The National School of Government is now a separate government department, giving it more autonomy to develop its role as a centre of civil service excellence for learning and development.
As a new department, the National School aims to assist departments in meeting both their policy and organisational objectives, while providing some corporate ‘glue’ across the Civil Service.
Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell said: “This is good news for the National School; it now has the autonomy to strengthen its strategic role across government.
“Its new status as a non-ministerial department will reflect wider ownership and accountability across the Civil Service and beyond – in effect, it has the freedom to develop into a world-class resource for the public service.”
Examples of the work of the National School include a newly designed suite of senior leadership programmes, support for departments undergoing capability reviews and developing a finance training package with HM Treasury.
The board of the school includes permanent secretaries from five government departments, as well as Gill Rider, director-general of leadership and people strategy, Cabinet Office.
