Five takeaways from Alex Chisholm's time as Civil Service Chief Operating Officer

After four years as the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office, Alex Chisholm is stepping away from the role.

Here are five top takeaways that Alex has picked from his time in post:

Responding rapidly

When I first entered office, we were in the midst of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The diligence, the openness to change, the sheer ingenuity of civil servants was on full display right from the start. We all achieved so much against the odds. It is the same spirit of public service that is driving our response to today’s challenges – such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, during which amongst many other things civil servants have helped thousands of people fleeing conflict find shelter here.

Location

I’m delighted with the great progress over the last four years with the Places for Growth programme to have more job roles based across the country: we have created 15 vibrant office hubs in places where there used to not be many civil servants. As well as offering opportunities for talented people to create a career in the Civil Service, it is ensuring we remain in close touch with communities across the whole country.

Investing in digital and data

Within the Civil Service we have done a lot to tackle legacy systems and to invest in digital skills. This is perhaps the most important area of change. It brings the best prospect of transforming citizens’ experiences of services, the cost of delivering them and the timeliness; the impressive work on GOV.UK One Login is one example of this. I hope civil servants continue to innovate and invest in the opportunities that technologies like artificial intelligence can bring.

Tackling barriers to collaboration

Of course, all of this progress has relied on us working together, across the Civil Service. Changes like GovPass, offering a standardised pass that enables civil servants to meet or work alongside colleagues in other government buildings, now has 112,000 active users. Crucially, the results of cross-government collaboration are represented in initiatives like the UK Biological Security Strategy launched last June, ensuring our country’s resilience to a spectrum of biological threats, safeguarding our citizens. Cross-cutting government programmes on levelling up and net zero bring the full weight of government behind changing the way we live today and in the future.

Continuing to improve

Within the Civil Service and across wider government, we work in a big and powerful and complicated system, so bringing about change is not easy. But it is very worthwhile. I know I leave the position and this mission in capable hands with Cat Little, and I would urge her and all my colleagues in the Civil Service to maintain relentless optimism. We all believe in a better world, so you must be optimistic and take the chance you have to bring that about; and you must be relentless, because if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.