Lesson video

Hi, my name is Mrs. Harris, and I'm the person who's going to be guiding you through today's lesson.

The lesson today is called What does the Civil Service Do? And it's part of a larger series of lessons called How is the UK Governed? By the end of today's lesson, you are going to be able to say, I can explain how the Civil Service is governed and describe its roles and responsibilities in government.

Some of this work might be new to you and some of it might be challenging, but I'm gonna guide us all the way through it and we'll tackle it together.

Let's start with our key words.

I'm gonna say the first key word and you are going to repeat it back, and then I'll tell you the definition.

Government, that's the group of people with the authority to govern a country, and in the UK the government is chosen and led by the Prime Minister or the PM for short.

The second term is Civil Service, and Civil Service is individuals who are employed by the government to carry out the work of government departments and its politically neutral body.

Our first learning cycle is called, Who Governs the Civil Service.

A government is the group of people who have been elected and therefore given the authority to govern a country or a state.

A government will have ideas and policies of things that they want to put in place to improve the life of people who are living in that society.

Aisha is reminding us that policies and courses of action or goals that people plan to carry out or are in the process of carrying out.

And Jacob is reminding us that society means people living in an ordered community.

A parliamentary democracy is where citizens of a country vote to elect their representatives who are going to sit in Parliament.

And then these elected leaders, which are called members of Parliament, they are the people who make decisions and laws for the country.

The party that wins the most seats in Parliament, they are the people that will form the government, and when they form the government, they make policies and decisions that affect the country's day-to-day affairs.

Our first check for understanding then, a parliamentary democracy is where citizens of a country vote to elect representatives to sit in? Government, parliament or policies.

I'll give you a few seconds to think about it.

Okay, the answer to this in, so the representatives are elected to sit in parliament.

That is correct.

Andeep here is reminding us that MPs, members of parliament are elected into Parliament, and if their party has the most seats, they will be the people that will form a government.

Well done if you've got that one.

Let's have a look at this diagram then.

So we've got here the head of state is the monarch, so the king or the queen.

Now, that doesn't mean that they can make decisions or that they have authority over how the country is run.

That now lies with elected representatives, but they do have a ceremonial and traditional role to play in the state as a whole.

So they are considered to be the head of state.

And then we have three branches under there.

We have Parliament, which is the legislative branch, that's the part of government which is responsible for passing laws and deciding which laws are going to be put through.

We have the government, which is the executive branch.

That's the branch that's responsible for the day-to-day running of the country.

So things like running public services and also then enforcing the laws that Parliament have approved and want put in place.

And then we have the judiciary, and that's the judicial branch.

So that's the legal side of things.

So things like legal fairness, protection of people's rights, and then serving justice if justice needs to be served through things like courts for example.

And with a parliamentary democracy, that's the people who are elected into parliament, the largest party, those people will then form a government.

So they're very closely linked, but their roles are actually quite different.

This executive branch of government is the one that we're going to be focusing on today.

This government, this executive branch, is accountable to the public and it has to follow democratic principles for example, protecting the individual rights, allowing freedom of speech and making sure that everybody, so all the citizens in the UK have a voice in how the country is run.

And Laura is telling us that not only is it accountable to the public, but the government is also accountable to Parliament and it has to follow the rules and the laws are set by Parliament.

If the government loses support, then it could be the occasion that a new leader or an election might be put in place to replace that government, to replace the people who are running the country on a day-to-day basis.

Now, the role of each branch of the government is different.

So the role of the executive government it's separate from the role of Parliament for example, And the main functions of the government, the executive branch are proposing legislation.

So if they want to bring a law into place, they have to put forward the benefits for that, and then they have to present that to parliament in the hope that Parliament will pass it.

The government can't pass that law.

Only Parliament can do that.

And then if Parliament does decide to make that a law, then the government will implement that law and make sure that it is pushed out throughout the whole country.

It's things like proposing budgets, so deciding how public money will be used and how much money is going to be given to each area of the different public services for example.

And running the country on a day-to-day basis.

So things like all of the public services, healthcare, education, national security, and so on.

And Andeep is reminding us here that the government also serves as the UK's representatives.

So when the UK meets with other countries, with other leaders of different countries, it's the government who are the representatives of the UK nation.

The Prime Minister isn't just important in the UK, but it's also important on an international circuit as well, because as we've said, the government is the UK representative when speaking to the rest of the world.

And the same is for the Prime Minister as well.

So they will do things like meet other world leaders.

They'll negotiate trade deals and they'll take part in big global discussions as well.

So it might be things like national security, international security, climate change, global health issues, and so on.

So a really, really critical role, not only to the UK, but for the UK on an international level as well.

A check for understanding then, Can you choose the correct pair of words to complete this sentence? The government is to the public.

and must follow principles like protecting individual rights and allowing freedom of speech.

So which pair of words complete this sentence? Is its independent and accountable.

Is it democratic and independent.

Or is it accountable and democratic? Which pair of words fit into those spaces in the correct order? Take a few seconds to think about it and we'll come back and go through the answer.

Okay, so the government is Accountable to the public and must follow democratic principles, protecting individual rights and allowing freedom of speech.

So the answer is, C, well done if you got that one.

Lucas is giving us a little bit more information about the Prime Minister.

So another role of the Prime Minister is handpicking the cabinet.

And the cabinet is a group of senior ministers from the House of Commons or the House of Lords.

And then these people are picked by the Prime Minister, and then appointed ceremonially in a traditional way by the monarch, so the king or the queen.

Laura tells us a bit more about the cabinet.

Now, the cabinet has a really important place in government because they are the main decision making body.

They are senior ministers, and you might hear them referred to as secretaries of state.

And each one leads government apartments.

And here we have a picture of Whitehall.

It's the place which the cabinet meets at least weekly in London.

The senior ministers sitting on the cabinets.

Each one of them is responsible for a different government department.

Some of them are responsible for two or more government departments.

And as of March, 2025, there are 44 different government departments all led by these cabinet members.

And these cover a huge range of areas like for example, the country's finances.

It could be international trade, things like national security and transport as well.

The role of the government departments is to take the policies that the cabinet decides on, and that they want to put into place, and then they're responsible for actually implementing that.

So they carry out the day-to-day work.

Things like developing plans, managing national issues, and delivering the public services as well.

So it's a really, really crucial role in government of rolling out services to the public.

Now, that is a huge amount of work to be done because as we said, there's 44 different government departments which cover everything about how the country is run.

So those government departments are hugely supported by something called the Civil Service.

Now, the Civil Service plays, as I've said, a huge role in carrying out the government's work in rolling out services and policies across the UK for every different area.

Now, the ministers, they are the people who lead and they make the key decisions for the government departments, but it's the Civil Service who actually do the practical side of things, who actually carry out that practical work to put those decisions in place.

Another check for understanding then.

MPs are ceremonially appointed to the cabinet by the Prime Minister.

Is this one true or false? Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, this answer is false.

No, but why? Why is this false? Take a few more seconds.

This is false because the cabinet is chosen by the prime minister and ceremonially appointed by the monarch, so the king or the queen.

Well done for getting that one.

It's time for the first task then, task A.

I would like you to create a diagram to explain the structure of the government.

Now, this needs to show who governs and who makes decisions on the work that the Civil Service does.

So you might want to include with this: government departments, you might want to include the head of state, the prime minister, senior ministers, or the cabinet ministers if you want to call them that, and the three branches of government as well.

So arrange these to show the structure of the government.

And the purpose of that is to show who governs and who makes decisions on the work that the Civil Service does.

Good idea now to pause the video to give yourself the time to do this.

And then we'll come back and look at a possible answer.

Okay, let's look at a potable answer then.

Here we go.

So your diagram might look something like this.

So here I've used a similar model to the diagram that I showed you earlier with the head of state at the top, and then with the three branches of parliament, government and the judiciary.

And then we've got the executive branch there showing that structure of that there.

So we have the government, we have the prime minister, we then have the cabinets.

Because they work very closely together, don't they? And then we have the government departments.

Well done if yours is something like this.

And your diagram shows who governs and makes the decisions on the work that the Civil Service does, well done.

It's time for our second learning cycle now.

How does the Civil Service work? We said in the previous learning cycle that there are 44 different government departments, and the Civil Service is so important in supporting these government departments in rolling out their work.

And some of these government departments that you might recognise include, the department for education or the DfE, and that's the part that develops and overseas policies, everything relating to education, child welfare and things like that.

We've got the DfT, the Department for Transport.

So they set all the regulations for roads, aviation, things like tunnels, bridges, harbours, all sorts of travel are related things there.

And then we've got his magistrate's treasury.

So that's all the government finances, things like taxing the public and the public spending as well, where the money that belongs to the government, where is that going and where is that being spent? All the government departments include things like business and trade, culture, media and sports, defence environments and science and technology.

So there is a huge range of different areas that are covered and that work directly with the Civil Service.

Now, the main responsibilities of the Civil Service, well, it's quite varied really.

So one of the things they do is provide expert advice.

So they are considered to be a lot of the time specialists in the area that they're working in.

So they will offer their professional and their impartial advice to ministers to help those ministers make their decisions.

So the minister makes the decisions, but the Civil Service will advise them on the best course of action.

So for example, during COVID-19 pandemic, it was the Civil Service which gave their evidence-based advice to the health secretary and advise them on the best course of action for events that they were happening at the time.

Another responsibility is to put into action the policies and the decisions then made by the ministers.

So once they've advised, the minister will make their decisions, but then it goes back to the Civil Service to then implement that.

And they have to do that in the most effective and the most efficient way.

So for example, when ministers decided that they were going to roll out free school meals to all infant school age pupils in 2014, it was the Civil Services job to then roll out that policy to make sure that schools knew what they were doing and how they were gonna access the funding and so on to make That policy a reality.

Another responsibility is to manage and deliver essential public services.

Public services can be anything from things like healthcare, social care to transport, and that's one of the things here an example.

So the overseeing of the UK's rail system will be overseen by the Civil Service.

Now, there are private companies involved with the railways, but it's the Civil Services job to oversee that and check that everything is working well together.

Now, a lot of the work done by the Civil Service is very much behind the scenes.

So things like providing advice to ministers, a lot of that will happen behind closed doors.

It's not gone on a public forum.

However, the areas that might be more obvious to UK citizens about where the Civil Service works is probably going to be through things like the day-to-day running of services.

So they'll notice it through the paying of benefits and pensions.

They'll notice it through employment services because a Civil Service has a huge part in that.

It might be the ways that they access healthcare, because that is the Civil Service and the different government bodies linked to that.

Things like issuing, driving licences using public transport and also the police crime and court services.

Again, all overseen by the Civil Service.

Another check for understanding then.

So can you match the Civil Service area of responsibility to the image of that? So there'll be an example in an image.

Can you match the area of responsibility? So we have providing expert advice, putting policies into action and delivering essential public services.

And here are the three examples these are shown in.

Can you match them up? I'll give you a few seconds to think.

Okay then, so A, providing expert advice links to the second picture, yes.

So providing the expert advice to the ministers, for example, in health services or things like pandemics, pandemics and so on.

B, putting policies into action.

The example here was rolling out free school meals to infant school pupils, which means the final one C, is for example, overseeing that UK rail network.

Well done if you matched those three correctly.

Let's talk a little bit more then about the structure of the Civil Service itself.

Now we start then with the Prime Minister.

Now the Prime Minister, as we've said, is the head of government and another of their roles, another of their titles is the Minister for the Civil Service, which means officially they are the person that is responsible for overseeing all the work of the Civil Service and how they implement policies that are made by the cabinet.

Now, on a day-to-day basis, it's not going to be the prime minister that is directly overseeing everything that's going on.

That's gonna be the other cabinet members and the government departments and the people that are working within that.

But officially it's the Prime Minister who is accountable for the work of the Civil Service.

Under the Prime Minister then we have the cabinet members, so that's our secretaries of state.

So the people we were talking about earlier, the senior ministers.

And we also have somebody called the Cabinet Secretary.

Now, the cabinet secretary is slightly different because they are not an elected MP.

They're not connected to a political party.

They're what's considered to be politically neutral.

The Cabinet Secretary is chosen by the Prime Minister to be the most senior advisor to the Prime Minister.

Under the cabinet members, we have the government departments and their work is very, very heavily supported by the Civil Service.

Now, the Civil Service is also politically neutral, which means again, they're not connected to a particular political party.

Now, the Civil Service is linked directly back to the Cabinet Secretary.

Because the Cabinet Secretary is also the head of the Civil Service.

And as the head of the Civil Service, they're also the most senior civil servant in the entire UK.

So here you can see how everybody's linked together with the Prime Minister at the head, cabinet members next with the government departments and the Civil Service working with them.

Then that's all linked back to the cabinet secretary, who is the head of the Civil Service.

Now I've mentioned then the Head of the Civil Service is Cabinet Secretary is the most senior civil servant, and all people working in the Civil Service are called civil servants.

As of March, 2025, there are over half a million civil servants working in the UK.

Now, they are employed in a recruitment process like an interview.

So having an application form and an interview and being appointed that way, rather than being elected by the public like MPs or appointed, handpicked like the cabinets.

So the civil servants are the employees within the government departments.

So remember, each government department has a minister in charge of it, but then you have a series of civil servants working within that.

The most senior civil servant within a government department is called the permanent secretary.

Each main department has its own permanent secretary.

And then remember the cabinet secretary? Yep, the head of the Civil Service.

That person is responsible for all of the government departments, because they are the most senior civil servant in the entire country.

Now, as I've touched on then the Civil Service and civil servants are politically neutral.

So Lucas is helping us out here with what that means.

And he says, "In the same way that a referee in a sport does not get involved and pick sides.

That's the same for the Civil Service.

It helps the government implements its plans, but it doesn't get involved in party politics." But Andeep is a bit confused by this because he says, "But wouldn't it be helpful for civil servants to be political? It would mean they fully support the policies of the party in power, and really believe in what they're doing." He has a point, hasn't he? Laura is responding with, "Yes, but that could cause issues.

Experienced civil servants might get replaced with people who just support the government." And Laura says, "Some people might think this might make it hard for the country to run smoothly if government changed." So suddenly, if all the civil servants had to change because the government changed, that would be a huge upheaval and a huge set of organisation that would have to be done to rearrange the Civil Service itself.

And Lucas clarifies that, he says, "Individuals can still have personal political views, but it just means that they can't allow them to affect what they do in their job.

So this is so that can carry out their duties based on evidence and expertise and not their political beliefs." So being politically neutral basically ensures that the Civil Service is going to be fair, it's going to be impartial, and then instead of all the civil servants having to change because the government has changed, it means that if it's politically neutral, it can be stable, it can be reliable, and it doesn't matter which government is in charge.

They will carry on doing their work in the best way that they can.

A quick check for understanding then.

Andeep is explaining political neutrality of civil servants.

Is he correct? And if not, why not? Andeep says, "Being politically neutral means you are not allowed any political beliefs." Is he correct? If not, why not? Take a few seconds to think about it.

Okay, is Andeep correct? No, he is not correct.

So if not, why not? Well, Andeep is not correct, because civil servants are allowed to have political beliefs.

They're just not permitted to allow them to affect any part of their work, and that means that they'll be working then in a fair, unbiased and impartial way without their political beliefs affecting what they do in their work.

Well done if you got that one.

Let's have a look now at the comparisons between a government minister and a civil servant.

A government minister is more likely to be temporary, and that's because they're elected into their position and then they're appointed to be the head of that government department.

They haven't been employed there.

And so if the government changes, they will then lose their position.

They will not be allowed to work in that position anymore because the government has changed and therefore they don't have their MP space on the cabinet any longer.

In contrast to that, civil servant can be long term, so they could be permanent in their work.

They could stay and work there for many, many years if they wanted to.

So they have more chance of getting experience and having the longevity, the time spent in that role, as opposed to a government minister who might only be in that post for a couple of years.

A government minister is elected to be an MP, and then they're appointed by the Prime Minister to that role afterwards.

Whereas a civil servant we've touched on and said, that they're employed through a recruitment process, so based on their skills, their application, and an interview.

Another comparison is that government ministers, they're the people that make policies.

They come up with the ideas and then they want to put those policies in place, but it's the civil servants that then advise the minister in the first place.

The minister then makes the decisions, and then it comes back to the civil servant again to then implement those actions and put those policies in place.

The government ministers are considered to be the public figures.

They're the people that you'll see speaking in TV interviews.

They'll be the people that you'll see being quoted in newspapers, whereas the civil servants are very much behind the scenes, and we don't tend to see that much of civil servants unless it's as part of a public service where you might directly speak to the Civil Service yourself.

A government minister is a political figure.

They're a member of a political party, and therefore their political beliefs form a really important part of their job, whereas a civil servant is the opposite of that.

They're politically neutral where they are not allowed to let their political beliefs interfere with how they do their job.

Government ministers are accountable to parliament and the public.

Everything that they do will be scrutinised and checked over, and if the public aren't happy with what they're doing, they can be voted out and somebody else can be voted into those positions.

Whereas a civil servant is accountable to ministers and to Civil Service leadership.

The public can't elect a civil servant outta their role.

They are employed by the government and the people that they're accountable for, as I've said, as the ministers and their direct bosses within the Civil Service.

Okay, another check for understanding then.

Can you complete this sentence by adding the correct phrase? Whereas civil servants tend to work behind the scenes, ministers are more visible and are considered to be what? I Shall give you a few seconds to think about it.

Okay.

Let's complete this sentence then.

So whereas civil servants tend to work behind the scenes, ministers are more visible and are considered to be public figures.

Yes, they are going to be the face of the government.

They are going to be the ones doing the interviews, speaking on TV and so on.

Where civil servants tend to be more behind the scenes.

Very well done if you got that one it's time for the first part of task B then.

You are going to decide if the following statements apply to government ministers or civil servants, and you're gonna tick the correct box depending what you think.

So the first one is they oversee departments.

They're politically neutral.

Accountable directly to parliament.

Elected then appointed, advise on policies, and then implement decisions and services.

Decide whether they are the job of a government minister, or if it's the role of a civil servant, and put the tick into the correct box.

Pause the video to give yourself the time to do that, and then we'll go through the answers together.

Okay, then let's check these roles then here.

Off we go.

So overseeing departments.

That is a role of a government minister.

Being politically neutral, that is a civil servant.

Accountable directly to parliaments.

That is a government minister.

Elected, then appointed, that's a government minister 'cause they're elected as an MP first and then appointed by the Prime Minister.

Advising on policies, that is a civil servant's job.

And then implementing decisions and services actually putting it practically into action.

That is the role of a civil servant.

Very good if you got those six correct.

So now onto the second part off task B then.

So outta being a government minister or a civil servant, which job role would you rather do in a government department? So would you rather be a government minister, or would you rather be a civil servant? I'd like you to try and think of at least one reason for, and one reason against, and I've given you a structure here that might help you figure out how you want to put your argument.

So you could write it as the role of a hmm, seems a better job than being a hmm.

Because and give a reason.

And then the second part is, however, being a hmm might be a better job than being a hmm.

Because, and think of another reason against or a reason for the other side.

Pause the video to give yourself the time to do that, and then we'll come back together and look at some example answers.

Okay, let's look at the second part of task B then.

So your answer might be something like this.

This is my answer.

A civil servant seems a better job because they influence decisions and advise government ministers.

This is because a civil servant normally develops a lot of experience in a particular government area like transport and can be involved in developing those 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.

And then your answer might continue something like this.

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

Government minister runs the departments and they decide which policies actually happen, whereas a civil servant who works in the department just has to follow what the minister decides.

Well done if you manage to contrast the two roles of government minister and civil servant by thinking about their job roles and responsibilities.

Great job.

Lets summarise this lesson then.

What does Civil Service do? Parliamentary democracy is where citizens of a country vote to elect representatives to sit in parliament.

The party with the most seats in parliament forms the government.

The government is accountable to the public and must follow democratic principles.

The head of government is the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister then chooses the cabinet, which is the senior ministers who run and oversee the government departments.

The Civil Service plays a crucial role in putting cabinet decisions into action.

Civil servants advise government ministers, put policies and decisions of the cabinet into action, and they maintain and oversee public services.

The roles of civil servants differ from that of government ministers.

Their shared goal is to adequately serve the public.

Well done if you've stuck with me all the way through that lesson, I think you've done a fantastic job, well done.

I hope to see you again soon.