Any policy civil servants here?

[Psm92]

Hello! I've been an SEO working in policy in a major gov department for a few years. It's a really interesting area, and I work with lots of interesting, ridiculously smart, experienced people, and at time feel out of my depth. I'm looking for ways to be more effective in my role, but have experienced a few challenges.

1. The hierarchy - there's some things I know I could lead on, but due to their sensitivity/familiarity of my G6 on the issue, I'm often just in the background doing stuff but not really contributing in meetings/giving the impression I'm super clued up.
2. Limitations of the work itself - a lot of the policy work is long-standing, slow-moving policy projects. Not sure how to add additional value or go above and beyond.

I really want to just be better at what I do, but am unsure how to. Some of the G6s and G6s I work with just seem so ridiculously competent - spotting risks and issues very quickly, having really quick and solid insights into things re how to advise ministers, quick drafting, providing great strategic advice, etc. I'm sure it's just the experience they've built up, but it makes me question how to be better.

Any tips?

TIA.

Does your Department have a Policy Professionalism team? We do, and this is the route by which you can access formal training. There are a ton of civil service wide training sessions that are available across the grades. Some are better quality than others, of course, but they are usually 1 or 2 days/half days.
The other thing you could try is moving to a team that works on shorter term projects?

on top of training, which is a good suggestion - because that will help you build some skills and awareness - I’d suggest getting out for a bit, maybe looking for a secondment or loan to a different team or department? Exposure to some faster paced projects and policy areas would be helpful and would serve to widen your knowledge - and hopefully give you more hands on experience of writing briefings and seeing some shorter things through end-to-end.

another idea is to get yourself a mentor who’s either a peer or a grade above you, someone you think does this well and ask whether they’d share their experience. Another thing you can do is a few days or a week’s work shadowing - maybe someone more senior or someone at the same level from another team who does different policy work? An opportunity to learn in a different way to a formal training course.

I work in an arm’s length agency and it’s much faster and far less hierarchical than central CS - draw back is the promotion opportunities can be a bit thin on the ground but I’ve build a decent career there (am now SCS level). The work and sector is really interesting.