Lessons from the Government Policy Fast Stream

Applications recently opened for the new flagship Civil Service Fast Stream programme (Thursday 12 October, until 9 November 2023) which aims to recruit the next generation of policy makers. In this blog, Ollie from the Department for Work and Pensions talks about his experiences on the Fast Stream.

I’m Ollie, and earlier this year I completed the Generalist Fast Stream – which has now been replaced by the Government Policy Fast Stream.

I was on the Fast Stream from October 2020 until early 2023. I was placed firstly in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) working on crisis management, then in the Department for Education (DfE) working on the cross-government Policy Profession and then finally in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Having passed my End of Scheme Assessment (ESA), I’ve now become a Grade 7 and remained in the division where I did my third placement – DWP’s International Strategy Division.

I now lead DWP’s access to benefits policy for those living in the UK having arrived from abroad, with a focus on EU nationals.

Before the Fast Stream, I worked for a time in retail (scanning tins of beans at Tesco), before doing a six-month internship at the Institute for Government. Working at the Institute for Government gave me a bit of a head start on understanding how government is structured, what it means to develop policy and what the endless acronyms mean.

It was only once I got stuck in on the Fast Stream that I understood how complex a process creating and implementing policy is, how circumstances can change extremely quickly, and how much impact you can truly have on people’s lives up and down the country.

Defining ‘policy’ is tricky – but in my mind it’s all about setting a direction within your department on a certain issue, and translating what ministers want to do into operationally viable plans that you then work with colleagues across your department to deliver. Working in policy across departments has opened my eyes to how many people, how many teams and how many Word documents and Excel spreadsheets are a part of deciding the government’s direction on a particular issue.

Policy truly is a team game - working effectively with others and getting the best out of them is a vital skill you learn on the Fast Stream.

For those thinking of applying to the Fast Stream, or who are on the Fast Stream at the moment, my main advice would be as follows – if at first you don’t succeed, then try, try and try again. I’m not afraid to say that I didn’t make it over the hurdle of application or my final ESA first time. I applied for the Fast Stream first when I was in my third year of university (in 2018) and didn’t even make it past the initial online tests – but was successful second time round in late 2019 / early 2020. I also didn’t pass my ESA the first time around – I needed to re-take a small section in order to reach the standard. The lesson I’ve taken from both of those experiences is that you always need to keep on pushing, keep on stretching yourself and keep on getting advice from colleagues and friends on how you can improve.