Civil Service Live, the biggest learning event of the year for civil servants of every grade, in every department and agency of UK Government and the devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland, is here again. You can register here.
For six weeks from 7 June, Civil Service Live is visiting venues in Glasgow, Birmingham, Blackpool, Cardiff, Newcastle and London, shining a light on great and innovative work in every part of the Civil Service. This is our chance to share best practice, network with colleagues and learn from each other so that we can provide ever-improving public services for the people of this country.
Two years on from its launch, the learning at Civil Service Live 2018 is built around the four pillars that support our vision of ‘A Brilliant Civil Service’:
- Improved outcomes
- Effective leaders
- Skilled people
- A great place to work
Thanks to your feedback, we’re revisiting the fifth theme from last year’s event, with sessions on Global Britain. The aim of this is to explore the international context of our work and how it contributes to our reputation and influence in the world. Together, this adds up to an event packed full of learning opportunities.
This year, we’ve seen numerous examples of how civil servants are putting the vision into action across the UK. Over 70 of these have been recognised in the monthly A Brilliant Civil Service Awards. For example:
- The work of the Department for Education’s School Performance Data Unit and Digital Delivery Teams Data Group to update their educational databases, replacing outdated solutions with user-focused modern services.
- Liverpool Debt Resolution Team’s (DRT) pilot site for a new Digital Mail System (DMS), which reduced their work on-hand from 30,000 to 1,000 items in three months. They also created a classification tool that redirected incorrectly allocated post with one touch.
- The Data Science Learning Pathway established by the Data Science Capability Learning Academy and Data Science Campus team, which gives civil servants numerous opportunities to build their skills from the ground up.
With the various challenges that face us - from Brexit to ongoing financial constraints, changes in society and ever-advancing technology - it’s more important than ever that we all have the knowledge and skills to meet them and provide services that satisfy the evolving needs and expectations of the public we serve.
As we all consider our objectives for the coming year, this is the ideal time to make a commitment to our individual learning and development (L&D). I encourage you to register here as soon as you can for the Civil Service Live event in your area. It pays to be quick off the mark. Last year’s events were the best-attended ever and sessions are available on a first-come first-served basis and often oversubscribed.
Attendance also counts as one of your five days’ L&D for the year.
So, sign up, grab the chance to make new connections outside your own work area, the exciting opportunities to build capability and experience in new areas, and even explore new career paths.
9 comments
Comment by debbie williams posted on
Sir John ,
Once again for the second year running myself and my colleagues wont have the chance to experience a civil service live event.. We are very disappointed they we are not able to build or develop around our four pillars that support our 10 days of learning and also help us to build new skills.. I feel as this event is so well promoted everyone should be able to have the opportunity however small their team. Be interesting to hear you thoughts on this.
Comment by Roma Patel posted on
Hi Team,
Greetings from Panama City.
This looks like a great L&D Opportunity for Civil Servants, but how can this be applicable to Posts overseas? Is there a possibility to host an exclusive Civil Service Live Session for individual Post in the near future?
Kind RegardS,
Roma
Comment by MM posted on
We are being told that we cannot attend this years event as we attended last years. We are being ask for the reasons why we want to attend and what are going to gain out of this. What is the specific development need which you feel is needed and will be addressed by you attending this.
Since last year the tables have changed within TCO/DWP. Job security etc.
This is a civil service event and regardless of if we have attended previously or not we should not be stopped from attending.
Comment by Gary McDonagh posted on
Sir John, for another year, civil servants in UK Govt departments in Northern Ireland won't have the opportunity to experience a Civil Service Live event in their area. I again wonder why this is the case? Is it because we aren't also doing "great innovative work?" Or that, the chance to "share best practice, network and learn from each other" wouldn't also be valuable in helping us meet the challenges we face. In particular, resource pressures, changing technology, and Brexit, where one would think the opportunity to explore best practice and share learning on these topics would be vital in the one part of the UK that actually shares a land border with the EU. Be interested to hear your thoughts on this.
Comment by The Blog Team posted on
Hi Gary,
Thanks for your comment.
In fact, the Northern Ireland Civil Service runs its own dedicated event, NICS Live, every two years. The next in the series will be held in 2019. However, any civil servants in Northern Ireland who are able to do so are very welcome to register for and attend one or more of the events at the six venues for Civil Service Live 2018.
Comment by Aaron Fuller posted on
I know this sounds pedantic, but the NI Civil Service is, as I understand it, a different entity from UK civil servants who happen to be based in NI. The former work for the devolved administration; the latter, for HMG.
So while it's handy that the NICS is having an equivalent event, I took Gary's comment to mean that NI-based UK civil servants were being, to some extent, marginalised by there not being a NI-based event. The NICS event is likely to have an almost-exclusively NI focus, I'd suspect, with little crossover with what the UK civil service is doing.
(In the interests of disclosure, I am from NI originally but now work for the MOD in London.)
Comment by Gary McDonagh posted on
That is interesting news on the NICS Events however as I am employed by the Home Office in NI an HMG department it is unfortunately irrelevant. Disappointing that the Blog Team don't seem to know the difference between NICS and UK Civil Service.
Comment by The Blog Team posted on
Hi Gary,
Thanks for your new comment (and to Aaron for his follow-up).
The administrative separation of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and the Civil Service in the rest of the United Kingdom has no bearing on civil servants' eligibility to attend either Civil Service Live or NICS Live.
Civil servants working in all parts of the UK and in the devolved administrations will also find numerous areas of common interest in the exhibits, presentations and learning and development sessions on offer at CS Live and NICS Live. These range from new ways of working, to the design and delivery of digital services, sessions designed to improve delegates' leadership and skills, mentoring opportunities, and workshops led by many of the Civil Service professions. This is in addition to sessions regarding issues and practices specific to the country where they work.
Comment by Nick Wilson posted on
Gary hi, same goes for East Anglia I am afraid.