Civil Service Live

Day one - April 1st 2008 - Agenda

The QEII Conference Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, London SW1P 3EE

Day one Agenda


09:00 – 09.45: Opportunities for use of social media – ending

Inspiring Innovation session

Location: Abbey Room

Speaker: Alex Allan, chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, and William Perrin, director of strategy and policy, Transformational Government

Summary: The civil service works in a way recognisable from 30 years ago. In sending email much like we used to send memos and letters, we use electronic versions of outdated communication techniques. Delivery of results in the civil service requires huge personal networks. Each new job requires months building a new network that is rarely handed over well to a successor. These two working practices lock in inefficient methods of organisation. Outside the civil service there are more efficient and effective ways of working. These include versions on popular social networking tools such as Facebook, publishing and sharing work internally to intranets or blogging and the use of wikis for collaborative drafting. This session will examine how we could work more effectively using social media.

09:00 – 09.45: Involving disabled people in policy making – what it means for you and why it work

Inspiring Innovation session

Location: Wesley Room

Speaker: DWP permanent secretary Sir Leigh Lewis and Sally Witcher, assistant director of the Office for Disability Issues

Summary: A practical and interactive session that will give you the tools you need to involve disabled people in policy development, why it works and how it will help you meet your wider strategic objectives. As well as the opportunity to hear from the minister for disabled people about how the government is encouraging new and innovative ways of working across the public sector, you will also get the opportunity to hear examples of how this has worked in practice and how it can work for you.

09:00 – 10.25: Protecting our Borders: Innovation at the front line

Inspiring Innovation session

Location: Mountbatten Room

Speaker: Lin Homer, chief executive, UK Border Agency

Summary: The UK Border Agency brings together the work of the Border and Immigration Agency, the customs work of HM Revenue & Customs and UKVisas to improve the security of the UK whilst welcoming and encouraging legitimate travellers and trade. Lin Homer, chief executive of the new agency will host a fascinating session designed to reveal some of the most innovative work of civil servants delivering border controls and immigration services at the front line. Lin will be joined by immigration and customs officers who will share their experiences and the successes that have been achieved through collaboration at the front line. In addition there'll be a chance to get an insight into some of the latest developments at UKBA such as the new biometric technology they use to manage intelligence and risk. This session will be a fun and interesting overview of the work of an organisation with one of the most challenging agendas in government.

09:45 - 11:20: Employee Engagement

Learning and Development Session

Location: Abbey room

Speakers: Imogen Wade, Cabinet Office, John Bell, Cabinet Office, Jill Cameron, Cabinet Office and Mike Anderson, Director General, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Summary: A participative session interspersed with input from Imogen Wade and John Bell from the Cabinet Office and Mike Anderson, a senior leader in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This session will also have discussions on the case for employee engagement, the measured approach and the impact within organisations.

09.45 - 11.20: Performance Management

Learning and Development Session

Location: Wesley

Speaker: Graham Vale, National School of Government

Summary: This session will provide an accelerated insight into good practice in performance management with an accent on pragmatic tips and techniques in this vital field of work. The accent during the workshop is on practical approaches to dealing with people issues which will be debated in an open forum.

09.45 - 11.20: Staying at your best: Bouncing Back with Emotional Intelligence

Learning and Development Session

Speaker: Julia Hockey, National School of Government and Gordon Tinline, Robertson Cooper Ltd

Summary: Knowing who you are and how you deal with your feelings is at the heart of building effective relationships. This workshop will help you to understand yourself better so that you are more resilient and can be at your best more of the time.

10.05-11.40: Civil Service 'Leadership' Award Winners: The Peace Process Team, Northern Ireland Office

Learning and Development Session

Location: Churchill Room

Speakers: Robert Hannigan, prime minister's security adviser and head of intelligence, Security and Resilience, Cabinet Office; Hilary Jackson, director general, political, Northern Ireland Office; and Nick Perry, director general, policing and security, Northern Ireland Office. Session chaired by David Sweeney

Summary: Transforming Northern Ireland: lessons for leadership in the civil service from the management of the peace process. This session will also feature presentations from the Leadership Award runners-up from The Pension Service, Department for Work and Pensions and the People Directorate, Department for Children, Schools and Families.

10:05 - 11:40: A-Z of British Government

Learning and Development Session

Location: Wordsworth room

Speaker: Paul Grant, senior lecturer, National School of Government

Summary: Everything you always wanted to know about the principal institutions and how they work in practice, presented by Paul Grant of the National School of Government.

10.05 - 11.40: Public Risk - The Next Frontier: Managing Risk in Policy Making

Learning and Development Session

Location: Rutherford room

Speakers: Geoffrey Podger, chief executive, Health and Safety Executive and Rick Haythornthwaite, chair, Risk and Regulation Advisory Committee. Session chaired by Professor Dame Carol Black DBE, national director for health, work and wellbeing

Summary: Geoffrey Podger will give his views on successful risk management drawing out some difficulties that can arise within the current environment. Rick Haythornthwaite will then examine future developments in this area including how the RRAC will focus its priorities on the culture at the heart of policy making, particularly as it relates to the management of public risk.

10.25 - 12.00: Civil Service 'Financial Management' Award Winners: CJS IT Portfolio Unit, Office for Criminal Justice Reform

Learning and Development Session

Location: Caxton room

Speaker: Stephen Jenner, acting director, Criminal Justice Information Technology. Mike Timmis, head of finance, National School of Government and Nick Jackson, head of local government consultancy, government and public services at Capgemini, will also join the session as part of the panel.

Summary: In 2004 the CJS IT programme faced escalating costs, delayed delivery and a negative return on investment. By 2007, costs were under control, delivery was significantly improved and the programme demonstrated a positive return on investment. Steve Jenner will explain how the approach to Portfolio & Benefits management contributed to this turn around via: triangulation and validation of data; gates with teeth; active benefits management; and developing one version of the truth reporting providing a clear line of sight from strategic intent through to benefits realization.

10.25 - 12.00: Sustainable Development: National Strategy and Policy - overview and impact

Learning and Development Session

Location: Henry Moore room

Speaker: Arik Dondi, Sustainable Development Unit, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Summary: It has become alarmingly clear in the last few years that we do not live within environmental limits and that we face risks that could lead to serious disruption of modern societies. The UK Sustainable Development Strategy has been remarked upon around the world as a strong example of the kind of broad framework governments need to be setting to ensure we do the best job possible in handling and delivering on sustainability. Sustainable development will be one of definitive public service challenges of the 21st Century and will challenges of the 21st Century and will shortly be embedded in the professional skills for government framework.

10.25 - 12.00: Public Service Innovation

Learning and Development Session

Location: Mountbatten

Speakers: Su Maddock, National School of Government, David Kester, Chief Executive, Design Council, Kristina Murrin, Founding Director, ?What If! and Professor John Bessant Imperial College

Summary: This session will introduce delegates to public service innovation, what it is, how to support it and introducing design principles that bring people together to innovate and systems that will support innovation flow.

11.45 - 13.20: The Government IT Profession - Building Communities, Transforming Delivery

Learning and Development Session

Location: Abbey room

Speaker: Suzanne Quinn, IT academy delivery manager and Anne-Marie Grafton, Implentation Manager, Government IT Profession

Summary: This session will provide participants with an introduction to the Government IT Profession and what it offers for both organisations and individuals across the public sector. The process of embedding IT professionalism will then be brought to life through a case study, and finally participants will have the opportunity to explore together how networking and community building can yield transformational learning experiences to support their professional development.

11.45 - 13.20: Partnership Working

Learning and Development Session

Location: Wesley room

Speaker: Graham Vale, National School of Government

Summary: Partnerships exist because the rewards - better services and better ways of working as well as in some instances greater profits - can be high, but they take a great deal of work to be successful. It's easy to waste time in fruitless partnership talks so you must make sure you and your staff have the skills to get results. This workshop is for anyone who is searching for practical ideas about how to encourage good practice within partnerships, so maximising their effectiveness.

11.45 - 13.20: Reaping the Rewards of Senior Executive Mentoring

Learning and Development Session

Location: Windsor room

Speaker: Lesley Martinson, National School of Government

Summary: Experience shows that having a mentor can help smooth even the most arduous leadership journey to the top. This session is relevant for any leader or manager thinking about using mentoring or wishing to make their existing mentoring arrangement even more powerful and effective.

12.05 - 13.40: Health of the Working Age Population

Learning and Development Session

Location: Churchill Room

Speaker: Professor Dame Carol Black DBE, national director for health, work and wellbeing, Department for Work and Pensions

Summary: Dame Carol Black will outline the key findings and recommendations from her Review of the Health of the Working Age Population, published on 17th March, and will highlight not only the likely impact on the civil service and the wider public sector, but also on the delivery of healthcare and the wider implications. She will set out a vision for the future of the health and well-being of the working age population, and the steps that might be needed to get there.

12.05 - 13.40: Speeches That Work

Learning and Development Session

Location: Wordsworth room

Speaker: Dr Susan Jones, author of Speechmaking

Summary: Dr Susan Jones will talk about what speeches are for and why speeches are boring. She will also give tips on how to make government interesting and how to make points memorably and persuasively.

12.05-13.40: Using Evidence for Policy Making

Learning and Development Session

Location: Rutherford

Speakers: Professor John Beddington, government chief scientific adviser; John Parke, Government Office for Science, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills; and a representative from Obesity Unit, Department of Health

Summary: Professor John Beddington talks about the nature of evidence and its role in shaping policy. Jon Parke and the DH representative will present a case study of the use of evidence in the Obesity Project.

12.25 - 14.00: Civil Service 'Joined Up Government' Award Winners: Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit Claims for Pensioners project team, Housing Benefit Strategy Division/The Pension Service, Department for Work and Pensions

Learning and Development Session

Location: Caxton room

Speakers: Bernard Mitton, Department for Work and Pensions Housing Benefit Strategy Division; Jim Boyd, The Pension Service HB/CTB liaison manager; Christie Dennehy Department for Work and Pensions Housing Benefit Strategy Division; Andrew Neil, The Pension Service Operational Policy and Strategy Division. Session chaired by Paul Howarth, Divisional Manager, Department for Work and Pensions Housing Benefit Strategy Division

Summary: Find out more about how the award winning Benefit Strategy Directorate are meeting the challenge of helping pensioners get their full benefit entitlement by bringing together central and local government to work in partnership.

12.25-14.00: Sustainability Overseas - UK Dialogue and Influence

Learning and Development Session

Location: Henry Moore room

Speaker: Phil Callaghan, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Summary: Sustainability demands that nations find ways to practise deep cooperation that leads to real action for change. The UK has been leading an initiative to get the governments of several developing and emerging nations in dialogues intended to lay foundations for co-ordinated international policies to tackle challenges such as climate change and fisheries depletion. Come and hear how we are trying to make a difference.

12.25 - 14.00: Simply Better: Delivering What Matters Most to Customers

Learning and Development Session

Location: Mountbatten room

Speaker: Patrick Barwise, Emeritus Professor of Management and Marketing, London Business School

Summary: The presentation will be based on Patrick Barwise's award-winning book Simply Better: Winning and Keeping Customers by Delivering What Matters Most, relating it to the public sector. Simply Better challenges the conventional wisdom that a company needs to offer something unique in order to attract business. Instead, using examples such as P&G, Toyota and Tesco, it argues that "What customers want is simply better - not more differentiated - products and services". The presentation will summarise the argument from the book and then discuss the practical implications for both public and private sector services.

13:20 – 14.25: UKTI – Selling the UK as never before

Inspiring Innovation session

Location: Abbey Room

Speaker: Danny Lopez, UKTI

Summary: Come and hear about the UK's Unique Selling Points. Find out how UKTI, as a marketing led organisation, is using our compelling messages to market the UK's Strengths as a place for overseas business to invest, and the strengths of UK business as a trade or investment partner.

13:20 – 14.25: Developing the online channel – web convergence plans for CSR 07

Inspiring Innovation session

Location: Windsor Room

Speaker: Jane Nickalls, chief executive of DirectgoV, and David Dinsdale, director of businesslink.gov.uk

Summary: In response to Sir David Varney's Service Transformation review 2006, Directgov and businesslink.gov.uk have been working together to help central government departments plan and prepare for a three year programme of service transformation centred around the convergence of online services onto businesslink.gov.uk (for businesses) and Directgov (for citizens). The seminar will cover how the channels for citizens and business will develop over the next three years and the opportunities for service owners to develop their services on-line using Directgov and businesslink.gov.uk

13.20 - 14.25: The Usual Suspects?

Location: Wesley

Speakers: Rob Neil, Civil Service Race Equality Network

Summary: Interaction with stakeholders can sometimes focus on large organisations, local authorities and recognised local campaigners (the usual suspects). This session addresses how we can take a different and additional approach in engaging with more grassroots people.

13:40 – 14.05: How to take measured risks in decision taking

Inspiring Innovation session

Location: Mountbatten Room

Speaker: Caspar Berry, risk strategist

Summary: Caspar will discuss how risk and uncertainty works. Using poker as a metaphor this session will empower you to take more calculated risks and make more effective decisions in and outside the work place.

Caspar will help you to understand how people perform at their peak when they are allowed to experiment, innovate, take risks and explore.

His session will also explore the impact of our attitudes towards risk and decision making and our ability to maximise results in life.

This is an interactive session which will encourage you to look at the risks you are faced with and how best to make decisions.

14.00 - 15.05: The importance of effective delivery

Learning and Development Session

Location: Caxton room

Speaker: Vanessa Lawrence, director-general of Ordnance Survey, and cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell

Summary:

14:00 – 15.05: Civil Service West Midlands – The power of Geography, soon coming to a region near you

Inspiring Innovation session

Location: Henry Moore Room

Speaker: Jo O'Hara, programme manager, Civil Service West Midlands, and West Midlands minister, Liam Byrne MP

Summary: Civil Service West Midlands is a new, ground-breaking approach, using the strength of numbers (34,000 civil servants in the West Midlands) to generate benefits for current and future staff. This exciting programme is a pilot, championed by Sir Gus O'Donnell and Sir Leigh Lewis, to transform the civil service image, brand and culture across the country. In this session we will explore the areas that we have initially identified for cross-departmental collaboration, give you a flavour of the sort of things that we are working on, and discuss YOUR ideas for ways that we can all benefit from the fact that many of us live and work in close proximity to thousands of other civil servants.

14.05 - 15.40: Service Transformation

Learning and Development Session

Location: Churchill Room

Speakers: Alexis Cleveland, director general, Transformational Government and Cabinet Office Management and Sir David Varney, prime minister's adviser on Public Service Transformation

Summary: Sir David Varney and Alexis Cleveland talk about implementing the Service Transformation Agreement and the next steps delivering better services for customers, a better deal for the taxpayer and better roles for public servants. They will highlight some best practice from both the public and private sectors.

14.05 - 15.40: Working with Ministers: A Secretary of State's Perspective

Learning and Development Session

Location: Wordsworth

Speaker: The Rt Hon Charles Clarke MP

Summary: Hear from a secretary of state about the pressures of life as a Cabinet minister, how civil servants can support ministers and also about the minister-civil servant relationship.

14.05 - 15.40: Developing Deliverable Policy Workshop

Learning and Development Session

Location: Rutherford room

Speaker: Graham Davies, National School of Government

Summary: Sample the National School of Government's policy programmes with a workshop aimed directly at improving your policy making.

14.25 - 16.00: The Place of Qualifications within the Government Skills Strategy

Learning and Development Session

Location: Abbey room

Speaker: Gillian Sellix, Government Skills and Helena Charlton, National School of Government

Summary: This session will feature a presentation on the Government Skills strategy with regard to promoting qualifications in government; a knowledge exchange on how qualifications are currently supported in individual departments; and a facilitated discussion around the challenges and opportunities posed by the skills strategy and how these can be addressed collectively.

14.25 - 16.00: Thinking Outside the Box to Enhance Leadership

Learning and Development Session

Location: Windsor room

Speaker: Kathryn Bishop, Non-Executive Board Member, Welsh Assembly and Patent Office

Summary: Non-Executive Board Members are an organisation's critical friend, challenger and, potentially, most influential advocate for innovation. This session will explore how innovators in departments can tap into this rich resource.

14.25 - 16.00: Public Engagement

Learning and Development Session

Location: Wesley room

Speaker: Charlotte Revely, National School of Government and Richard Harris, Interact Networks

Summary: At the heart of good governance is the need to engage the public and stakeholders systematically and a two way engagement process deepens the understanding of both the decision maker and participant. However, for many civil servants, this is a new and sometimes daunting role and entails capabilities and skills that haven't traditionally been part of civil servant's competences, requiring them to think in new and innovative ways. This session will provide an outline understanding of public engagement and help you to identify the skills and knowledge needed to deliver.

15.05 - 16.40: Civil Service 'Communications' Award Winners: Teenage Pregnancy Want Respect? Campaign, Department for Children, Schools and Families

Learning and Development Session

Location: Caxton room

Speaker: Young People's Team, Marketing Division, Department for Children, Schools and Families

Summary: The 'Sex. RUThinking about it?' Campaign team talk about their successful campaign to help reduce under-18 conception rates by 2010 from base line rates set in 1998.

15.05 - 16.40: Creating an innovative department

Learning and Development Session

Location: Mountbatten

Speaker: Ian Watmore, permanent secretary, Department for Innovation, University and Skills

Summary: Ian Watmore outlines the challenges to creating an innovative department and promoting world class science and innovation.

15.05 - 16.40: Climate Change - Resilience and Adaptation

Learning and Development Session

Location: Henry Moore

Speakers: Tony Grayling, Environment Agency; Kathryn Packer Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Climate Change Adaptation Team; and Kirstine Dale, Met Office

Summary: The UK Met Office has predicted that in the UK we will begin to see significant changes in weather patterns from 2012 onwards - with trends towards hotter summers yet rainfall with fiercer intensity than we have been used to. These changes will require a strong and highly organized response from government and the public sector to ensure that the emerging risks are handled as well as possible. The Environment Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will outline work being done now to ensure that the UK has the best possible chance of adapting and being resilient to changed climate patterns.

15:40 – 16.40: Why innovation is important

Inspiring Innovation session

Location: Churchill Room

Speaker: Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell and Dragons' Den entrepreneur Peter Jones

Summary: In an interactive session Sir Gus O'Donnell and Peter Jones discuss the role of innovation in the civil service, showcasing clips from the Lions' Lair, and stressing how innovation can boost the successful delivery of public services.

15:40 – 16.40: Innovation through adversity – is transgender diversity's wild frontier

Inspiring Innovation session

Location: Wordsworth Room

Speaker: Dee Evans, head of gender identity policy for a:gender, and Sarah Wood, vice chair of a:gender

Summary: The session looks at the work of a:gender, the civil service diversity network that supports transgender people. They'll be looking at how to improve your services to transgender people and make sure they are not left out in the cold. They'll be asking why government so often finds this difficult to do. Outcomes that undermine the lives of trans people.

15:40 – 16.40: Agency Chief Executives Q&A Forum

Inspiring Innovation session

Location: Rutherford Room

Speaker: Delivery in Practice - Working in Partnership: Gill Newton, chief executive, Fire Service College Career Pathways and Operational Delivery: Andrew Hudson, chief executive, Valuation Office Agency Improving Customer Service: Paul Markwick, chief executive, Vehicle Certification Agency

Summary: Three agency chief executives talk about delivery in practice - working in partnership; career pathways and operational delivery; and improving customer service. There will be plenty of opportunity to put your questions about working in operational delivery to them.

16:00 – 17.00: Corporate Responsibility – changing fashion or fashioning change?

Inspiring Innovation session

Location: Abbey Room

Speaker: Judy Greevy, head of corporate responsibility and diversity at HMRC, and Ed Williams, former head of corporate responsibility at Marks and Spencer PLC and Jubilee director for Business in the Community

Summary: The session will cover why corporate responsibility is growing in importance and how adopting responsible businesses practices can support change and innovation in the civil service. The session will consist of a presentation including practical examples followed by Q&A and discussion.

16.00 - 17.00: Operation QUEST - supporting frontline partners in achieving substantial increases in police productivity

Location: Windsor room

Speakers: Robert Arnott (Home Office) and police officers tbc

Summary: How the Home Office supported frontline police officers to achieve substantial customer service improvements through designing and implementing changes in nuts-and-bolts processes. What that was like (both formal techniques and cultural change), what were the results, how is it being sustained, lessons learned. Read-across to other areas of public service, and the role and posture of civil servants.