Sir David Bell's guest appearances

Sir David Bell

RSA Podcasts

Public Sector Voices

Leading Questions

Ed Balls

Suma Chakrabarti

David Bell

Stephanie Foster

Michael Wernick

OwlTail

“On the one hand, the cabinet minister has to understand that nature of the civil service role and the role of the permanent secretary as a leader alongside you… “But I think the permanent secretary also has to respect that the cabinet minister is not necessarily someone to be shaped in content or style to the previous way of doing things.” In this special episode, Sir David Bell and Ed Balls explore the minister-permanent secretary relationship. The two joined forces in 2007 at what was the Department for Children, Schools and Families – David as permanent secretary and Ed as secretary of state. They discuss first impressions and how they built a coherent team and vision together based on chemistry, trust, and openness, with plenty of fun thrown in there too. But it wasn’t all plain sailing. The department faced a series of crises including SATs results, payments of Educational Maintenance Grants and the tragedy of Baby P. Both Ed and David talk about how they worked together in a crisis, and personally managed the pressure. If you would like to suggest an interviewee for the show, or tell us what you think, you can get in touch by emailing ggfeditor@gmail.com. If you are enjoying the show, we would really appreciate it if you could share it widely and give us a rating. Your host was Siobhan Benita. Kate Hodge edited the episode, and it was produced by James Ede.

“On the one hand, the cabinet minister has to understand that nature of the civil service role and the role of the permanent secretary as a leader alongside you… “But I think the permanent secretary also has to respect that the cabinet minister is not necessarily someone to be shaped in content or style to the previous way of doing things.” In this special episode, Sir David Bell and Ed Balls explore the minister-permanent secretary relationship. The two joined forces in 2007 at what was the Department for Children, Schools and Families – David as permanent secretary and Ed as secretary of state. They discuss first impressions and how they built a coherent team and vision together based on chemistry, trust, and openness, with plenty of fun thrown in there too. But it wasn’t all plain sailing. The department faced a series of crises including SATs results, payments of Educational Maintenance Grants and the tragedy of Baby P. Both Ed and David talk about how they worked together in a crisis, and personally managed the pressure. If you would like to suggest an interviewee for the show, or tell us what you think, you can get in touch by emailing <a href="mailto:ggfeditor@gmail.com">ggfeditor@gmail.com</a>. If you are enjoying the show, we would really appreciate it if you could share it widely and give us a rating. Your host was Siobhan Benita. Kate Hodge edited the episode, and it was produced by James Ede.

It takes two to tango: in conversation with Ed Balls and Sir David Bell

On this week’s episode of Public Sector Voices, Emily is joined by Sir David Bell, whose career in local government spans almost four decades.Sir David is the current Vice Chancellor of the University of Sunderland and believes universities have a vital role to play in supporting the social and economic bounce back from coronavirus. Exams, assessment and teaching have all had to innovate around travel restrictions, but could new practices be the thing that transforms higher education for good?Sir David talks us through his new role in social housing, higher education as economic anchor institutes and the skills that are going to drive the green economy. Above all, the resounding message of the podcast, was the immense importance of local authorities and organisations, who have been the glue keeping communities together through this pandemic.“I think, as the pandemic has demonstrated, you ned people who know their local areas extremely well they know how to make local services work how to join them up, how to coordinate them – you can’t do that sitting in Whitehall.“I think it’s really important that we don’t penny pinch when it comes to supporting local authorities.”

On this week’s episode of Public Sector Voices, Emily is joined by Sir David Bell, whose career in local government spans almost four decades.Sir David is the current Vice Chancellor of the University of Sunderland and believes universities have a vital role to play in supporting the social and economic bounce back from coronavirus. Exams, assessment and teaching have all had to innovate around travel restrictions, but could new practices be the thing that transforms higher education for good?Sir David talks us through his new role in social housing, higher education as economic anchor institutes and the skills that are going to drive the green economy. Above all, the resounding message of the podcast, was the immense importance of local authorities and organisations, who have been the glue keeping communities together through this pandemic.“I think, as the pandemic has demonstrated, you ned people who know their local areas extremely well they know how to make local services work how to join them up, how to coordinate them – you can’t do that sitting in Whitehall.“I think it’s really important that we don’t penny pinch when it comes to supporting local authorities.”