More support would make the Sheffield Policy Campus success truly transformative

Sheffield will be one of the government’s four 'test and learn pioneers', placing it at the heart of Keir Starmer’s plans to rewire how the civil service works. This is a huge opportunity for the Sheffield Policy Campus – a collaboration between Sheffield-based government departments (primarily DfE, DWP and the Home Office), with Cabinet Office support – to showcase its potential for translating local innovations into national policymaking.

Launched by Rishi Sunak’s government in June 2023, the campus’ goal was to leverage Sheffield’s existing policy talent to improve policymaking, by creating Sheffield-based career paths to attract new civil service talent and integrating policy insights from the region’s institutions, frontline organisations and businesses. The government also hoped it would stimulate regional inward investment to Sheffield and South Yorkshire, as part of its levelling up agenda.  ¹⁰ Civil Service and Sheffield Policy Campus, Vision for a Sheffield Policy Campus, Gov.uk, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/648883af5f7bb700127fa98e/Vision_for_a_Sheffield_Policy_Campus.pdf  

In October, 16 months after its launch, I visited Sheffield to find out how well the campus is delivering on its objectives. I interviewed civil servants – at the campus, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, and city council – and representatives from Sheffield’s universities and frontline delivery organisations to hear their take. There was much reason for encouragement, but also a clear recognition that more needs to be done to realise the full potential of this approach.

The campus has attracted local talent into the civil service

The campus has made strides in championing the civil service as a major local employer and establishing local pathways into policy jobs. Officials have developed an extensive outreach programme. The campus delivers workshops for Sheffield and Leeds university students to showcase what working in the civil service looks like by simulating policy exercises and explaining the job application process. It also offers 10-week paid policy internships for university students and T-level placements for college students, and it runs a ‘Day at DfE’ experience where school and college students can try tasks like presenting policy options to a mock ‘minister’.

The programme has shown promising results, including workshop and internship participants securing one-year placements at the campus – a positive step toward building diverse, skilled policy capacity outside Whitehall.

The campus should continue to grow its senior civil service representation to support whole careers

The government wants the campus to retain, recruit and build a pipeline of local policy talent, creating a “critical mass of policymakers across government in one city” with opportunities for career progression to senior roles. Previous IfG research highlights this as a key test for civil service relocations, essential for staff development and fully integrating regional offices with Whitehall.

The Sheffield campus hosts 75 Senior Civil Servants (SCS) – approximately double the number at the Darlington Economic Campus (35 SCS) and more than triple the civil service average for SCS representation.

Nevertheless, the government remains far from its 2030 target of locating half of SCS roles outside London (at 31% as of November 2023). Expanding SCS policy roles in Sheffield as part of this trajectory would be sensible, further developing local civil service career opportunities.

The campus also has further to go to embed joined-up and collaborative working

The campus has encouraged better policy collaboration. DfE and DWP strategy teams now connect more regularly, sharing knowledge and best practices. Senior officials have stronger links with the combined authority and city council, especially on skills and employment, where DfE and DWP play major roles. Campus-organised events, like a recent seminar series on AI with departments, universities and businesses have fostered connections between officials and local experts.

However, these successes are isolated cases, rather than reflective of a broader way of working. Sheffield officials working on campus projects do so as ‘volunteers’ on top of their day job, limiting the size and scope of projects, and making cross-government and regional networks more ad hoc and vulnerable to losing momentum when staff leave.

The easy, in-person, cross-government connections implied by the idea of a campus are also limited. Unlike DEC – which has its own site – Sheffield’s departments are scattered across the city. Those in other offices cannot use their pass to enter the campus’ main building in St Paul’s Place – ironically, some Whitehall officials have better access. As noted in Better Policymaking, practical challenges, like incompatible IT systems, further complicate cross-department work. Additionally, campus officials lack the resources and processes to fully engage local networks for deeper policy development. Some even characterised their campus work as ‘going against the grain’ of usual civil service processes, or ‘invisible labour’, not directly tied to their core objectives. This contrasts with DEC, where officials – encouraged by Treasury leaders – have consistently embedded regional stakeholder engagement into policy development.  ¹¹ Urban J, Pope T and Thomas A. Settling in: Lessons from the Darlington Economic Campus for civil service relocation, Institute for Government, 2024.

The campus needs integrated structures and senior sponsorship to step up a gear

The campus has made a success of its current set-up, supported by enthusiastic senior sponsorship from John Edwards (DG at DfE, Sheffield-based) and Katie Farrington (DG at DWP). Leveraging Sheffield’s established civil service presence, local talent, and two universities, it has fostered a coalition of willing officials to pitch and deliver projects –that diversify the workforce and promote joined-up policymaking.

However, those I spoke to agreed that this model has reached its limit. To fully realise the government’s aims, the campus needs more formal institutional structures. Suggestions include creating at least one full-time role to oversee its strategic objectives – DEC, for example, has at least two such roles – and clustering campus buildings on one site, or at least fixing the administrative barriers to in-person collaboration.

As seen in Darlington  ¹² Urban J, Pope T and Thomas A. Settling in: Lessons from the Darlington Economic Campus for civil service relocation, Institute for Government, 2024.  ,  the Sheffield campus would also benefit from stronger backing from senior leaders in its core departments and the Cabinet Office’s ‘Places for Growth’ programme. Officials need clear permission to collaborate across departments and engage local networks in policy. The campus’ strategic objectives should be embedded in performance objectives, with senior leaders setting expectations for engagement with local partners. Of course, success relies on ministers also seeking and valuing this input.

As the government turns to the campus for innovative policy solutions through its new ‘test and learn’ projects, now is the time to make these changes. With its huge potential for cross-government collaboration and local engagement, the campus could evolve into a truly innovative hub for policymaking outside London.