Guidance

Cabinet Office Glasgow: A Year in Review 2022-2023 (HTML)

Published 27 April 2023

Foreword from the Chief Operating Officer of the Civil Service

“A second Headquarters, a second home”

I am so thrilled that the Cabinet Office has found its second home in Glasgow. Over the last year, since the opening of the Cabinet Office in Glasgow, I have had the opportunity to visit on multiple occasions and meet the talented and ambitious people who are not only dedicated civil servants, but have put so much of their time into building the office community and developing links to the wider Glasgow community.

The range of talent, skills and backgrounds at our Second Headquarters highlights the importance of focusing on our levelling up agenda and locations programme. As a result of this, the Cabinet Office is reaping the benefits of a nationally diverse workforce, particularly in Glasgow where our ambition is to put Scotland’s skills and experience at the heart of UK policy making.

The range of Cabinet Office business units represented in the Second Headquarters demonstrates that colleagues are working at the heart of government, from Glasgow, while also creating a new and vibrant culture. This is part of embedding ourselves as one Cabinet Office across the whole of the UK, and we will continue to develop this as we look to the future.

Introduction from our Senior Sponsors in Glasgow

David Foley (Director of Public Bodies and Priority Projects Unit)

This has been an important year. In two decades of public service I have seen and heard lots about making our working environment more productive and about decreasing our centralisation in London.

The Cabinet Office Second Headquarters in Glasgow is a tangible example of how much has changed. We work in the Cabinet Office at the heart of the UK Government and in the Second Headquarters we do so in a modern environment with many work settings to suit the type of work we have to hand. We do so in a connected way: connected to our Cabinet Office colleagues around the UK; to our colleagues in the UKG hub; to civil service colleagues across Scotland and to the communities and institutions of Glasgow and across Scotland. It has been amazing to see what our community has done over this past year.

As well as contributing in their work to many of the Cabinet Office Business Units, they have done an amazing array of charity and outreach work with schools and universities. It has been inspiring to see. I am very proud to be part of the Cabinet Office in Glasgow and look forward to building on these foundations in the coming years.

Lyn Mcdonald (Interim Director for the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland)

It has been a privilege to be a Senior Sponsor for the Cabinet Office Second Headquarters in Glasgow.

Over the last year I have seen the team in Glasgow make some incredible strides forward through their willingness to throw themselves into the community, forge connections, and really begin to learn about how the Cabinet Office can make a difference both within Glasgow and across Scotland. Having moved to London to progress my career in the civil service, I am passionate about building on the opportunity we have here in Glasgow to develop a meaningful pipeline for career progression in Scotland. The breadth of skills, talent and experience that I have seen from colleagues in our Second Headquarters never fails to impress me and I am looking forward to seeing the team continue to drive the ambitions of the Second Headquarters forward.

Melinda Johnston (Commercial Director for the Department of Health and Social Care)

I am so proud of the fantastic team effort that has gone into developing, launching and promoting the fantastic Cabinet Office Second Headquarters at 1 Atlantic Square, Glasgow.

The building itself is a delight to work in, located in the modern financial district of Glasgow, with an awe inspiring view that can be enjoyed throughout the office. The attention to detail in the decor is unsurpassed in the civil service - with meeting rooms named after Glasgow’s famous spots like ‘Squinty Bridge’, as well as nods to Scottish places and phrases such as ‘Bute’ and ‘Doon the Watter’.’ ‘Yer Tea’s Oot’ café always lifts my spirits. It really is a joyful place to work, but it’s the marvellous people who work there that really make it for me.

The abundance of talent, ambition and enthusiasm in our people is unmatched. Their commitment to build a thriving community within the office is obvious, but it is also their dedication to extending this community outside of the office doors which is purposefully putting the Cabinet Office on the map and driving real benefits for the people of Glasgow. They say ‘people make Glasgow’ and that could not be truer than at our Second Headquarters.

Cabinet Office in Scotland: Why Glasgow?

The establishment of the Second Headquarters in Glasgow marks a significant milestone in moving high profile aspects of the civil service into Scotland, and offers the potential for the Cabinet Office to tap into the vast amount of talent which exists in Scotland’s largest city. With one third of Scotland’s population based in the Glasgow City Region (GCR)^{[footnote 1]}, the opportunities to level up jobs and skills in Glasgow and across Scotland are endless.

Glasgow is Scotland’s largest city with a population of more than 635,000 in its centre and a metropolitan region of 1.85 million . Glasgow City Region is the largest integrated economic region in Scotland with around one third of Scotland’s output, business base, research power and employment. The city is a global business destination with wide ranging sectors - from finance to space rockets; to music and entertainment; through to world leading educational institutions. Glasgow’s rapidly growing financial and business services sector is notable, with an expanding fintech community and the International Financial Services District.

54% of the workforce is graduates, second only to London for graduates amongst the UK’s largest cities. 51% of graduates stay in Glasgow once they have completed their studies, not least through a combination of high disposable income and one of the most affordable major housing markets in the UK. The retention of this talent partly explains why Glasgow is consistently ranked in the top 100 most innovative cities in the world.^{[footnote 2]}

Alongside this, sits a long history of high levels of deprivation in the Glasgow City Region. Over 450,000 of GCR’s population live in the 15% most deprived areas in Scotland – representing 25% of the region’s total population. GCR has the second highest proportion of individuals with no qualifications amongst the UK’s Core City Regions and has a rate approximately three times higher than the best performing city region, the West of England (4.4%)^{[footnote 3]}. In a recent report by the Centre for Cities, the biggest challenge to levelling up in Glasgow is skills^{[footnote 4]}.

Weaving the opportunities which Glasgow presents together at the Cabinet office Second Headquarters will help to ensure that we are continuing to build a Civil Service that is representative of the communities we serve. This will not only help towards levelling up, but also ensure that the Cabinet Office brings Scotland’s talent and experience into the heart of UK policy making.

A State of the Art Government Building

The office itself sits in the world renowned International Financial Services District (IFSD) - home also to the likes of JP Morgan, Barclays and Morgan Stanley - in Glasgow’s bustling city centre, alongside many other government departments who have built centres of gravity here. Creating an emerging critical mass of over 11,500 civil servants, alongside huge business investment, helpling to facilitate meaningful careers and career progression for Scotland’s talent - with a ‘cradle to grave’ approach. There is now, perhaps more than ever before, a rich talent pool of public and private sector, of highly-skilled professionals, and individuals yet to unleash their potential. All of this clustered around a vibrant urban core with world class educational, recreational and business facilities which generated £46.8bn GVA in 2020^{[footnote 5]}.

Progressing Our Enduring Ambition and Vision for the Cabinet Office Second Headquarters

The enduring ambition for the Cabinet Office in Glasgow is to put Scotland’s skills and experience at the heart of the UK Government’s policy making and corporate services; and to use its position in Glasgow to pioneer the next wave of UK policy making - ensuring that Cabinet Office policy is delivered through a workforce from across the UK, and is also representative of those voices.

The significant civil service presence in Glasgow (11,500) brings Cabinet Office ministers closer to the issues affecting Scotland and its people by providing access to a wealth of lived experience the staff has. The knock on effect of direct access by senior officials and ministers to our people is giving Glasgow and Scotland a greater voice in UK Government decision making. The Cabinet Office, in turn, contributes to Glasgow’s success by taking an active role in building a stronger ministerial presence, developing meaningful outreach initiatives and engaging with external stakeholders through a clear narrative as to the purpose of the Cabinet Office Second Headquarters.

Over the last year, we have begun to build a strong presence in Glasgow, with ministerial visits and cross-government conversations building a collaborative culture and harnessing the synergies between the UK Government, industry and citizens. We are painting a clearer picture of what works and what does not, using the community in which we are situated to help us create plans for the best way forward. Through our work we have discovered that there are three key things we can do to bring the community increasingly more into our work:

1. Provide a sense of place to help people to bring their own local knowledge to bear on making national policies work well.
2. Help people to navigate the Government. Government is big and confusing if you are outside it and we operate as a front door, getting people to the responsible policy owner faster than if they had tried to navigate it on their own;
3. Bring different voices into our work. Historically, advice has primarily been sought from think tanks and academics predominantly in London. We have successfully been bringing in advice and evidence from a broader range of people including the connections made through the universities in Glasgow, charities and local businesses.

Almost everything that has been achieved in this regard over the past year, has been a conscious effort on behalf of all those involved in the Glasgow Community Management Team and Senior Sponsors to actively reach out into the local community to best understand how we can truly make a difference.

Building a Second Headquarters in Numbers

The Cabinet Office Staff numbers in Glasgow

Business Group	Headcount
Borders Group	5
C-19 Inquiry	1
Cabinet Office Assurance Finance & Controls	13
Cabinet Office People and Places	10
Chief Digital and Information Office	4
Civil Service Human Resources	19
Economic and Domestic Secretariat	2
Equality Hub	2
Government Business Services	46
Government Commercial Function	24
Government Communication Service	1
Government Security Function	199
Joint Intelligence Organisation	1
Office of Government Property	9
Office of Veterans’ Affairs	1
Prime Minister’s Office	1
Public Bodies	8
Public Sector Fraud Authority	17
Union and Constitution Group	1
Grand Total	364

Source: SOP Headcount 28/02/2023

The Potential

• 10 Civil Service Jobs relocated = 11 private sector jobs created (Source: Faggio (2019) Journal of Urban Economics)
• Drive higher performance through diversity -
  • 33% level of outperformance vs peers by organisations with culturally diverse leadership
  • 20% (level of enhanced innovation by teams that are cognitively and demographically diverse) (Source: Deloitte)
• Enhanced Innovation - 20% (level of enhanced innovation by teams that are cognitively and demographically diverse) (Source: Deloitte)
• Work towards net-zero goals - Glasgow as a city has committed to building on the legacy of COP26.
• 77% working age (16 to 74) - Greater than wider Scotland (63.9%) and England (62.4%). (Source: National Research of Scotland, Invest Glasgow)
• 54% possess higher education - (The 2nd highest in the UK). (Source: Invest Glasgow)

Milestones

January 2022 - Establishment of the Glasgow Community Management Team (CMT)

February 2022 - A photo of the first 100 faces to join the Second Headquarters gifted to Alex Chisholm

March 2022 - First CAbinet Office All Scotland Call led by Senior Sponsors

April 2022 - 1AS opens

May 2022

• Second Headquarters Talent Proposition development begins in partnership with EY
• CMT launches first Share and Learn event in Glasgow

June 2022

• First 1AS Community fundraising event
• Cabinet Office Executive Committee is held at Glasgow 1AS
• Minister for the Cabinet Office visits and works from 1AS

August - 1AS hits 300 staff (big milestone)

September

• Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (CDL) visits the office during first week in post

October 2022

• Start of partnership with JobCentre Plus workshop sessions

November 2022

• Cabinet Secretary visits 1AS with a Q&A in Civil Service Weekly News
• Community Management Team named ‘Team of the Week’ in Civil Service Weekly News

December 2022

• Director of Glasgow City Chamber of Commerce visits the office to discuss critical connections with employers and the commercial sector
• 1AS Christmas Social

January 2023

• Meeting with charity partner, The STAR Project, at 1AS
• First pilot of Barnardo’s Young People engagement session
• Civil Service Diversity & Inclusion Roadshow visits 1AS

February 2023

• CMT meets for Places for Growth Advanced Plan to set the stage for UKG in Scotland.
• First Cabinet Office All Staff event since 2019 co-led in Glasgow, 1AS

March 2023

• Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) at 1AS.

Establishing a Vibrant Office Community

Building a new office and putting people in it is one thing. Establishing a community where everyone identifies with the purpose of the office and is committed to working together to develop this, is another thing entirely. Couple this with the new hybrid working arrangements following the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was clear that something needed to be done to develop a community of people in the office, rather than people working in silos.

In July 2022, Glasgow was named the world’s friendliest city^{[footnote 5]} - but we already knew this. Since the start of the Cabinet Office Second Headquarters, it was quickly apparent how passionate colleagues were to become involved in building a vibrant office community and see the establishment of a Cabinet Office Second Heartquarters in Glasgow as a unique opportunity to reach out into local communities, understand local issues, and drive a programme of work to help the people of Glasgow better understand the work of the Cabinet Office and how a career in central UK Government in Glasgow could be achievable.

The diverse range of people and their backgrounds within the office, gave us a great starting point to consider how to maximise the benefits and value of having the Second Headquarters based in Glasgow and in Scotland. Cabinet Office colleagues based at 1AS have a strong focus on community outreach, nurturing connections across the civic, public and private sectors and contributing toward improvement in areas of known inequality such as social mobility through recruitment and talent proposition development.

Glasgow Community Management Team

The Glasgow Community Management Team (CMT) has played a vital role in driving the development of the Second Headquarters of the course of this year - both internally and with external stakeholders. Outreach initiatives, community events and ministerial coordination has been the result of the dedication of the team who give a huge portion of their time outside of their day-to-day roles to identify and develop meaningful activities for the development of the Second Headquarters. The team is overseen by the Scotland Senior Sponsors: Lyn McDonald, David Foley and Melinda Johnston who support the team to take initiative to build the community wherever they think is valuable. To name but a few of our members below:

Marion Francis, Deputy Director of Strategy (Strategy, Finance and Performance)

Marion leads the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit, responsible for the department’s strategic planning and performance - ensuring the Cabinet Office has a clearly articulated purpose and strategic priorities. Marion joined CMT to help lead on the development of our Second Headquarters strategy and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge from her previous roles in the Scottish Government and in economic development.

Ceilidh Macdonald, Strategy & Engagement (Government Security Group)

Ceilidh established and co-leads the Glasgow Community Management Team and continues to support many of the wider strategic priorities, such as talent proposition and career development, for colleagues in the Second Headquarters. She is taking an active role in supporting the Places for Growth Advanced Plan initiative.

Jonathan Smith, Policy Governance & Boards (Office for Veterans’ Affairs)

Jonathan is the Policy, Governance & Boards Lead at the Office for Veterans’ Affairs within Cabinet Office. He is active across the Cabinet Office and Civil Service including the 1AS Community Management Team, Head of Place Advanced Plan Group, Cabinet Office Executive Committee Staff Board and House Committee. He supports Engagement & Partnership initiatives, Recruitment Outreach, Talent Proposition, and plays a lead role coordinating visits and events with Ministers and Senior Leaders.

Julie Marshall, Chief of Staff (Civil Service HR)

Julie is leading on apprenticeships and outreach work with young people - working in partnership with Barnardo’s and developing a proposal for further engagement with young people in Glasgow. She is helping to progress the work on social mobility through the Places for Growth Advanced Plan.

Lorna Couper (Locations Programme)

Lorna looks after Business Change for the Locations Programme Team which sits under the People & Places Directorate. Within the CMT, Lorna supports the Communications work to help to ensure that key messages from the group are shared with colleagues, as well as helping with outreach activities and organising social events.

Case Study - Ceilidh MacDonald (Glasgow Community Lead)

After hearing about the Cabinet Office’s decision to build a Second Headquarters in Glasgow, I immediately knew I wanted to apply. I had always envisioned myself joining the centre of government but thought that it would be impossible without moving to London - a decision I ruled out following COVID-19. Not long after I joined the Government Grants Management Function, I created what we now call the Glasgow Community Management Team. Little did I know a year ago, just how much we would achieve and how big our ambitions would be for the future of the Cabinet Office in Glasgow.

What has followed has been so rewarding in so many ways. The range of talent, skills, backgrounds in this office is incredible. We have had no shortage of people willing to step up to join our Community Management Team and make a positive difference to the Cabinet Office. We have people volunteering their time, as part of their corporate contribution, to ensure that colleagues in the office do not work in silos, that we integrate as much as possible through a host of events, and welcome visitors into the office - be it Ministers, Directors, CEOs, colleagues from other government departments or charity partners.

Helping to lead the Community Management Team has been a pleasure. I can see the direct benefits we are bringing to people and I am so passionate about delivering the ambitions for the Second Headquarters as I see the potential it has to make an impact on not only the Cabinet Office, but the whole of the UK Government in Scotland, as well as the opportunities we have to truly have an impact on the society in which we work.

A highlight this year has been the opportunity to work alongside EY to create a talent pipeline and develop a proposition for attracting future talent into the Cabinet Office in Scotland. Having the chance to build a career with endless opportunities in Scotland is something that we could have only dreamed of previously in the Cabinet Office but now, we have the chance to reach out into Glasgow and the wider community across Scotland, to seek out diverse talent from a wide range of backgrounds and offer them the chance to have a career in the civil service - bringing Scotland’s skills and talent into the forefront of UK policy making.

The Cabinet Office Second Headquarters in Glasgow has been a huge success story for the Locations and Places for Growth programmes. In only one year, people, both within the Cabinet Office and externally, have been seeing the positive impact of our presence in Glasgow. I’m so looking forward to playing a part in this exciting development for the Cabinet Office and to continue to build my career here.

Establishing a Unique Footprint in the Local Community

Glasgow offers the Cabinet Office the opportunity to be increasingly more representative of Scotland’s voice, which in turn will help to create UK-wide policy which is more reflective of the wider nation as more people are recruited through the Locations programme.

In order to develop a clear picture of the Cabinet Office’s role in Glasgow,as well as part of the UK government in Scotland, the team in Glasgow have started to build strong relationships with multiple external stakeholders. Engaging with them to better understand the diversity of the Glasgow population and how the Cabinet Office can best help, supplementing and complementing the wide variety of initiatives already in place.

This engagement work has led to the creation of our ambition to put Scotland’s skills and experience at the heart of UK policy making. Through building on this work, the Cabinet office in Glasgow will not only gain a wide variety of skills and talent, but also continue to establish its own unique footprint and identity in Glasgow.

Outreach Initiatives:

University & College Engagement

The Civil Service was rated first for the third Year running in the Times100’s ‘Graduate Destination of Choice’ in 2021. We are building on this by having more than 26 volunteers contributing more than 100 hours of their time to volunteer at more than 14 events across the country including Careers Fairs, Guest Lectures and Discussion Panels.

The Cabinet Office Second Headquarters has led and facilitated a nation-wide programme of outreach, engagement and recruitment, showcasing to students and graduates how they can launch and progress a fulfilling and rewarding career with Cabinet Office in Scotland. So far our team has attended events, discussions and fairs at the University of Glasgow (A key local and national strategic partner), Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Aberdeen, Robert Gordon’s University, University of Perth, University of St Andrew’s, University of Strathclyde, University of the West of Scotland.

Over the next year, we are looking to continue to network across Scotland alongside civil service colleagues from other departments to extend our reach and experience.

Schools Engagement

We are continuing engagement and outreach with schools across Glasgow and the greater region including: social mobility and employability events with the EY Foundation early this year, involving teachers and school pupils to promote career opportunities across the Civil Service, as well as becoming increasingly involved in EY Foundation partnership events.

The team have also represented the Cabinet Office at a number of Career Day events in schools both in the Glasgow area and as far away as the Isle of Arran, where we featured in a local newspaper article. Educators have given appreciative and positive feedback and we hope to continue to build on the experiences in the coming year. We are also looking to expand our range of educational contacts to arrange further visits and mentoring. Our aspiration is to continue to present the opportunities and mobility options to prospective future employees, whilst furthering the visibility of Cabinet Office and its ambitions in Scotland.

Social Mobility & Young People

As part of the Second Headquarters ambition to lead the way on Cabinet Office becoming an increasingly recognised and diverse employer of choice, there has been great effort from staff in creating and delivering opportunities for work experience and employment through engaging with local, regional and national communities both directly and with key partner organisations.

We have pioneered our first charity partnership with national charity Barnardo’s where in January we welcomed our first group of 15 and 16 year olds to 1 Atlantic Square to build the confidence of those taking part and drive home the fact careers in Cabinet Office are an accessible reality to them. Future plans are in motion to reach the incredible talent present in Scotland through the creation of work experience and apprenticeship opportunities.

Sharon McAulay, Chief Executive of the STAR Project, “It has been both an interesting and informative experience to meet and engage with some of the Cabinet Office team. We received a warm friendly welcome and quickly realised we had many shared values and a mutual vision for the people we support. We hope to build on our relationship going forward and find opportunities to work together, adding to the various support already on offer to the wider Glasgow community.

Community Engagement & Recruitment

Welcome & Recruitment sessions have been held in partnership with DWP, wherein customers who have an interest in or recognised potential by their Work Coach in a Civil Service career have an opportunity to visit the office for an interactive coaching session, outlining the vision of Cabinet Office in Scotland, careers on offer and top-tips for understanding Civil Service Success Profiles and navigating the recruitment process. The sessions have been really well received by attendees.

Recently I have had the absolute pleasure of working with Ceilidh and her colleagues within the Cabinet Office. Within my role I am often working to help facilitate information sessions, recruitment events or open days. This kind of collaboration I believe is mutually beneficial to all parties involved. For employers and organisations it allows them to really get out and promote their vacancies in a multitude of settings and in a variety of ways, for the candidates it allows them to get information shared with people actually doing the job and who have a wealth of experience and knowledge in the role that is being advertised. Finally it helps me in my role to build relationships and be able to really tailor the support that I can offer to my colleagues in the job centres with getting those seeking employment the right opportunities to get back into work. The partnership that I now have with the cabinet office will prove invaluable going forward and I would encourage this kind of collaboration to any other organisation in the future.

Stephen Mullarkey, Employment and Partnerships, DWP

Case Study - Partnering with Barnardo’s

In September 2022, the Cabinet Office Second Headquarters reached out to Barnardo’s to learn more about the work they were doing in local communities throughout Scotland to support young people who were not in education, employment or training. As a leading national charity, they support children, young people and their families in specialised community-based services across Scotland, believing that every child and young person has a right to thrive.

Our research revealed that these young people were more likely to live in some of the most deprived areas in Scotland and would never have access to, or have felt that the Cabinet Office or wider Civil Service, was a possible career choice for them. Data from the Social Mobility Commission argues that the benefit of tapping into wider talent from local areas, not only changes the landscape of workplaces by increasing innovation and performance, but changes the life chances of the individuals and communities.

In January 2023 we began working with a group of 15 and 16 year olds who were not in employment, education and training and who would not be work ready for some time. The group formed part of Barnardo’s Phase 2: which aimed to build their tolerance of attending a programme daily, to build confidence and self-esteem and to start to talk about the world of work.

To get to know the team at Barnardo’s and the young people, some staff, Ceilidh MacDonald, Lorna Couper and Julie Marshall, visited their offices in Paisley where we chatted about what the Cabinet Office does, the brilliance and ambition of Second Headquarters in Glasgow and answered their questions. The group were engaged and showed genuine interest in who we were and what we did.

A first for the Cabinet Office Glasgow, we then created the opportunity for them to visit our brand new Second Headquarters, dovetailing with the aims of their employment and skills training programme: to increase their confidence in talking to employers. This was the first time they had visited an employer and we cannot underestimate the courage it took for them to walk through the doors of a central Government building and say hello. The young people really did themselves and Barnardo’s proud, and made our day with their insights, questions and chat. During the visit they were accompanied by our senior sponsor David Foley, and heard senior sponsor Melinda Johnson and Deputy Director Marion Francis’ journey’s to the Cabinet Office. We were delighted when they also got a special welcome from our Chief Operating Officer, Sarah Harrison. Feedback from the group was amazing and for some, the visit provoked a desire to know more.

The future looks positive with Barnardo’s keen to work with the Cabinet Office in Glasgow to develop opportunities for their young people. We are currently working with them to develop a proposal to create a stepped pipeline of opportunity, from awareness and engagement sessions, to taster work experiences and apprenticeship opportunities for those who are work ready.

We are absolutely delighted that the young people on our programme have had this input from the Cabinet Office. From the initial visit with Cabinet staff Ceilidh, Julie and Lorna, our group was intrigued and fully engaged in conversations around the information being presented to them and there was a genuine buzz of excitement when they were invited along to the Cabinet Office Second Headquarters in Glasgow as they were eager to find out more.

The value of experiences, such as visiting the Cabinet Office building and having opportunities to chat to and ask questions directly to members of staff, is huge and takes young people outside their comfort zones, positively impacting on self-belief and self-esteem.

Our group took away so much from this visit which introduced the possibility of accessing opportunities that otherwise may have seemed out of reach. We hope that this is the first of many such experiences.’ Jane Waller, Service manager, Barnardo’s

Business & Employer Engagement

As part of establishing and building the profile of Cabinet Office, Civil Service and UK Government in Scotland we have been creating critical connections with the commercial and private sector. We have been working closely with the Glasgow City Chamber of Commerce, and initial talks are underway with regional and national employers of note to explore the potential for shared learnings, transferability of workforce talent and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Case Study - Glasgow City Chamber of Commerce

We could view the decision to place the Cabinet Office Second Headquarters in Glasgow as essentially another important inward investment in the city’s growing International Financial Services District joining a long list of familiar names like JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Virgin Money. The Cabinet Office is certainly very welcome as a major employer drawing on the city’s very highly skilled workforce, adding to the variety of careers available to local people and offering opportunities for apprenticeships and advancement.

It is, of course, so much more than an average inward investment. Glasgow is Scotland’s only truly metropolitan city sharing with peers like Manchester and Birmingham the potential for growth and the legacy of disadvantage with which all cities in transition are familiar. Having the Cabinet Office here is an opportunity for the Glasgow business and policy community to open up a rich dialogue with ministers and officials on all that is involved in achieving successful economic and social development for Scotland and for the United Kingdom. The Chamber is eager to offer a safe space for exploring the policy and project options that could have a lasting impact on the most pressing issues hindering economic growth, business productivity and household incomes. No other investor can quite match the reach of the Cabinet Office and the Chamber stands ready to help make that reach meaningful to Glasgow.’

Stuart Patrick, CEO, Glasgow City Chamber of Commerce

The Next Steps: Supporting and Delivering across the UK Government in Scotland

Upon the strong foundations we have built for the Second Headquarters over the last year, is the opportunity to build even stronger relationships across the UK Government in Scotland through the work being led by the Places for Growth team (PfG).

Building on the PfG plan for Scotland, is an initiative, led by the Office for the Secretary of State for Scotland. The Heads of Place programme is an exciting plan to explore opportunities for Scotland’s civil servants in greater depth, fully supported by Senior Leaders across the UK Government. Cabinet Office volunteers, many of whom are part of our Community Management Team, will set in place activities to help shed light on the issues which UKG in Scotland needs to address, allowing more visibility of the civil service across Scotland to help future proof the UK Government’s ambitions. Heads of Place Directors Laurence Rockey & Rozanne Kidd along with Alan Murphy (Heads of Place Strategic Advisor) will lead this initiative to ensure each department is included in these ambitious plans. The vision is to improve the effectiveness of the Civil Service by:

Utilising the talents of civil servants in Scotland to deliver excellent services across the whole of the UK. A Civil Service that reflects the communities we serve and work to understand their needs to better shape and deliver the services citizens of Scotland and across the UK expect and depend upon

Rozanne Kidd, Deputy Director for the Heads of Place programme stated that “The presence of the UK government hub including Cabinet Office Second Headquarters at 1AS in Glasgow is a tangible and hugely positive affirmation of the confidence in Scotland based Civil Servants to help shape and deliver policies, working with partners to make a difference to and with local communities. This also generates a talent pipeline built on diversity of thought, background, opening greater opportunities for brilliant careers in the Civil Service right here in Scotland”

In this first year, Glasgow has proved that it was the right place for the Cabinet Office Second Headquarters. A burgeoning city, with endless potential to bring new, exciting and innovative modernisation to the Cabinet Office, and bring new amplification to Scotland’s vast array of skills and talent, ensuring that these voices are heard loud and clearly at the heart of UK Government policy making. With continued support of the ambitions of our Second Headquarters, alongside continued investment, Glasgow will drive a modernised, Cabinet office, reflective of the United Kingdom, which is fit for the future and responsive to changing needs.

1. Economic Strategy 2017-2035 (pdf, 1,459 kb) ↩

2. Glasgow Talent ↩

3. Glasgow City Region Economic Baseline (pdf, 4.7 mb) ↩

4. What levelling up should mean for Scotland ↩

5. Glasgow has been named the world’s friendliest city ↩ ↩²