Lecture from Cabinet Secretary Simon Case at the seventy-second Strand Group event, hosted by King's College London.
INTRODUCTION
Public service.
Easily said - and for many - its meaning easily conjured in the mind: a commitment to assisting others - a calling or purpose.
Sadly, for some, it is a concept that provokes suspicion and cynicism.
For me, public service inspires thoughts not at the conceptual level, but of the people themselves: those who choose just that - the service of others, the service of a nation.
And all those who do, in my view, deserve thanks.
These are the men and women who put themselves in the arena, as Teddy Roosevelt put it (and I'll come back to that later) - whether it be in politics, the Civil Service, the Armed Forces, the emergency services, our National Health Service, local government and beyond.
Our nation could not have survived and prospered without these people who put themselves forward for public service.
But equally, our nation would not have survived and prospered had those people not adapted to the times - to the global, economic, societal and technological trends, opportunities and pressures.
Our public servants and their institutions have always had to find the right balance between continuity and change.
And that same pressure to find the right balancing point between the past and the future is as acute now as ever.
This evening, I would like to share with you some of the characteristics of one of the breeds of public servants - or maybe one of the tribes, if you think as an anthropologist - the Civil Service - and how we are reshaping ourselves.
As Edward Bridges offered in his portrait of our Service in 1950 and Richard Wilson - here with us tonight - revisited in 2002, I would like to offer my own sketches of the people and virtues evident today.
I will do this through vignettes, drawn from my interactions with a number of individual civil servants.
Like Bridges and Wilson, and others here tonight, as Cabinet Secretary I have sat at our particular intersection of the Civil Service with politics, the military, royalty and faith; the private sector, public services, education and many other organisations.
Like them, time and again - when confronted with a problem - thought and imagination have been required, to reach for either lithe or muscular solutions, depending on the circumstances of the day.
And all thirteen of us who have held this post - soon to be fourteen, with Chris - have been able to draw on the strengths of the Civil Service - the distinctive inheritance, character and values through which it has provided enduring support for governments down the ages.
Bridges may well have been astonished by the speed of the modern world and how quickly his beloved Service has to respond and react.
But I am also sure he would immediately recognise and admire much else about the organisation…
…our enduring inheritance that is passed between the ranks, from veterans to new recruits…
…our storehouses of experience and philosophies, filled and refilled to meet the demands and expectations of successive governments.
The pride with which we serve ministers and the country.
And our commitment both to continuity and to change.
The volatile global context, the relentless evolution of technology, the increasing public expectations of the services we provide, and many more factors - they all require us to adapt and flex.
We must show our determination to meet these 21st century challenges.
We must be determined to solve problems across departmental and organisational boundaries, and beyond Whitehall and Westminster - a particular priority under this mission-driven government.
For we are, in part and with others, stewards of the core essentials for our nation and its citizens:
Economic growth that benefits the whole country;
Public services that suit the needs of their consumers;
The preservation of the United Kingdom;
Upholding the rule of law;
And, maintaining strong defences, built on the cornerstone of our nuclear deterrent, our security and intelligence agencies and our long-standing alliances with partners.
To be those stewards - better stewards - we must remain relentlessly curious; improve our skills and knowledge - particularly in science and technology - and be open to changing how we design and deliver public services.
But we must also make sure that we represent the vital enduring values of the UK and be the constant, at times of political turnover and transition - whether in rapid or slower time.
When, as in 2022, we had three prime ministers in less than two months, and the fifth in six years, the Civil Service helped manage the transfer of power from leader to leader.
The opposite of rapid turnover also places a unique responsibility on us.
Where the electorate has decided to keep one party in power for very long periods, the change - when it comes - requires the Civil Service to support people with no or limited experience of government.
At every handover, civil servants are there, delving into the storehouses of knowledge, to support a new regime at the elbow.
In this role it's been my honour to serve two sovereigns, four Prime Ministers and as of today nearly 130 Cabinet Ministers.
Having occasionally felt like the weight of some of the world was on my shoulders, I now gladly let that perceived burden - hopefully more lightly - rest upon the capable shoulders of others.
What I will miss - the undoubted highlight and privilege - has been serving alongside so many remarkable public servants around the country and in our overseas posts; and with counterparts from close allies and partners around the world.
Together, we've dealt with Brexit, a pandemic, wars, a change of reign, economic emergencies and an unprecedented demand for modern public services.
And for all that we spend time talking about our 'institutions' - actually it is the combined experience, wisdom, strengths - yes, and weaknesses - of the people within, that determine our collective successes and failures.
I have seen so many individuals display unbelievable tenacity, ingenuity and adaptability, whilst sacrificing their personal interests for the good of others.
I have come across far more shining lights and bright sparks than damp squibs.
And thanks to them, during my period as Cabinet Secretary there have certainly been more ups than downs. Truly motivated people doing wonderful things, in pursuit of their nations' and communities' interests.
My regret at having to step down is tempered with pride when I reflect on their achievements.
And the contemporary sketches or 'Portraits' - plural - that I will share with you this evening are of some outstanding civil servants. Not my 'Magnificent Seven' but my 'Magnificent Eight'.
A mix of ages and backgrounds, seniority and professions.
But they all have a particular quality that makes them best-in-class.
Key character traits which I have observed that speak to the balance of continuity and change.
Seizing opportunity, protecting impartiality; selflessness. They are inspirational, connected, innovative, responsive and committed.
And above all, like so many others here tonight, they are passionate about public service.
And as long as we keep hiring people with these characteristics, and can persuade them to stay in the organisation, I shall remain optimistic about the future of the civil service and the country we serve.
It's through people like this that the Civil Service creates impact and re-earns its right to exist.
And for those who are cynical about public service, or war-weary about whether government can help solve the major challenges we face as a nation - I offer these civil servants as a human antidote.
So, charcoal in hand, let me begin sketching…
PORTRAIT ONE - SEIZING OPPORTUNITY
It is an enormous wrench that, in leaving the Civil Service, I am also having to give up my dream job.
No - not the current one.
My secret dream job.
One I have hankered after since a visit to Porton Down.
Behind the wire, highly secretive research goes on into chemical and other weapons, and fatal diseases such as Ebola, the plague and - for a time - a brand-new coronavirus called Covid-19.
Bec is an apprentice, working on the frontlines of keeping the United Kingdom and her citizens safe.
Bec is my first portrait subject - and she exemplifies opportunity.
We must keep creating it; and attracting people like Bec who seize it, and run with it.
When we met, Bec was working on a remotely-operated underwater vehicle.
It was a way to get Navy divers out of the water and away from danger while still neutralising a threat.
Remarkable work in itself - but for me what was also interesting was Bec's account of winning her apprenticeship in the first place.
She had been keen on engineering at school but an old-fashioned teacher snuffed out her career ambitions. 'The workshop's no place for girls,' he told her.
Ironically, Bec would find a role at DSTL - in its staff nursery. And when she began chatting to a scientist who came to pick up his child, her yearning for engineering resurfaced.
She told me how the scientist drew a DNA helix in the sandpit as he described his work - sharing his passion and expertise; seeing her interest and reciprocating.
Bec was inspired to look up more jobs on our website. The apprenticeship programme she came across is one I am very proud of - extending opportunities and diversifying our talent pipeline.
We are prioritising future skills, and plugging gaps: in science, tech, digital and data; in cyber security, engineering and project delivery.
I hope that Bec's curiosity inspires others.
We created this opportunity - she seized it, and made us better for it.
I was delighted to learn that Bec is moving on to a degree apprenticeship in Ordnance Munitions and Explosives - meaning she can look forward to many more years keeping our nation safe.
Delighted - and more than a little envious.
PORTRAIT TWO - PROTECTING IMPARTIALITY
For any civil servant, the job requires us to leave our political leanings at home. That can be harder when we find ourselves working on contentious and high-profile issues.
When I met Ruby, my second portrait subject, I was immediately taken by her no-nonsense, can-do attitude - and snapped her up as my co-host on a weekly podcast called Keeping it Civil, where we invite a special guest to discuss common challenges.
The podcast is available - exclusively - on our Civil Service Learning platform - I'm now looking forward to a big bump in listeners.
We covered impartiality in the launch episode, where Ruby recalls navigating her way through the last government's Migration and Economic Development Partnership - better known as the infamous 'Rwanda Scheme'.
It's fair to say the arrangement met with a mixed reaction not only from the public but also the civil service.
At the Home Office, protest stickers appeared in the loos and Ruby came in for sustained questioning from colleagues. It was 'an uncomfortable period,' she recalled.
But she managed that discomfort, recognising that under the CIvil Service Code, we serve the government of the day and set aside our personal views.
This means our service is not always easy. As Ruby's experience shows, we can become lightning-rods for controversy even amongst our own colleagues. So I wondered: how did she handle the attention?
At first, her close-knit team kept its work discreet, referring to Rwanda simply as 'Country X'.
Things changed once the policy became public.
Ruby admits the hardest conversations were with colleagues who knew she was doing something, and something controversial, but were largely unfamiliar with how officials go about offering up a balanced choice of policy options to Ministers.
Nevertheless - Ruby correctly recognised the right of Ministers to explore innovative and deeply controversial - as in this case - solutions.
My and Ruby's guest for that first podcast episode was national treasure Chris Whitty.
And it was interesting to compare Ruby's experiences of working on Rwanda with Chris's, on becoming one of the public faces of the COVID response.
Although at the time the Covid response wasn't anywhere near as controversial as it seems now, it is rare for civil servants like Chris and his stable mate Patrick to be so closely associated with what was ultimately a series of political decisions about how to handle a crisis of medical origin.
Chris learned to handle the loss of anonymity - and frequent live television appearances - by treating the situation as if he were communicating a diagnosis to an individual patient.
'They want to know the straight facts - no sugar coating - and they want to know all the factors that lie behind a decision,' he told us.
So Chris set out the facts as they were understood at the time - and of course, the scientific consensus did change on some important issues - and this allowed senior elected leaders and Parliament to make the political decisions based on them.
Chris, I thought, put it brilliantly. 'As a civil servant, it is our absolute responsibility to be straight with the public and not to bias the facts.
'However,' he continued, 'it is not our job to advocate positions, but to give ministers balanced advice which lays out very clearly the downsides as well as the upsides.'
Ruby and Chris: impartiality personified.
And despite the increasing temptation, amid the agitation and kerfuffle of politics today, we must avoid becoming the arbiters of legitimate debate in a democratic society - and stick to our core task.
PORTRAIT THREE - SELFLESS
Whilst Prof Chris became a national figure, my third portrait of exemplary service is someone who has always been behind the scenes.
So often the work of civil servants is not recognised publicly and so often that's exactly how they prefer it.
Clarice does not wear a uniform.
But in Ukraine's courageous military fightback against Putin's relentless and spiralling aggression, she's made an enormous personal difference to the frontline. She won the Prime Minister's Award for Exceptional Public Service in 2022.
The UK has been a constant at the side of President Zelensky and Ukraine's citizens, committing billions in military and non-military support.
Behind those financial figures are hundreds of human figures, putting their skills and efforts into sourcing vital, game-changing military kit; making sure it gets there safely, and monitoring how it's used.
Many of them are in uniform of course, but others are civilians at the Ministry of Defence and elsewhere.
Their contribution is unheralded yet invaluable - like Clarice, they are motivated not by public glory, but by mission and public service.
Clarice grew up wanting to work in a non-profit organisation and make a difference.
She thought - correctly - that the Civil Service ticked the boxes; and landed up first at the Foreign Office and then the MoD.
Her Ukraine Task Force secondment was meant to last a month but six months and more later - she was still helping the resistance effort.
The experience, she said to me, was 'more exciting, more challenging - and never the regular day-to-day' she had been expecting. 'Unique, scary and serious. But inspiring - and still a privilege.'
We remain in the forefront of Ukraine's allies and supporters - and will, until the end of the conflict.
And the work of many civil servants will go on, unknown and unheralded, committed to the vital task of ensuring that autocratic regimes cannot flourish.
PORTRAIT FOUR - INSPIRING
If Clarice was drawn to us by a sense of public service, Richard, my fourth portrait, was not - or not at first. He had precious few options.
But he soon found that for his work in the Doncaster JobCentre, his very complicated background - prison, homelessness, long periods of addiction - became a source of strength - and his lived experience a point of connection with the people he helps every day.
Richard has been a civil servant for four years now.
And when we met, he spoke so passionately about his journey into the Civil Service.
Richard shows many who come through the door there is a chance of a better life.
When prison-leavers are facing their first tricky days on the outside, Richard's the one making sure they have money in their pocket to get by.
Because he knows how tough it is.
Before we threw him a life-line, he'd been through 23 years of crisis.
He hit rock bottom during his second short spell in jail, when social services took his children into care.
Richard decided to turn his life around - after his release, he showed the family courts and social services how he'd changed.
Nine months later - against the odds - he won back custody of his children.
Richard did apply for other jobs supporting offenders but failed vetting because his convictions were not spent.
I am proud to say that the Department for Work and Pensions' Life Chances Programme saw his potential.
The scheme supports people from a range of backgrounds, including prison leavers, to overcome barriers and join the civil service.
When we met, he told me: 'There was no going back. The Civil Service absolutely turned my life around.
'The pride I have from supporting customers keeps me going. My colleagues are the best in the world and give me nothing but respect.'
He told me he is an advocate for ex-offenders. 'There's nothing I've not been through, experienced or seen. And I can support them so much better for my lived experience.'
Today, it's an honour to work alongside Richard, impressed by his courage and pride.
His is an inspiring story. It's someone taking control of their life and changing their destiny. And the civil service recognising his determination and passion, and giving him the platform to help others.
Richard is better at his job because of his background, not in spite of it. Through his hard-won experience he can persuade others to take a different path.
He is selfless, resilient, tenacious. Energetic, and so impressive. I have already given him a reference for a job and would do it again, any day.
PORTRAIT FIVE - CONNECTED
I met my fifth portrait, Eloise, living the dream, in her native Cumbria.
She's the lynch-pin of our work to make the most of £200 million worth of government investment going into Barrow-in-Furness - leveraging her local knowledge with the council, local businesses and enterprises, the third sector and citizen organisations.
Eloise is embedded in the area she serves - embodying the idea that we do a better job when we have people designing policies and focusing on places where they themselves have roots.
An approach that's in stark contrast to the old model of civil servants clustered in London like iron filings stuck to the Whitehall magnet - a model which must be consigned to history.
Barrow is amongst my favourite places on earth. The BAE Systems' submarine factory literally looms over the town. The mighty Devonshire Dock Hall dominates the skyline and the company dominates the local economy.
When I met Eloise, we were chatting in what you might loosely call an airport lounge in beautiful Walney Island, off the Cumbrian coast, after visiting BAE.
Because she's from the area, she has the inside track on how to make the connections and open up the opportunities that are desperately needed there: great education, healthcare, more jobs and so on.
Eloise is a former Fast Streamer - and joined the Civil Service wanting to work for communities like the one she had grown up in.
She read PPE at Oxford and spent a year with the police in Blackpool before joining a business organisation, seeing how the public and private sectors work together.
'I learned so much more in my year with the police than I did in three years of studying PPE,' she told me!
That day in the airport, we were discussing how Barrow made no sense. In many ways, it is a typical post-industrial Northern town with above-average youth unemployment, problems with drug and alcohol misuse, and empty shops alongside some beautiful old buildings that hark back to better times.
But it isn't post-industrial at all.
Behind the fence, some of the most technically advanced machines on the planet are being built by people pursuing well-paid, high-skilled and stable careers guaranteed for decades.
Our task in Barrow, is to make sure the whole town benefits from its astonishing potential.
Eloise is bringing her policy expertise and local knowledge to make the best use of the money the government is providing to support the community.
'I can't believe I'm being paid to care about Cumbria!' she told me.
But it's the best use of her connections, her skills - and reflects the direction of the Civil Service - putting our brilliant people in the midst of the communities they know so well.
PORTRAIT SIX - INNOVATIVE
From submarines - to the new frontiers of AI - for my sixth portrait this evening.
To some, AI is the means to an end.
Others worry it's the means to our end.
But while they wait for robots to rule the world, the sceptics would still like the NHS to detect their cancer earlier, diagnose their stroke sooner, or treat them in a 'virtual ward'.
My colleague Rory is an arch-innovator in the Department for Health and Social Care.
He sees that AI has brought us to the cusp of the next industrial revolution.
For our meeting, Rory brought along a prop - a CT scan to illustrate one of AI's strengths: diagnostics support.
AI can spot the difference between a healthy chest and one with potential lung cancer.
The glowing red area I could see on the scan was the warning; AI flagging a potential problem to the medics.
A boon, when the NHS expects the demand for diagnostic imaging to increase by up to 12 per cent year on year.
Certainly, we are at an inflection point in AI's adoption by the NHS.
Already, AI is helping diagnose skin cancer, it's been rolled out across all 107 stroke units in England and the NHS 111 service is trialling its use for triaging.
And Rory is one of those driving this expansion.
It's happening in a regulated way - as a collaboration between clinicians, software engineers, data scientists and product designers, with a careful eye on information governance.
And this is core to his work.
When some medics, as well as the public, are still to be convinced, there is a need to build confidence and evidence that AI is a safe, ethical and effective tool, which can help make the NHS more efficient and bring down waiting lists.
For Rory, the priority is to generate and evaluate that evidence, and then smooth the way for AI adoption.
Adopting the latest technology is nothing new for the CIvil Service
Generations of us have lived through rapid technological change and resistance has always been futile.
Some of our audience this evening will remember handwriting submissions and sending them to the typing pool to be turned around for ministers.
When I first started out, emails were still pretty new.
As Rory explained to me, there will be AI models that can review more X-Rays in a single day than a doctor can in their entire career.
We must embrace this change if we are to meet the demands on public services - and it is people like Rory, who are leading the way.
PORTRAIT SEVEN - RESPONSIVE
The crisis - and we've had a few of those over recent years - can bring out the absolute best of the Civil Service.
People pulling together, working in partnership to respond with a relentless focus on supporting people who need help.
I'd love to bottle that spirit, shown to brilliant effect by Sara, my seventh portrait.
She demonstrated this by the bucket-load during Op Pitting, the largest UK military evacuation since the Second World War in response to the Taliban retaking Afghanistan.
In just two weeks, around 15,000 people were brought out - a mixture of British nationals and their families, and Afghans eligible for relocation.
They were arriving thick and fast with absolutely nothing - no possessions and often no money.
Many also had nowhere to live and spoke little English - and it was the middle of Covid lockdowns, you will remember.
Sara was drafted in to help settle in the new arrivals.
At their busiest, her 60-strong squad of Home Office liaison officers and colleagues from other departments were begging and borrowing resources to run around 80 quarantine hotels in Manchester and the north west.
The daughter of a first-generation migrant, Sara's job in the Home Office means the world to her father.
And it means the world to Sara too. She explained: 'Someone of my age group, my ethnicity, my gender, a single working parent and Northern - I probably tick a few boxes, but to see many young and diverse people coming up behind me saying, "You're an aspirational role model for us,"…that makes it worth all the struggle, every single day..'
On Op Pitting, it sometimes felt to Sara as if her team were making up new ideas at 4am, each morning.
But their creativity was working. They got feedback to say they were providing 'gold standard' care.
When ministers heard that arriving families didn't have enough money, Sara's team agreed to find a solution. Within a fortnight they were distributing thousands of pre-paid cash cards, providing weekly payments to people in desperate need.
'Everyone cared for the people who were arriving in our country looking for safety,' she told me, 'and showing particular kindness to vulnerable women, children and young people.
'I'm so proud of every single one of them,' she said.
It is often these moments of crisis that bring out the very best of the Civil Service At its heart a Service that is responsive when people need it most.
PORTRAIT EIGHT - COMMITTED
My final shining light - has possibly the lowest wattage profile.
Rizwan's LinkedIn account is striking for what it doesn't say.
His account is as modest as the man himself.
No mention of winning the Prime Minister's Award for Exceptional Public Service - and the inaugural one, to boot.
Just the tiniest hint of stellar performance in the profile picture taken in front of the No10 black door - and that's almost obligatory for any civil servant who has ever walked along Downing Street.
You must read between the lines to discover how Rizwan has transformed lives in east London over nearly 12 years of frontline service with the DWP.
It began in 2013, in Tower Hamlets.
His hard work as a relationship manager - liaising with employers - helped achieve a record-breaking employment rate in some of the most deprived wards in the country, with among the most challenging demographics.
His early promise - his industry, and success - didn't go unnoticed.
And over a decade on he remains hard at work in the community where he started - promoting people's life chances with the employers whom he has been ringing up, looking for opportunities, for years.
The first JobCentre he took over - with 100 staff - was failing to hit its objectives and had bust its budget.
After the first energetic year of Rizwan leadership it exceeded all objectives and non-staff costs were down 30 per cent.
Now, he manages 2,500 people across 18 sites in and around East London and the City.
He won the Prime Minister's award for encouraging his teams to get over five and a half thousand young people onto the Covid-era Kickstart programme in just six months. It meant 16- to 24-year-olds on Universal Credit had a vital leg-up onto the job ladder.
Six new JobCentres opened their doors, and more than 1,000 new WorkCoaches were recruited and trained to get people into a job and stay in it. His results were the best at district level in the UK.
"When colleagues feel valued, they are inspired to deliver exceptional public service, take on new opportunities, create new solutions and be innovative,' he told me.
Rizwan said that he was 'proud, privileged and humbled' to win the Prime Minister's Award - and we were so very proud and privileged to be able to give it to him.
CONCLUSION
So there you have them.
Eight portraits of some of the remarkable civil servants I have come to know - and I could have chosen many more.
Each an individual, with a story of service that is their own precious path.
Each with a motif that speaks to the best of today's civil service.
Whilst continuity keeps us grounded in our past, to stay relevant and useful, the change required will have to come at a pace far beyond anything we have achieved before.
A common commitment to collective change is vital.
If we remain so diffuse that our scattered improvements leave us less than the sum of our parts, we are in trouble.
The opportunity to take control of our future is in our hands. Our future belongs to us - and we owe that future to our nation.
We are not asking the civil service to be things it cannot be.
These eight portraits already show us that what we need to be is quite possible.
When thinking ahead to the future, what I fear most is complacency - the reluctance to recognise that our unique constitutional position must be re-earned, that our continued existence relies as much on change as it does continuity.
It is unlikely to be enough to wander amiably along, responding to external factors.
In today's world, being behind the curve of progress is usually to be irrelevant.
Purpose in progress is essential.
The civil service needs to be viewed as an integral part of the journey ahead, rather than through the rear-view mirror.
The individuals I have mentioned tonight have been my inspiration and I thank them for it.
They have shown me and many more what is happening in our service - and in service of our great nation.
As Teddy Roosevelt put it:
'It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better.
'The credit belongs to the man - and I would add woman - who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
Who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again;
Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause;
Who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement;
And who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.'
My friends: these are the women and men in the arena.
So thank you, friends and colleagues, for allowing me to share my gallery of portraits with you this evening.
They are some of the many images I shall take with me into my afterlife.
They mean a great deal to me.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you my reasons to be positive in the face of cynicism, in the face of those who say the state has nothing to offer people up and down this land of ours.
Ladies and gentleman, my muses:
Ruby
Clarice
Richard
Eloise
Rory
Sara
Rizwan.
And I am sorry to say Bec couldn't be with us this evening.
Thank you
