How the public sector works

Who It's For

Leaders, board members and managers in councils, the NHS, policing, fire, housing and charities across Wales and England.

Overview

This full-day Immerse builds a complete picture of the public sector in England and Wales. It begins at the centre, with the public sector map, the Commons and Lords, Whitehall, the Civil Service and the Carltona principle. It then moves to devolution and health, through the Senedd and the Wales Act 2017, the NHS in England and the Health Bill, and NHS Wales. Policing, fire and rescue, housing regulation and Awaab's Law follow, with local government as the baseline. It closes with MAPPA and JESIP, a whole landscape England and Wales comparison and live cases, including the Manchester Arena Inquiry.

Aims

This Immerse aims to develop leaders who understand how power, duty and accountability work across the public sector, can engage confidently with Parliament, government and the Senedd, work well with partners whose rules differ from their own, and lead with steadiness while structures are redrawn.

In summary, you will be able to:

1. 1Map how power, duty and accountability flow across the public bodies you work with.
2. 2Compare how key services are governed in England and in Wales, and adjust your approach accordingly.
3. 3Lead through reform and partnership working with a clear view of who answers for what.

What you'll develop

By the end of this Immerse, you will be able to:

1. 1Classify any public body using the ONS three way map and identify the statutory duty and specific powers it works from.
2. 2Prepare your organisation to give evidence to Parliament, recognising that committee power rests on exposure rather than compulsion.
3. 3Distinguish the constitutional theory that ministers alone answer to Parliament from the practice of Permanent Secretaries giving evidence as Accounting Officers.
4. 4Identify whether a policy area is devolved, reserved or partly devolved under the reserved powers model, and why that decides who you engage.
5. 5Apply four durable questions about who plans, who buys, who is accountable and to whom, to lead through reorganisation in any sector.
6. 6Explain the separation between elected accountability for direction and resources and the chief constable's operational independence under the Policing Protocol.
7. 7Apply practical questions about duties, handovers and a shared picture, alongside the four conditions for partnership, when your work crosses a boundary.
8. 8Plan practical steps for leading in your own context while structures are redrawn, including treating implementation dates as planning assumptions.