Lesson video

Hello, welcome today's lesson.

My name is Mr. Henson, and today's lesson we are looking at what does the civil service do? Now, this is lesson two of six in our unit of how the UK is governed and the civil service perform a really important role in that how the UK is governed.

What I'd like you to do first of all is to get a pen and some paper, so you can complete today's lesson.

And also, can you put yourself in a place where there is no distractions and that you are able to give me your full attention for the duration of the next part of the lesson.

What I'm going to let you do is just hit pause on the video.

And once you've done that, click resume and we will go back to today's lesson objectives.

Now, today, what we're going to do is split it up into three key areas.

And first of all, we're going to look at what the civil service is and what they do.

Then we look at the difference between civil servants and government ministers.

Then we're going to look at what roles exist within the civil service and perhaps any potential career choices that exist perhaps when you are looking for careers outside of school.

First of all then, what I'd like us to do is to understand what is meant by the term civil service.

It's probably a term that you have never came across before, but using those five questions down, what, when, where, why and who, well I'd like you to do is create a list of questions that you'd like to ask or find out by the end of the lesson, in relation to the civil service.

Now, the questions don't have to be complicated.

They can be very straightforward, but this is just getting us thinking about today's lesson.

So, what I'd like you to do is pause the video now, and make a list of five questions if you can use in each of the sentence starters, what, when, where, why and who, in relation to the civil service.

So, as I say, pause the video now and click resume once you are finished.

Now, these are my examples.

You might have completely different questions and that's fine.

But very simply I've said, who is involved in the civil service and who runs it? What do they do? When are they appointed? Where do they work? And why get involved in the civil service in the first place? Like I say, don't worry if your questions are different to that, but make sure you've got some so we can answer them throughout today's lesson.

So, in relation to the civil service, we need to know where they sit in terms of hierarchy.

What sort of power do they have? Well, at the top, we've got the prime minister.

Now, the prime minister, one of the primary roles of the prime minister, is to run the country.

But another role of the prime minister is to be head of the civil service so he/she is the minister for the civil service and they are in charge of that service.

They then have a responsibility of appointing government ministers with a responsibility for certain departments.

And then they have a responsibility for employing civil servants.

But we need to make sure we understand the term civil servants and who they are and what they do.

Now, the civil service helps the government of the day, so no matter whether it's one party or another, they stay the same.

So the civil service helps out the government of the day.

And they help develop and implement policies as effectively as possible.

Now, to do this, the civil service provides services directly to people all over the country.

So, I'm giving you four bullet points here of roles that the civil service perform.

So, they pay benefits and pensions to people, they run employment services, they are responsible for the running of prisons, and they are also responsible for the issuing of driving licences.

But not just that, they also develop policy and they work as analysts, economists, and lawyers who advise ministers.

So you can see there's quite a breadth of job opportunities there, not just working as someone in the department working on policies, but you've got lawyers, you've got economists, you've got analysts.

There is an abundance and a wide variety of jobs that exist in the civil service.

There's some key facts about people who work in the civil service, civil servants themselves.

They are politically neutral.

So they are not attached to a party or attached to the government.

And in fact, they are independent from the government.

They work in government department agencies and non-department governmental bodies, and we know these as NDPBs.

Now, the civil service does not include government ministers because they are politically appointed.

They also don't include member of the armed forces, police officers, office of local governments, any member of the House of Parliament, employees of the National Health Service or any person of the Royal Household.

They are however, coordinated and managed by the prime minister in his/her role as Minister for the Civil Service.

Now, the most senior civil servant in a department is called a permanent secretary, and they are quite important.

But what I want us to think about is the following question.

What's your opinion on the question, should the people appointed as civil servants remain politically neutral or should they be appointed by the current government? So I want you to think about this question and I'd like you to come up with one reason for, and one reason against that statement.

So hit pause and complete the task.

And once you're done click resume on the video and we will go through some ideas.

So this is just your opinion.

So you might say, yes they should be politically neutral because then they can work with all parties regardless of who is in government.

So they're not driven by manifestos and also allows them to advise ministers on policies without having to negotiate political preferences.

How are they, you might say no, that being appointed by the current government is a good idea, because that means the government can appoint specialists in that particular area and also means that they can develop expertise.

So, it's just a thoughtful question for you to think about whether or not that they should be politically neutral or not.

When we think about civil servants, yes we know that they have to be politically neutral now, but what other qualities do you think that they should have? So the civil service are accountable to the public.

Therefore, they need to have certain characteristics and standards.

So if you are in a position of responsibility in the civil service, you have to perhaps a adhere to code of conduct.

Well I'd like you to do is to make a list of qualities you think a civil servant should have.

So if you are responsible for working with the republic, being accountable to the public, what qualities do you think you should have as a person? So what I'd like you to try and do is try and think of at least five and give an explanation of why you think they need this quality.

So what I'd like you to do is pause the video now, and complete that task for me.

So, I have just came up with some of these qualities here.

So, I think that civil servants should act with integrity, which is putting obligation to public service above personal interests.

So making sure that it's the right decision for the service rather than of personal interest.

Being honest and open and truthful.

Being objective, so basing your evidence and your opinions on advice, after you've gone through rigorous analysis of evidence.

Being impartial, so acting in accordance with the merit of the case and serving the governments of different political parties equally well.

So you might have a current government, you think one thing, and after a general election, a new government might come in, but you still treat them exactly the same.

And also acting with clarity.

So, making sure that all decisions are transparent and clear.

Now, there is a sort of a set standard for civil servants and they are eight that are there.

So, integrity, honesty, objectivity, impartiality, selflessness, openness, leadership, and clarity.

What I'd like you to do, is something a little bit different, usually it would be a diamond nine for I'm calling it a diamond five, is to choose five of those qualities and I'd like you to rank order them.

So what would you put at the top? So number one would be the most important quality, two, three, and four would be good qualities, but not as important as the most important.

And then down at number five, which is the least important.

You will have then three leftover.

But I just like you to rank order so you can draw it as a diamond if you wish, or you can just label them one, two, three, four and five, with one being the most important and five being the least important.

So pause the video now, and resume once you've finished that task.

Our second question was to look at the difference between government ministers and civil servants.

Now, we looked at what a civil servant is, and we touched upon a government minister in the previous lesson.

But the civil service is organised into departments and they're just an examples of the departments that are on offer.

So you've got people like the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence, Revenue and Customs, Department of Health, the Cabinet Office, and the Department for Transport.

Now, the differences between the government ministers and civil servants, they're not as close as you might think.

Now, ministers are temporary, while civil servants are on the whole permanent appointments.

So ministers only have a couple of years in a ministerial post.

So, depending on their background and experience, this can make it challenging to build knowledge of the issues because some people might have a background in finance and find themselves in a position where they look at transport.

However, civil servants are able to develop a longterm view and advise ministers on what policies to develop and how these can be implemented or put into action through public services.

So the civil servants really do get to grips with that department and they develop that expertise, which allows them to guide and advise ministers on certain policies.

Now, I've got some key terms there, policy is a set of ideas or principles that are used to guide decisions or help organise a service or area of the community.

And a public service is a service normally provided by organised by the government to serve all members of the community, for example, transport.

What I'd like you to do then, is I've got a task coming up for you to sort out government ministers from civil servants.

So you can draw a table, you can just do a list, it's completely up to you, how you present this information.

So, which belong to a government minister, and which belongs to a civil servant? So there are equal numbers for civil servant as to a minister.

And like I said, you can draw it as a table, you can draw it as a bullet point list.

Completely up to you.

But pause the video now, and you can complete that task.

You can also have this in your worksheet to hand, so you don't have to keep flicking backwards and forwards.

Once you've completed that task hit resume on the video and we will go through the correct answers.

So, for a government minister, they are elected politicians, they belong to a political party, they are temporary, they are seen as public figures, they run the departments in question, they make policies and they are responsible to parliament.

On the flip side, the civil servants, they are appointed officials, they remain politically neutral, they are usually in a permanent position, I've put there anonymous, but I'm just saying here that they're not in the public demand.

They work in departments, they advise on policies, and they are responsible to the ministers in charge of that department.

Thinking about then the ministers and civil servants, as a task for you, use the information from today's lesson, write an argument which answers the question above.

So what job role would you rather do? So try to include a reason for and against your argument before you arrive at a conclusion.

So consider both for and against being a government minister and being a civil servant.

Arrive at a conclusion as to what job would best suit you.

So pause the video now, and complete that task for me.

If you're struggling, here are some sentence starters that you could use.

So, a civil seven might be considered a better role than a government minister.

So I think the role of a civil servant is better job than being a government minister, because I think this is because a civil servant can.

what.

And on the flip side, I think a government minister might be a better job than being a civil servant because, this is because of government minister can.

what.

Let the model answer for you.

So I think that civil servant is a better job because they influence decisions and advise government ministers.

This is because a civil servant normally develops a lot of experience in an area like transport and can be involved in developing policies and organising public services, such as which companies run our trains.

They also stay in their role for a longer time, whilst ministers can change depending on who is in charge of the government at the time, civil servants remain in their job.

However, one reason why government minister might be seen as a more important job than a civil servant, is because of the power that they can have to make important decisions.

A government minister runs departments and decides which policies actually happen.

A civil servant who works in that department has to follow what the minister decides.

So, that in a nutshell is the civil service, it's rather short today, but what I'm hoping we've looked at is what is the civil service.

So we've identified who they are and what they do, we then looked at the differences between the civil servants and government ministers.

And what I'd like you to do now is look up roles that exist within the civil service.

So as a takeaway task, I'd like you to research jobs that exist within the civil service and that appeal to you.

After you find that job, what I'd like you to do, is make a list of skills or qualifications you would need for that job.

So you've really got an idea of what you could focus on.

Now, I did a quick search for jobs that are advertised in the civil service, and these are.

exist all over government departments.

So you've got staff that works in the Treasury, you've got jobs that exist within the Animal and Plant Health Agency, the Ministry of Defence, Prison Services, working for the Met Office or working with the weather.

And you can see that there is a vast range of jobs.

So, if you want to be a veterinary inspector, you would never think that being a vet, you could work for the civil service.

But there are jobs that.

you could be a chef who works in a prison, you could be a journalist that works in a certain department.

You can have a lot of different career choices within the civil service.

So have a look at the jobs that exist within the civil service and have a look at what jobs appeal to you, have a look at what skills that you would need and have a look at the qualifications that you would need to fulfil that job.

If you've got any work that you'd like to share with me today, so, as I said, if there are any questions that are unanswered, if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to show you work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and using the hashtag, #LearnwithOak, tweet our Facebook your question and hopefully I will come across that information and I will be able to get back to you.

Or you could do some independent research and find the answer to that question yourself.

There is one last thing for today though.

Can you please complete the exit quiz, which is attached to this lesson just to consolidate the learning that we have done today.

Hopefully I'll see you again next time, but until then, thank you for being such good spots there and well done and all the fabulous work that you have completed.

Bye bye for now.