kept on turning. Although not quickly enough during 2021 for the Institute for Government’s liking, which published its annual Whitehall Monitor this week, reporting ‘limited’ progress on pre-pandemic priorities.
While the world and its significant other was digesting Sue Gray’s 12-page interim report and waiting for the PM’s response (and maybe resignation?), the more cynical among us perhaps wondered what ‘bad news’ might be snuck out while attention was elsewhere. A quick glance at the official news releases dribbling out on 31 Jan doesn’t seem to bear that out.
But still, some third parties such as Monzo (breach of the Retail Banking Order), and GB Freight (involved in a disruptive rail derailment) might be grateful for the PM hogging the limelight and sending their five minutes of infamy into obscurity.
In December’s issue we flagged that a slew of new roles in Michael Gove’s department indicated that he was indeed ‘cracking on’ behind the scene as many predicted. With the Government and PM eager to move the headlines on from cheese, wine and ambush-capable cakes, the 332-page Levelling Up White Paper has finally appeared this week - expect to see more specific departmental policy nuggets emerging in future issues of Wafts.
There’s a heavy national security, defence and resilience theme to this month’s insights - perhaps reflecting the current diplomatic tensions with disruptive world superpowers to the east… and in preparation for a new defence strategy sometime later this year?
As last month, I included all live and open Marketing, Comms and PR vacancies in the Civil Service in the initial trawl, alongside Policy and Strategy roles. This gave me in excess of 200 roles to crunch through, with a rich vein of detailed, wonkish intelligence flowing hence.
I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy collecting and delving into the devil in the detail to write this. As ever, please drop me any feedback or let me know areas of interest you’d like me to explore in future.
Alex
PS - If you find Wafts from Whitehall useful, please do forward it onto friends and associates, and encourage them to subscribe (it’s free!).
PPS - If you want to chat more about these insights, how I’m using data science to unearth gold - and how these techniques could give you an edge in strategic communications, engagement, public affairs and policy engagement - do drop me a line at alex@whetstonecomms.com.
Security and Defence
MoD seeks Director for new 15-strong team to speak ‘truth to power’
In the MoD, there’s movement on a commitment in the Defence Command Paper - published in 2021 - to establish a new post in Head Office “to create and lead a new independent team at the heart of Defence”.
The Ministry is seeking a Director of SONAC (Secretary of State’s new Office of Net Assessment and Challenge) to work directly to the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace on priority issues. Key to the brief - and of interest to external bodies - is engaging external voices, including regular interactions with “think tanks, academia and international partners”.
The role will manage a team of “around 15 people but will also be responsible for leading larger virtual teams to deliver analysis and challenge projects.”
There’s no mention of ‘weirdos and misfits with odd skills”, but “you will need to be curious, seeking views from a wide spectrum of relevant voices from across the globe”. You can almost hear the FOI requests about travel expenses being bashed out a year from now.
The thrust of the role and the new team is to provide alternative views to a department that is viewed by some as behind the times. The ad states the desire for a candidate to “speak truth to power” and “are comfortable challenging assumptions, influencing direction and channelling (sic) diverse views”.
“The successful candidate will play a critical role in the design and delivery of the future Defence strategy,” continues the blurb. (NB - The Defence Space Strategy has just launched).
It can be observed that this type of strategic internal challenge is much needed. In the last week, Labour has criticised the MoD for ‘wasting’ billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money - and the BBC News report reveals that so far none of its 36 major projects is rated green (that is, defined as the project being on time and within the original budget).
The role will report directly to the Second Permanent Secretary, Laurence Lee.
Fresh Radiological and Nuclear (RN) focus in Home Office
A new Radiological and Nuclear (RN) Unit is being established to lead the delivery of the £400M+ RN Security Portfolio (RNSP).
The RNSP is has a core aim to “strengthen and extend the UK’s defences” against the risk of an ‘dirty’ terrorist attack. It will “enhance and extend our defences at the border, develop and procure specialists capabilities… and ensure leading-edge research and development informs and assures everything we do.”
The driver for two new Policy Manager roles - working to a Head of Policy - is the implementation of a range of counter-terrorism priorities as set out in the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST).
The new RN Unit is made up of two integrated teams; a Portfolio Team to support delivery and a Policy Team to lead a series of programmes of policy work.
DfT establishes Investment Security Unit
An ad for a new Investment Security Advisor reveals a new Investment Security Unit to support the department’s work on economic security issues. The role sits within the Infrastructure Review and Hostile State Activity Team within the National Security Division.
The new person will support a brand-new area of legislation - The National Security and Investment Act 2021 - which allows the government to scrutinise and intervene in certain acquisitions made by anyone, including businesses and investors, that could harm the UK’s national security.
The role holder will manage the department’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) casework to protect DfT’s investment budget - one of the largest in Government.
Digital
Digital Regulation policy capacity increased in DCMS
Two new senior roles in Digital Regulation Strategy and Strategic Projects promise a chance to work at the “cutting edge of government policy” and “shape the future of our economy and society in the digital age”.
With the Online Safety Bill very much in play, the Projects role will draw on insights from academic, industry and government sources “to provide advice on cross-cutting issues and wider trends across the digital landscape” such as implications of blockchain and new types of digital consumer harm.
The Strategy role will “build virtual teams from across Whitehall to design innovative policy responses” and “establish strong links with horizon scanning bodies, industry, academics and wider civil society in order to capture the latest insights and trends across the digital landscape.
They will “commission new research and find new sources of rigorous evidence to underpin government's approach to digital regulation”, as well as provide advice to Ministers and others across Whitehall.
The roles will sit within the Digital Regulation team in DCMS’s Digital and Tech Policy Directorate.
Capacity in support of the forthcoming legislation is also being added in the Regulatory Policy Team within the Security and Online Harms directorate, with a Regulatory Policy Advisor role being advertised to “develop legislation, to build support for our proposals across the board, and to help the upcoming Bill through Parliament”.
And….
Staying on the Digital theme, DCMS is bringing in a new Head of Engagement to develop and lead on stakeholder communications strategy for one of the government’s largest infrastructure programmes - Building Digital UK.
Among the responsibilities are “translating BDUK’s vision and objectives into a clear stakeholder engagement strategy” and to “raise awareness of manifesto commitments for BDUK to deliver government targets”.
In December, the £5bn Building Digital UK (BDUK) became part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). It is responsible for ensuring that every UK home and business can access fast and reliable digital connectivity.
One might argue that an Engagement expert is clearly needed given that nowhere in the job ad is the acronym BDUK actually translated for those not in the know.
Health
DHSC Mental Health reform Bill Team spinning up
A Bill Team lead is being assembled by DHSC to lead a team of five, to work on reform of the Mental Health Act.
Described as “once in a generation legislative reform” the team will support “a vitally important piece of legislation, setting the framework for how we care for the c20,000 people who are subject to compulsory detention for mental health treatment at any one time”.
DHSC is preparing to bring forward a Bill to amend the current Mental Health Act, and is bolstering capacity to help it manage the passage through Parliament, “from pre-legislative scrutiny to Royal Assent”.
Reforming the Mental Health Act is a Tory manifesto commitment, and in August 2021 a whitepaper set out Government proposals. The agenda is described as “one of the Secretary of State’s top priorities”.
The Bill will be brought jointly by DHSC and MOJ, with the Bill Team working closely with a Ministry of Justice Bill manager and their wider team, as well as policy and implementation teams within DHSC.
New strategy and policy reforms for adult social care in workforce
A policy lead is being sought by DHSC to “inform and deliver” a new national strategy for adult social care and the workforce, recently set-out in the People at the Heart of Care White Paper.
The role will lead the Adult Social Care Group’s Workforce Inclusion and Recognition Team - “responsible for new policies to promote inclusion and provide greater recognition for the social care workforce, identifying opportunities to improve sector perception and self-esteem.”
On the heels of the c£500m plan for adult social care in England announced in Build Back Better: Our plan for Health and Social Care, the department is seeking someone to work on “a high-profile set of policy reforms” with private offices, ministers, senior officials and high profile public stakeholders.
Crime and Justice
Policy performance focus to raise prison standards
A new Prison Policy Performance Framework and a Research and Engagement Hub are being established within the Ministry of Justice, to drive “better outcomes and help raise performance standards in prisons”.
A new Scrutiny Intelligence and Performance Policy Officer will “develop how we use and analyse independent scrutiny intelligence, including the development of new dashboards and performance tools.”
In their 20/21 annual report, the Chief Inspector of Prisons warned that “variations in performance we have seen for years between ostensibly comparable establishments – and the failure to learn from the better performing establishments… will undoubtedly continue.”
The new role sits within the Prison Policy Directorate.
Little Wafts
Rail Data Policy team grows in DfT + focus on sustainable plane fuel
Unlocking the value of rail data “has become a key priority for our Ministers and senior leadership team” according to an ad for a new Senior Rail Data Policy Advisor within a growing Rail Data Policy and Projects team.
The role holder will play “a pivotal role in delivering on the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail data commitments” - including responsibility for the development and delivery of an open data programme to ensure data plays a key part in improving services for passengers. The Department says it “seeks to use data in innovative ways to deliver improvements to rail passengers and open the industry up to innovation”.
And… at the more glamorous end of travel (well… depending on who you are flying with), the Low Carbon Fuels Team is ‘expanding’ and is seeking a new Senior Policy Advisor for Advanced Fuels.
The remit is to focus on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as a “top priority policy area for us” and a “crucial part of the UK’s ability to deliver net zero aviation by 2050”. A policy framework is in the offing, building on a 2021 consultation which set out proposals to require fuel suppliers to reduce carbon emissions through the supply of SAF. DfT is currently considering its response and next steps.
New DIT Northern Ireland Team
DIT is establishing a new Trade and Investment team in Northern Ireland. An ad for a Events and Content Officer seeks someone to “design and deliver an events programme and communications plan to articulate, promote and amplify the new team’s role, remit and activities to internal and external audiences”.
Bodies sought to support more Free Trade Agreements
Senior Policy Advisors are being added to a “growing team” in DIT, which is “establishing new workstreams” to support the negotiation of Free Trade Agreements post-Brexit and implementing them once signed.
The FTA Delivery Team roles are in the Bilateral Trade Relations Directorate (BTR), which leads DIT’s regional and country-specific trade policy work. The programme of work is described as “ambitious and complex… under significant Ministerial and public scrutiny.”
More About Wafts from Whitehall
Policy roles being recruited within the Civil Service can tell us much about where the Government is focusing its attention (and its money). Floating within every job advert are wafts of juicy information about new teams and roles, serving as pointers about the Government’s intent and priorities - and providing useful insight on where the real policy thinking and development work gets done.
Whether your interest in the national policy agenda is personal, academic or professional - or somewhere in between all three - like me, you’ve got far better things to do than spending hours plodding through dozens, maybe hundreds of official job ads to find the nuggets.
As an experienced strategic communicator and external affairs professional - I’ve invested time in learning how to use hands-on data science tools to better engage with public policy making. It’s part of a mission to realise the valuable insight found in messy (or unstructured) public data - but with less time spent scrolling and clicking.