Featured Video 9 February, 2023

Whitehall wisdom: rewiring the government machine

For decades, consensus has grown that Whitehall – the civil service and the departments and institutions of central government – needs reform. Yet while successive governments have attempted multiple programmes and initiatives, systemic barriers to performance persist. Addressing this, and building an innovative, resilient, and future-proofed Whitehall, is paramount.
From the role of the centre to how to achieve cognitive diversity, the need to decentralise to how to drive accountability, this event explored how meaningful reform can deliver a government machine fit for today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.

Reform was delighted to host this panel event convening two former Permanent Secretaries, Philip Rycroft CB and Jonathan Slater, for an insider view of how things work at the highest levels of Whitehall, and how the civil service should adapt to meet the challenges of the future.