How to be an effective joint minister

“Ministers who are driving reforms across departments … driving key priorities that don’t naturally fit in one department. That’s what the role I had was and I think it is essential” – George Freeman

A difficult but worthwhile balancing act

Being a joint minister can be a difficult balancing act. Some hold  several, distinct briefs in each department, while others have one brief shared across departments. There is no template for how to do  this dual role effectively, but there are practical considerations you can take into account.

1. Decide how you want to run your private office

You have options when setting up your private office. Some joint ministers have preferred to split their time evenly between their two departments – either with two private offices, or one moving between the two – while others, such as Lord Hunt, have chosen to base themselves primarily in one ‘home’ department.  

Former culture minister Ed Vaizey, who was based in DCMS but also had a role in the business department, said having a private secretary in the latter “made a big, big difference” in knowing what was happening in and getting information from the department. But even if you are based out of one main department, ensure that you maintain close links with officials in the other.

Regardless of how you structure your private office, make sure that officials from both departments coordinate well and have a clear understanding of how their roles complement each other. 

“The immediate reaction when I was given this promotion that I was very privileged and happy to get was ‘how do I navigate the logistics of being in two separate departments with two separate private secretaries, with two separate private offices?” - Sam Gyimah

2. Clarify your relationship with your secretaries of state  

Your secretaries of state may have different ideas about what they want to achieve, so it’s important to establish clearly what your role will be. Make sure you have a conversation with each about what they want to delegate to you, and how often you should report back to them, to ensure you are on the same page.

There may be some overlapping policy areas where your secretaries of state would find it more difficult to make change on their own. Nick Boles told the IfG how as a joint business and education minister “neither of my immediate bosses were in complete control of apprenticeships policy”, but his cross-departmental position meant he was able to pursue it more effectively. Identify those areas where you can use your links across government to deliver change, and draw on the backing of both of your secretaries of state.  

3. Add value by breaking down silos

Ministers tend to have wide-ranging briefs, so take the time to think about what your priorities might be and how you can add value with your cross-department perspective. When he was a minister of state for the Home Office and took on the joint role of minister for London in 2018, Nick Hurd decided his Home Office viewpoint helped him focus on responding to the Grenfell fire and knife crime in the capital

As a joint minister, you are in a unique position to spot connections across government and bring parties together in a way that doesn’t always happen naturally in Whitehall – former equalities minister Jo Swinson suggested that her position in BIS and DCMS “worked quite well in preventing the silo mentality”. Some policy areas will not sit neatly in one department, so make sure to leverage the combined expertise of both of your departments when approaching such issues.

4. Draw on the strengths of each of your departments

Each of your departments will have its own areas of specialism – think about how you can use these to your advantage. As minister for Syrian refugees across three departments, Richard Harrington used a “business management structure” to divide up responsibilities for the programme based on the expertise and relationships held by each department.

Sometimes departmental views can diverge from one another. You may need to reconcile these different perspectives to build a fuller picture of the policy problem you are trying to solve and weigh up the pros and cons of each approach.

“The civil service made it work extremely well, because I had two private offices that coordinated with each other well [and] made sure that I wasn’t going backwards and forwards ten times a day.” - David Laws

Questions to ask yourself

• How do you want to divide your time between each of your departments?
• How do you want officials in each of your departments to co-ordinate with one another?
• Do you know what your priorities are, and what support do you need from each of your departments to achieve them?
• Can you speak to any other joint ministers in government about how they approach their role? 

Find out more

If you would like to discuss any of the above in more detail, or talk about potential training we can offer on this topic, please get in touch via: ifgacademy@instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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