ONE of the country’s foremost civil service leaders today, Ravi Chand CBE credits his early years spent in the police force for giving him a good grounding in leadership. The work also gave him a good firsthand idea on how to get things done on the ground, something which made him an expert in “translating policies on paper into delivering them on the ground.” Currently Director for Civil Service People and Places in the Cabinet Office, Chand is leading the government’s Places for Growth Portfolio, a programme that aims to create a Civil Service rooted in local communities.
The programme is delivering on the government’s commitment to move 22,000 Civil Ser vice roles and 50 per cent of Senior Civil Ser vice roles out of Greater London by 2030. Chand is at the forefront of this mission and is thrilled with the progress. Speaking to the GG2 Power List, Chand talked about his experience, vision and hopes for it. “The programme overall has been hugely successful, so much so that the timeline has been accelerated from 2030 to 2027, thus bringing it forward. So overall, we will relocate 22,000 roles way earlier than expected. We have already delivered the relocation of 16,000 posts from Lon don, many of which are senior roles. “We are way ahead of the target and now beginning to see genuine impact in places,” Chand said, buzzing with a “real sense of achievement”. “My role is to facilitate and support the government’s modernisation and reform agenda and to ensure that the government has genuine representation at the most senior levels across the whole of the UK, and not just in London.” To fulfill this mis sion, Chand has been traveling extensively throughout the country, visiting new hubs and office collaborations alongside his Civil Service Live engagements. The programme is trying to “push decision making power” beyond London into different parts of the UK, predominantly in cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, he said.
As many as 19 departments and public bodies have now announced their relocation plans, including the Cabinet Office’s second headquarter in Glasgow and Economic Campus in Darlington. Chand has been working closely with prime minister Rishi Sunak’s number 10 team, and he is understood to be very pleased with initia tive’s progress. “The Prime Minister has been, of course, a great support in getting the economic campus off the ground in Darlington, because that’s near his constituency.
He often goes into the office when he is visiting the place and sometimes works from there,” Chand said. A proud advocate of the civil service, Chand wants young people to consider joining it if they want to contribute meaningfully to the country and have the skills needed for a “career for life”. “The UK civil service is a very vibrant and talented place. I strongly encourage people to come for a few years, develop their skills, and see where it takes you,” he said. Chand was recognised in the Honours List in 2002 with the Queen’s Police Medal for distinguished service and in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List 2011 where he became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).