Sponsored feature: Be prepared for Select Committee success

If you have an appearance before a Select Committee coming up, Catelyns House can help you prepare. Principal consultant Eleanor Goodison explains how.

There was a time when Parliamentary Select Committees were only of interest to those within the Westminster and Whitehall bubble. But the recent Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s handling of the phone-hacking scandal changed all that, thanks to the high-profile coverage it received.

According to Eleanor Goodison, principal consultant at training organisation Catelyns House, this recent popularising of Select Committees is only partly responsible for their renewed significance. Goodison also believes the decision to make them elected bodies, rather than appointing members through the party machinery, has enhanced their influence.

“The government is clearly taking the role of Select Committees seriously,” she remarks. “They are now seen to be more independent than in the past, and they seem to embody a re-emergence of Parliament’s authority following the MPs’ expenses scandal.”

As a former private secretary to the Minister for the Arts, Goodison has experienced Select Committees at first hand. She’s spent the last 10 years helping senior civil servants prepare for appearances before them in both the House of Lords and the House of Commons – working first in the National School of Government, and now at Catelyns House.

“Confidence is essential when it comes to making a good job of a Select Committee appearance,” Goodison continues. “You need to go in as well prepared as possible, so that you can deal with any question that is thrown in your direction.”

To help instil such confidence, Goodison and her colleagues role play Committee meetings with clients. The Catelyns House team pretend to be Committee members, firing potential questions at delegates so they become practised at providing clear and honest answers.

“I think senior civil servants have to take appearances at Select Committees very seriously,” Goodison states. “They are broadcast on Parliament TV, and really significant issues often get an airing on the national news. That can be quite intimidating for some people, so it is important that they feel on top of their subject prior to going in.”

As well as her desire to help clients give a good account of themselves, Goodison is motivated by a genuine belief in the worth of Select Committees. “I think it is a constitutional duty for public servants to be helpful in their evidence to Select Committees,” she opines. “They are a key part of the democratic process, and ought to be treated with respect.”

With Select Committees taking on a more explicit role in ensuring good governance, the respect due to them will only increase. That leaves Goodison and her colleagues at Catelyns House with an exciting opportunity. “We want to help people do the best they can in the daunting arena of a Select Committee,” she concludes. “We’re confident we know how to help them.”

Email Eleanor@catelynshouse.co.uk for more information about Catelyns House, and its range of consultancy and training for government and the voluntary sector.

Last updated 159 days ago by Civil Service World