Private office: supporting special advisers

Special advisers play a crucial role in government, but that role – and how to do it well – is not always explained to those taking it on. It can take time for advisers, new or experienced, to learn how to work most effectively with their ministers, and with the civil service.  

There are some key ways that you as a private office team can support your department’s special advisers – whether they are first timers or old hands – so that they in turn can best support the ministerial team.  

Explain the nuts and bolts of how government operates to your special advisers

It is not uncommon for new special advisers to have little or no previous experience of working in government. Your team will play a really important role in helping them  navigate the landscape of the department and wider government, and where they fit into it. As you would do with a first-time minister, take the time to set out the mechanics of the ministerial, special adviser and private office roles, and the different perspectives each brings.

Support your special advisers to figure out ways of working – and what that means for your role  

Agree on some key processes with your advisers, such as:

• how and when they want to have input on ministerial paperwork
• how much their diary should mirror the minister’s  
• how you will prioritise and ensure the quality of submissions and other materials  
• how the special advisers’ private office will work with the wider private office team  

It may be helpful to provide examples of how previous teams have worked, with pros and cons of the various approaches, so that your advisers aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel unnecessarily.  

More experienced advisers may want things to work in the way they did in their previous roles. Being open to their suggestions, while explaining why current processes and structures operate in the way that they do, is key to supporting them get established in their new role.

All this might take a bit of time to get right, so make sure that you check in with your advisers about how things are going. And of course, how clear special advisers will be on their specific role will depend to a certain extent on their minister and whether they are clear about what they want their advisers doing. If there is confusion about advisers’ roles, speak to the secretary of state’s private office about whether they can help clear things up.  

 “Someone in the office who wasn’t the PPS, who might be a private secretary dealing with a specific policy area, wouldn’t have the breadth of understanding across all of the different portfolios. So we just had a very simple rule that, you know, they added comments, they were very helpful, but everything did come through us just to flush through anything that might not have been visible to them.” 

Former special adviser

Build good networks with other private offices and key teams across the department  

Special advisers are there to help deliver the minister’s priorities, and they can best do that when they’re well-informed about what the department is up to. Former junior ministers also report that more progress can be made when special advisers work with them as well as with their secretary of state.  

Strong relationships with ministerial and senior official private offices across the department will mean you can facilitate this style of working, as well as ensuring other teams are meeting expected ways of working with your advisers, and making it easier to pass on bad news.  

“I think it always works best when SpAds are there to support the whole ministerial team, not just the secretary of state.” 

Chloe Smith

Find time for advisers to do things outside the department

Just like ministers, not all special advisers’ work is within the department – they will also have political work to do and relationships to build and maintain in parliament, or within their party. Making time for these elements of their role pays off when advisers are unblocking a tricky policy issue or shoring up support for a minister’s priorities. Show awareness that their activity outside the department is an important part of your advisers’ roles, and support them in making time for this where they need it.  

Avoid duplication…

There should be no need for special advisers to duplicate work that officials should be or are already doing.  Encourage your advisers to think about what the best use of their time is – what are the things that only they can do as special advisers? This could include focusing on providing political perspective on issues and advice, rather than trying to get on top of all the policy detail, or using their relationships with external stakeholders, MPs, or politicians or advisers elsewhere in government – to test policies and identify risks in ways that civil servants aren’t able to.

…for which you need to have a trusting relationship

Sometimes special advisers duplicate the department’s work because they or the minister don’t always trust the quality of the advice they’ve been given by officials. Investing time and effort in building an open and trusting working relationship, so you are clear about what advisers want and they feel more able to rely on your judgement, will help resolve this. That relationship will also make it easier for you to chase advisers to do things where necessary.  

“If I was sitting on something my private secretary would tell me and probably suggest I get a cup of tea and sit down for an hour to do this very important piece of paper.”

 Former special adviser

Questions to ask yourself:

• Do our special advisers understand the nature and extent of their role in government, and how that relates to private office and to other civil servants? If not, what else can we do to help them get to grips with this?
• How can I help our special advisers work out how they want to work and make the best use of their time?

Find out more:

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

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