Power at the centre
Westminster, Whitehall, the Senedd and the NHS in England.
A half day on power at the centre: the public sector map, the Commons, the Lords, Whitehall and the Civil Service, the Senedd, and how the NHS in England is run.
- Level
- Explore
- Learning time
- 4 hours
- Where
- The Public Sector
- Price
- £129
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Senior leaders and managers in councils, the NHS, policing, fire, housing and charities working with national government in Wales and England.
Overview
This half-day Explore sets out where national power sits and how it is held to account. It begins with a shared map of the public sector built on statutory duty, then follows the House of Commons, select committees and the Public Accounts Committee, and the House of Lords under the Parliament Acts and the Hereditary Peers Act 2026. It moves to Whitehall, the Civil Service Code, the Carltona principle and No.10 North, then to the Senedd and the reserved powers model of the Wales Act 2017. It closes with the NHS in England, Integrated Care Boards and the Health Bill.
Aims
This Explore aims to develop leaders who understand how national decisions are made and scrutinised in Westminster, Whitehall and the Senedd, can engage confidently with Parliament and government, and can lead through structural reform with a clear sense of who plans, who decides and who is accountable.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Locate where national decisions affecting your services are made, scrutinised and challenged.
- Engage with Parliament, Whitehall and the Senedd in ways that fit how each one works.
- Lead your organisation through national reform while separating what is settled from what is proposed.
What you'll develop
Across this Explore, you will develop the ability to:
- Classify any public body using the ONS three way map and identify the statutory duty and specific powers it works from.
- Prepare your organisation to give evidence to Parliament, recognising that committee power rests on exposure rather than compulsion.
- Explain why the House of Lords can revise and delay legislation but cannot block the elected government, using the Parliament Acts and the Salisbury Convention.
- Distinguish the constitutional theory that ministers alone answer to Parliament from the practice of Permanent Secretaries giving evidence as Accounting Officers.
- Identify whether a policy area is devolved, reserved or partly devolved under the reserved powers model, and why that decides who you engage.
- Apply practical habits for working with the Welsh settlement, including early engagement, reading Welsh sources first and recognising the role of the Sewel convention.
- Apply four durable questions about who plans, who buys, who is accountable and to whom, to lead through reorganisation in any sector.
Built from 3 parts.
4 hours of learning.
- 01Westminster from the insideThe public sector map and the House of CommonsBitesize2 modules
- 02Lords and WhitehallThe House of Lords and the centre of governmentBitesize2 modules
- 03Wales and the NHSThe Senedd and the NHS in EnglandBitesize2 modules
Keep going.
Part of the The Public Sector topic, also sold whole as How the public sector works.
Go deeper, and pay only the difference
- You are hereExplore, 4 hours, £129
- The whole topicImmerse, How the public sector works, 10 hours, £249. Already own the Explore? You pay £120.
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms
Also part of: Knowing the public landscape