The national picture
The public sector map, Westminster and Whitehall.
Two and a half hours on the national picture: mapping the public sector, how the Commons and Lords make and revise law, and how Whitehall and the Civil Service run government.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 2 hours 30 minutes
- Where
- The Public Sector
- Price
- £69
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
Managers and senior leaders in councils, the NHS, policing, fire, housing and charities who work with Parliament or central government.
Overview
This Focus brings together the national institutions that shape public services. It starts with a shared map of the public sector, using the ONS classification and the principle that every body works from a statutory duty. It then follows the House of Commons through the stages of a bill and the work of select committees, the Public Accounts Committee and the Liaison Committee. The House of Lords comes next, with the Parliament Acts, the Salisbury Convention and the Hereditary Peers Act 2026. It closes in Whitehall, with the Civil Service Code, the Carltona principle, Number 10 and No.10 North.
Aims
This Focus aims to develop leaders who can read the national landscape with confidence, understand how law is made and scrutinised, prepare their organisations to engage with Parliament, and work with central government with a clear grasp of where accountability sits and how it is changing.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Map the public bodies you work with by their statutory duties, powers and lines of accountability.
- Explain how legislation and scrutiny move through both Houses of Parliament.
- Engage with Whitehall and Parliament with a clear sense of who answers for what.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build 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.
- Describe the structure, functions and four core values of the Civil Service, and how merit based recruitment makes impartiality achievable.
- Distinguish the constitutional theory that ministers alone answer to Parliament from the practice of Permanent Secretaries giving evidence as Accounting Officers.
Built from 2 parts.
2 hours 30 minutes 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
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 hereFocus, 2 hours 30 minutes, £69
- Next stepExplore, Power at the centre, 4 hours, £129. Already own the Focus? You pay £60.
- The whole topicImmerse, How the public sector works, 10 hours, £249. Already own the Focus? You pay £180.
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