SpAdcast: What is it really like to be a special adviser? – Ep1: Into government

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2024

⏱️ 45 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 special four-part series from the Institute for Government lifts the lid on what SpAds do, how they do it, and why they’re indispensable to modern government. In this first episode, we look at how SpAds are recruited, and how they found their first days in government. What surprised them, and how did they fit into the wider SpAd team in their department? We also ask our interviewees what their day-to-day lives were like in government, how they added value for their ministers, and finally how they dealt with crises. 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	Nobody sat me down and said, this is the department, this is how it works.
0:03.6	He's an organogram.
0:04.9	I turned up, I was given a laptop, an email address in my pass, and was basically told to get on with it.
0:11.3	No wonder we were exhausted.
0:13.2	I mean, I look back at that period and luckily I was in my early 30s, so I was young and full of beans, but I was working 80, 90, 100 hour weeks for
0:22.9	four years.
0:34.9	Special advisors, there's some of the most important and most misunderstood figures in government.
0:39.3	If you've seen Yes Minister or the Thick of it, you probably won't have the best impression of them.
0:43.3	But in reality, these political appointments play a crucial role in government, being the voice of the minister in their department,
0:49.3	shaping policy agendas and managing the media. And as a new government gets up and running, across
0:54.2	Whitehall scores of SPADS are getting to grips with their roles.
0:58.5	Welcome to SPADCAST, a special inside briefing series from the Institute for Government.
1:02.8	Over the next few weeks, we'll be looking at the role of special advisors and government,
1:06.2	talking to several former SPADs about their experiences. We'll look at their relationships
1:10.2	with ministers of civil
1:11.0	servants, how they work across Whitehall and how their careers come to an end. I'm Jack Wurledge,
1:17.1	senior researcher at the Institute for Government and a former special advisor. In this first episode,
1:21.6	we're starting at the beginning, with how spads are recruited, how they learnt to navigate
1:25.2	Whitehall and the surprises they found as they did.
1:28.3	Formerly, all spads are appointed by the Prime Minister, but in practice it's individual
1:32.9	secretaries of state who make the call about their own advisors. As long as number 10 doesn't
1:37.2	object, and it's pretty rare for number 10 to block a Spad appointment, they can pretty much
	...

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