Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve leadership in the public services; and in particular whether they intend to establish the Centre for Public Services Leadership programme recommended by the Public Services Leadership Taskforce in October 2018.

The Public Services Leadership Taskforce, chaired by Sir Gerry Grimstone, was commissioned in October 2017 to explore the challenges faced by public service leaders.

The Government has accepted the Taskforce recommendations in full and has committed £21m to a three-year pilot of a new Centre to support public service leaders, which will be named the National Leadership Centre. The Centre will launch in the coming months and will be the first of its kind in supporting senior public sector leaders in England to deliver world leading public services.

There are three strands to the Centre’s work to support public service leaders: a flagship leadership programme, open to around 100 senior leaders each year; a digitally-enabled network, open to over 1,000 leaders; and an ambitious research programme.