SpAdcast: What is it really like to be a special adviser? – Ep.4: Moving On

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Special Advisers are some of the most important yet misunderstood figures in government. They play vital roles – as the voice of their minister in the department, shaping policy agendas and managing the media. As a new government gets up and running and scores of new SpAds get to grips with their roles, this four part series lifts the lid on what SpAds do, how they do it, and why they’re indispensable to modern government. In this final episode, we look at how SpAd careers end. We start with reshuffles – what’s it like to go through a reshuffle as a SpAd, and how do you find out when one’s about to begin? We also discuss what it’s like to lose one of these jobs and how little notice you really get. Finally, we finish the episode and the series by asking our interviewees to reflect on their time in government. What would they do differently if they had their time again? What are they most proud of? And what advice would they give to future SpAds? Presented by Jack Worlidge. Produced by Candice McKenzie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You get moved out of the role that you are in incredibly quickly.
0:03.6	It's ruthlessly efficient in terms of you being removed from the department.
0:08.8	You do feel quite passive and a bit of a spectator watching someone else's career go up or down,
0:14.3	and that's going to have an impact on your career going up or down.
0:32.2	Welcome to Spadcast, a special inside briefing podcast from the Institute for Government,
0:34.7	looking at the role of special advisors in government.
0:37.8	I'm Jack Wurlidge, senior researcher at the Institute for Government and a former Special Advisor. As a new government gets up and running, we're using
0:42.5	this series to look at the crucial role of special advisors or SPADS. We've heard about how they
0:47.0	recruited and how they work with ministers, civil servants and across Whitehall, trying to get
0:51.5	to the bottom of what they're for and why they're important. In this final episode, we're looking at how spad careers come to an end and asking
0:58.5	several former spads to reflect on their time in government. What are they proud of? What would
1:03.1	they have done differently? And what advice would they give to future spads? But before we get to
1:08.0	that, we need to look at how a spad's time in government comes to an end.
1:11.6	There's no denying that it's a precarious job. If your minister's sacked, you're out too.
1:16.6	There's no notice period, sometimes no warning at all.
1:19.6	I think we all know that ministerial shelf life can be pretty short and end pretty brutally, but so can the life of a special advisor. Their fate is often very
1:30.6	tied to their, to their boss. And I think that is, that is very difficult for special advisors
1:39.0	who have given it all. Nikki Morgan was education secretary under David Cameron and Culture Secretary in Boris Johnson's government.
1:47.4	They've usually worked incredibly hard. They've worked on reasonable hours. They might potentially have
1:53.4	abandoned a career doing something else in order to come and join you in the department
1:58.7	and that it can be over incredibly quickly. And if there's no
2:03.1	support for ex-Cabinet ministers, there's even less support for former special advisors. And I think that
	...

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