Alexia Flowerday - Croydon High School 1980 - 1992

Working at the heart of Government

As is the case for many Arts graduates, I reached the end of my degree course (French and German) without a clear idea of what career I wanted to go into.  I had attended many milk round presentations, but this had only helped eliminate things I did not want to do.  After wading through a number of brochures I had picked up from the careers library, I came across one for the civil service.  Public sector employment was not something I had considered, but the idea of making a contribution to the development of government policy appealed to me.

There are two main routes of entry at degree level into the civil service;  the fast stream, which is designed for those with the potential to progress rapidly to the senior civil service; and main stream graduate entry at Executive Officer level.  I applied for the fast stream, but did not get through the final stage of the rigorous selection procedure, so pursued the second route.  This involved passing a set of written tests, and then attending an assessment centre.

Whilst fast stream recruitment is organised centrally for all Government Departments, individual Departments run their own recruitment drives to fill other posts.  So it was that I ended up in MAFF (Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food).

My first post was in the Fisheries Directorate, as part of a team responsible for managing the distribution of the UK’s fishing quotas amongst the UK fishing fleet.  The post was a good introduction to general policy work, and I learned many of the basic skills; writing reports for Ministerial decision, drafting responses to correspondence and parliamentary questions, preparing briefing for visits by Ministers etc.  From day one I had a lot of contact with the fishing industry, frequently speaking to industry representatives and individual fishermen to seek their views on proposed policies and to hear their concerns.

After 2½ years in that post I applied for a job in the Minister’s Office and became Private Secretary to Nick Brown, the then Minister for Agriculture.  As Private Secretary, your role is to act as an interface between the Minister and the rest of the Department.  The job is tremendously varied and includes, amongst other things, briefing the Minister on difficult issues; handling correspondence; accompanying the Minister on engagements, visits and trips abroad, ensuring that he/she has all the necessary briefing and that logistical arrangements run smoothly.

My first day in post was – entirely coincidentally – the day that foot and mouth disease was discovered in the UK.  Needless to say, it was something of a baptism by fire, with the Department, and Nick Brown himself, appearing in the national headlines for weeks on end.  Working in Private Office at that time was both incredibly exciting and very stressful.

After the machinery of Government changes following the election in June 2001, the Department became DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), and Margaret Beckett took over from Nick Brown. 

That has brought new challenges - we have had to become familiar with the environment policy areas - but also new opportunities – for example I accompanied Margaret Beckett to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September 2002.

The Civil Service is changing fast.  It is much more ‘open’ than it was in the past, and there is a strong emphasis on building up constructive relationships with outside organisations.  Even in the four years since I joined I have noticed a breaking-down of the traditional hierarchy and an emphasis on entirely performance-related progression, which allows for quicker promotion for able graduates.  Even at comparatively junior grades you are given a lot of responsibility.

Although there are still pockets of civil service ‘dinosaur mentality’, it is a much more dynamic organisation than its reputation suggests.  It offers a huge range of opportunities; my interest is in policy work, but as a ‘generalist’ I could also consider a secondment to another Department, moving into personnel or finance work, taking up a posting abroad, or moving to one of the regional offices.  There are also openings for those in specialist professions, such as lawyers, statisticians, economists or accountants.

Aside from the endless opportunities, I think the main advantages of the Civil Service are the excellent conditions (30 days annual leave, good maternity conditions, ability to take career breaks etc), the supportive management and training structure (although this is, as ever, also dependent on individual managers) and the comparative job security which it still offers.  The downside is that the pay is generally lower than you could expect to earn in the private sector, although in my view the interesting work and the feeling that you are making a contribution to society in general more than makes up for that.

I am happy to be contacted via email