In every issue of Civil Service World we publish a column called ‘Frontline’. The idea is to explain to our readers – we distribute to the 7000 most senior civil servants in the UK – how the policies they devise and put into practice shape the working lives of those involved in frontline service delivery.

It’s easy for Whitehall officials to get divorced from the messy realities of delivery, and the column can be valuable in helping them to keep their feet on the ground. We try to explain how frontline service providers’ work is affected both by the civil service’s working methods (eg. the rapid rotation of officials; a tendency to rely on regulation) and by individual policies currently being pursued by the government.

You can see some recent examples here and here, or download PDF articles here and here.

Crucially, our interviewees remain absolutely anonymous: this ensures that they can speak freely and openly. The interview takes 45-60 mins on the phone, and we then write it up and send it to the interviewee for checking. You can see the kinds of questions we ask by clicking here to download the brief we give journalists before they write the column.

Interviewees have the right to make any changes they wish – it is, after all, published in the first person, albeit without their name – but we mainly ask them to check that there’s nothing in the article that could identify them; that there are no inaccuracies; and that the article fairly reflects their views. As the examples of published columns show, following any changes the article is published with an illustration expressing the interviewee’s views and/or role.

We ask that interviewees only use personal emails and mobile phones for communicating on this topic (not work ones) and don’t tell work colleagues about it, in order to ensure their anonymity – which we view as crucial to their ability to be honest. If press offices or managers get involved, it becomes impossible for people to really speak the truth as they see it. As long as we can keep the communication entirely private, then we can guarantee anonymity.

We think this is a very valuable column, as it provides a reality check for Whitehall officials and gives them feedback on how their work pans out – including all the unintended consequences of policies that may have been developed with the best of intentions – while giving a voice to the people who best understand the needs of service users and the difficulties of achieving policy objectives in the real world. We hope that it has an impact on how civil servants view their role and understand the needs and interests of frontline workers.

If you're interested in discussing the possibility of becoming an anonymous Frontline interviewee, please call Matt Ross on 020 7593 5589 or  click here to email Matt

Last updated 360 days ago by Civil Service World