WRITTEN ON May 15th, 2008 BY Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom GCMG KCVO AND STORED IN Uncategorized

Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom writes:

Wednesday morning colleagues of course have a strong expectation that I will be chosen to replace Gus when the good man goes (off to run Tony’s Faith Foundation, no doubt).

But even as an exceptionally gifted amateur, one can never rest on one’s laurels. It has to be said that colleagues find fulfilment of the Outer Skin of the Professional Skills for Government Onion – ‘broader experience’ – a challenge (although my non-executive Chairmanship of the Surrey Gardens Trust has stood me in good stead thus far). So I have agreed with Gus that I am the obvious person to be the Broader Experience Champion amongst us.

Of course, the National School’s use of words such as ‘vital’, ‘core requirement’ and ‘mandatory’ need to be understood in context, but when CSMB signed up to the PSG implementation plan in June 2005, they did put out some outline guidance which suggested it might be necessary for us to do more than pay mere lip service to this idea. CSMB were concerned that some departments would be put under pressure to offer real opportunities for staff to gain operational delivery experience. I don’t think this needs to ruffle feathers or cause any unnecessary activity. We need to be flexible about what counts, and be seen to provide all with suitable opportunities to become upskilled.

As the paper I helped draft (PSG 146:ii) made clear, there is no real substitute for hands-on experience. Given that there is no new money to support broader experience attainment and departments are urged to identify cost-neutral ways to encourage staff to gain broader experience, it is pleasing to note the selfless enthusiasm shown by the trade association, Intellect, to match colleagues to opportunities for deep immersion within the private sector. I’m sure Gill’s Outward Deployment Directorate can swiftly effect such a managed move for anyone who needs one: putting one close to ‘delivery’ without of course expecting too much. (And do send my secretary an electronic mail if the position of Secretary on the SGT is of interest. Our next meeting will take in a private visit of Sissinghurst, to which I am much looking forward).

Rather neatly, it occurs to me that that would also provide something to put in the “professional expertise” box, which is always a bit of a tricky one. Karen and Vicky always look insufferably smug when that comes up, just because they have professions to be head of, while the rest of us have to rely on the broader cultural palette of the generalist. But a few weeks with Intellect would be plenty to justify putting IT down – and once we had a few bright chaps who had done that, we could stop recruiting Heads of Computing from outside, who are intolerably expensive, often excessively Scottish, and for some very strange reason want to be called Chief Information Officers, although none of them appears to me to have any proper qualifications as librarian.

A propos it struck me as I was deadheading the very last of the daffodils over the weekend how valuable it would be to add two hours’ of compulsory gardening each week to the national curriculum. Today’s youth would benefit greatly from some peaceful, valuable work in the great outdoors. Let them cast off their hoodies for an hour or two, put on an old suit and enjoy some fresh air and exercise as they happily learn the finer points of Linnaean taxonomy.

In this way they too could broaden their own experience in the same way that more fortunate amongst us do already.