Professor Jonathan Slater

Jonathan Slater is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London and Queen Mary University of London. He sits on the boards of the Charter Schools Educational Trust, Morley College, and Sheffield Hallam University.

Jonathan was Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education until 2020. This followed a 20-year civil service career that included experience at the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office, and No.10.

Before that, Jonathan worked in local government for over a decade, ending up as Director of Education and Deputy Chief Executive at Islington Council, though his career started as a mathematical modeller for British Rail.

"I’m looking forward to exploring how Whitehall could work better as part of Reform’s new programme. My particular interest is how to tackle the serious disconnect that often exists between deliberations behind closed doors in SW1 and the day-to-day realities of citizens. Trust in government is falling and so is civil service morale. I hope the Reimagining Whitehall programme will set out what we can do to turn things around."