Civil Servants: Training
(asked on 28th October 2025) - View Source
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the (a) governance structure, (b) terms of reference for the (i) Senior Steering Group, (ii) Champions Network and (iii) Expert Advisory Group, (c) minutes, (d) declared interests and (e) any recorded conflicts of interest and information on how these were managed for One Big Thing 2024.
The following sets out the key individuals and groups that made up the governance structure for One Big Thing 2024, including their roles:
Group/Individual | Membership | Role |
Sponsor for One Big Thing 2024 | Jo Shanmugalingam, 2nd Permanent Secretary, DfT (at the time) | Responsible for advocacy/ championing One Big Thing 2024 and encouraging participation across the Civil Service. |
Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) | Sapana Agrawal, Director for Civil Service Strategy Unit | Day-to-day leadership of One Big Thing, responsible for ensuring the project meets its objectives. |
Senior Steering Group | Sponsor, SRO, and other senior civil servants (SCS) with responsibility for relevant areas such as Civil Service Communications, Government People Group, and Government Digital Service. | This group acted as a review and challenge function and assured that the design aligned with the needs of the Civil Service. It was responsible for signing off on the approach and products. |
Departmental Champions | SCS departmental champions, nominated by permanent secretaries. | Responsible for ensuring successful delivery and participation in their departments and feeding into overall initiative design and plan via monthly Champion Network meetings. |
Expert Advisory Group | Internal and external innovation experts | This group provided advice to inform the design and development of the One Big Thing 2024 learning offer. |
Central working group | The central project management team in the Cabinet Office’s Civil Service Strategy Unit and delivery partners. | Day-to-day delivery across workstreams, including training products, comms and engagement, platform, data collection, and evaluation. |
No conflicts of interest were recorded. The Expert Advisory Group had representation from external experts from the private sector and academia. Their role was limited to providing subject matter expertise, with no decision-making/ sign-off authority or involvement with delivery.
We are unable to publish the minutes of meetings, as requested, as the effective design of One Big Thing is reliant upon these being internal forums for free and frank discussions, with attendees often providing informal opinions or preliminary views.