The Cameron centre takes shape

In 2010 David Cameron deliberately underpowered and depoliticised the centre. The first was a result of a pledge to reduce the number of special advisers: the second was a reaction to the need to support the Coalition. Over time he reverted – and did some reinvention as we documented in our report Centre Forward. There are now some elements of continuity. The Implementation Unit in the Cabinet Office stays – and Oliver Letwin, with full Cabinet status (it is not clear how much difference this makes in practice) is given a clear lead on overseeing implementation with a new junior minister to assist. Other bits of structure that David Cameron introduced – like the National Security Council – are likely to stay, though it will be interesting to see whether the next National Security Adviser is again from the FCO when Sir Kim Darroch moves on. Within No 10 there is continuity as Chief of Staff – with Ed Llewellyn staying, but becoming the Prime Minister’s Sherpa on the European negotiations, meaning bigger spans for the deputies. And his civil service office head, Chris Martin, has also signed on for a further stint in No 10. But the appointment that is catching the headlines is that of Camilla Cavendish to head the policy unit. That means David Cameron has decided to end his experiment of having a serving MP in charge (Jo Johnson has moved on to be a Minister of State at BIS) and revert to a more “normal” policy unit head. Indeed Camilla Cavendish fits the policy unit head type quite well. As our table of past heads of the unit shows, the think tank world (she was at Policy Exchange) and journalism have both been both happy recruiting grounds for Policy Unit. She stands out as being only the second woman to head the unit – only John Major previously appointed a female head, Sarah Hogg, who ran his unit from 1990-1995.

Prime Minister	Head	Tenure	Career	Immediately previous job
Thatcher	John Hoskyns	1979-82	Military, business	Policy Adviser to Thatcher, Shadow cabinet (1975-9)
Thatcher	Ferdinand Mount	1982-83	Novelist, political journalist, CPRS	Journalist
Thatcher	John Redwood	1983-85	Merchant banker, academic	Director NM Rothschild
Thatcher	Brian Griffiths	1985-90	Academic	Dean, City University Business School
Major	Sarah Hogg	1990-95	Economics journalist	Economics Editor, The Independent
Major	Norman Blackwell	1995-97	Management consultant, Policy Unit	Partner, McKinsey
Blair	David Miliband	1997-2001	Policy researcher	Head of Policy, Labour party (1994-7)
Blair	Andrew Adonis	2001-05	Academic, journalist	Member Number 10 policy unit since 1997
Blair	Matthew Taylor	2005	Academic, Labour party official	Director, IPPR
Blair	David Bennett	2005-07	Management consultant	Director, McKinsey
Brown	Dan Corry	2007-08	Think tank	economist, special adviserChair of Council of Economic Advisers, HM Treasury (2006-7)
Brown	Nick Pearce	2008-10	Think tank, special adviser	Director IPPR, policy unit 2007
Cameron	James O’Shaughnessy	2010-11	Think tanks, Conservative adviser	Director of Conservative Research Department, 2007-2010
Cameron	Paul Kirby	2011-13	Consultant, Cabinet Office, adviser to Conservative shadow chancellor	Partner, KPMG
Cameron	Jo Johnson MP	2013-15	Banker, journalist	MP (2010-current)
Cameron	Camilla Cavendish	2015-	Think tank, journalist	Sunday Times columnist

The key attributes for a head of the unit are the ability to know the prime minister’s mind, have his ear and to speak credibly on his behalf. But the head also needs to have enough confidence to challenge the prime minister and be able to integrate individual policies into a coherent story about the government. The head must be able to manage the unit effectively – and help set priorities across government. It is crucial that the unit can act as a team – as well as have members who are credible in their own right. That is why we have argued that the unit needs to stay small and build links not just into departments but into the Cabinet Office co-ordination and implementation machinery. There was one other Cameroonian innovation – the Policy Board which gave backbenchers who served on it a route to input into policy. That is more necessary in the run-up to an election when the search for new ideas is the top priority. But with a small majority, keeping backbenchers on board is a political imperative – and the continuation of this sounding board may be a useful tool for No 10 to stay in touch with backbench sentiment (as well as a way of identifying future talent). It will be interesting to see if this stays or goes.