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Welcome to the Heywood Quarterly
Established in 2024, the Quarterly is an independent publication dedicated to championing innovation in public policy and delivery.
We invite civil servants, public sector professionals, and the wider private sector to share their experiences and insights on what has and hasn’t worked. Our goal is to create a ‘safe space’ for honest, constructive, and politically neutral discussions.
To learn more about us, check our story and meet our team.
Keep scrolling to see our editions and articles so far…
How childbearing patterns have changed
Ian Diamond explains why UK policymakers need to understand the significance of recent trends The components of population growth have been changing faster than at any time in my 45 years of working on population data. For example, people’s expectations of how long they will live have been...
No, Minister: the long and lamentable shadow of Sir Humphrey
Alex Thomas looks back at the venerable series’ effect on our perceptions of the Civil Service Dorothy Wainwright is a minor character in the Yes, Minister universe, but she is one of the sharpest. We meet her in the first series of Yes, Prime Minister where she acts as a counter to the...
Dissecting public services for a digital age
James Plunkett reviews Platformland: An anatomy of next-generation public services, by Richard Pope, 2024 Everyone appreciates the power of digital technologies to improve public services. Yet, as the new Government realises, much of that opportunity remains untapped. A closer look at the...
Why government needs a fresh ‘nudge’
David Halpern, founder of the world’s first behavioural insights unit, says it’s more important than ever that policymakers understand human behaviour Back in the early days of Tony Blair’s newly created Strategy Unit, I invited Danny Kahneman to join us for a private discussion about his work....
Why the policy profession must embrace AI
Why the policy profession must embrace AI Michael Padfield explains the benefits of a range of tools that will drive better strategy, greater democracy and improved delivery Ever wondered if there’s a better way of distilling key information than ploughing through hundreds of...
Dinosaurs, Data and Digital Policy
Doug Gurr, newly appointed interim Chair of the UK’s Competition watchdog and Director of the Natural History Museum, warns that the UK is missing out on the fruits of scientific research Deep in the bowels of the Natural History Museum (NHM) in South Kensington, London, is a vast hidden...
Second Edition
Issue Two of Heywood Quarterly – Ideas for the New Government – covers a range of topics, from the importance of policy making for the long-term, innovation in Whitehall, and the art of crisis management, to the future of English devolution, the benefits of mutualisation as a form of ownership, and the role of financial watchdogs. Read the individual articles here or click on the PDF to access the full edition
Editor’s Letter
Editor’s Letter Since the Heywood Quarterly launched in June 2024, the pace of political change across the western world has been frenetic. This year has been the largest democratic exercise in world history, with four billion citizens making their voices heard. Voters in both the United...
In conversation with… Lord (Terry) Burns
In this summary of an extensive discussion in the autumn, Peter McDonald talks to the former Permanent Secretary to the Treasury about responding to crises, working with Ministers, solving problems and other reflections from a multifaceted career Terry Burns was only just on time for our...
The Risks of Accountability Sinks
Donald Marshall reviews The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Machines Make Terrible Decisions, and How the World Lost its Mind by Dan Davies Dan Davies’ book opens with a memorable, and horrifying, story. In 1999 a shipment of 440 squirrels arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport...
First Edition
How do we encourage innovation in the Public Sector? The introductory issue of Heywood Quarterly, featuring a welcome from Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, includes articles on the top traits of a great civil servant, the future of the policy profession, the importance of AI in government and A Day in the Life of Britain’s Ambassador to Qatar.
Making a Difference to Country and Community
Simon Case, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, on what it means to serve I am sure the idea of service, and what it means to serve, resonates with many of my colleagues in the Civil Service. I can think of two instances where this was recently brought into the public consciousness....
The Ten Traits of a Great Civil Servant
Suzanne Heywood on the qualities valued by her late husband Jeremy, Cabinet Secretary from 2012 to 2018. In late August 2018, Jeremy, Jonny (our eldest son) and I drove down to Whitstable for a long weekend. It was to be our last holiday together – something we suspected at the time but were far...
Changing Government One Datastream at a Time
Laura Gilbert, Director of Data Science at 10 Downing Street, reflects on her AI and data science teams’ challenges and achievements I joined the UK government in September 2020, six months into Covid. For nearly a decade, I’d been running a tech startup building health apps as one of the two...
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