HM Treasury - Polly Le Grand,

• Name: Polly Le Grand
• Employer: HM Treasury
• Occupation: Fiscal policy
• Grade: -

Last updated - 5th October 2009

By being given that responsibility it really makes a difference that you know that from the first day people are listening to your opinion.

I joined The Treasury in October 2005. In a typical day I’ll be doing a huge range of things - I may be attending meetings, responding to emails, reading reports, looking at relevant research. I’ll also be writing briefings for senior officials or Ministers if they’re attending meetings.

When I first started, I remember thinking, how can I write a briefing for this person, because I’m so new to the area? How can I be the expert? But you quite quickly develop the expertise in your own small area and realise that actually, you can add some value.

It’s certainly a challenge to be told as you walk in on your first day, right you’re now Treasury’s lead on EU fiscal policy. You think ‘but I don’t know anything about it’. But actually that’s how you get to learn things. By being given that responsibility it really makes a difference that you know that from the first day people are listening to your opinion.

I’ve had so much training since I’ve been here. I’ve had proper formal training, so courses in Econometrics, Economic Growth, that kind of technical economics. Also courses in other skills, like communications for example, or managing diversity. There’s also a huge number of seminars and talks that are always going on. We’ll also have academics coming in to visit and other people in the organisation presenting their own work, so there’s really loads of opportunity to learn about a huge range of topics.

I think the challenges that I face have mostly been about learning very quickly about different subject areas. For instance three weeks into the job and I was told that I was going out to Brussels to support a senior official. He was going to be talking about a very technical issue that he didn’t know anything about, but I was supposed to be the expert on. So I found myself sitting in this room in Brussels with all my little diagrams, preparing to feed him some lines. So that was quite daunting but it all went really well.