Minister launches new campus for National School of Government

New campus for the National School of Government and Public Services opened at York

  • The National School of Government will roll out a range of training programmes from day one, including AI training, for all civil servants.
  • With its first dedicated residential campus outside York, the national school has been created to ensure that the civil service has the knowledge and skills it needs to deliver the government’s priorities.
  • We are building a world-class civil service, ensuring staff have the skills to drive government priorities and deliver for people across the UK.

Cabinet Office Minister Mark Ferguson has today opened the new National School of Government and Public Services, which will provide training for civil servants and public sector leaders.

Regional hubs will be developed across the country, with the first opened in York this week, alongside digital access routes to give civil servants access to modern learning facilities close to where they live and work.

It will provide civil servants and public sector leaders with the world-class learning and development they need to meet the challenges of the future.

The school will build a curriculum around the skills all servants need, including training on devolution, national security, leadership and innovation.  Training will also be offered in AI, covering the full range of skills needed now and in the future, from implementing practical solutions at the frontline to cut clerical workloads to cloud engineering courses to develop and deploy the latest technology across government, the School will equip Civil Servants with the tools to build a world-class Civil Service. 

The training will support Civil Servants to go further in deploying AI to build a more productive public sector, building on recent successes including an A&E demand forecasting tool is now in use across 50 NHS organisations, enabling hospitals to predict peak periods in emergency departments and plan staffing more effectively, or rolling out AI tutoring tools in schools with the target to half the attainment gap for disadvantaged students.

Cabinet Office Minister Mark Ferguson said:

"The opening of the new school is a unique opportunity to upskill civil servants in the areas that matter most - with AI being among the top priorities

"From day one, the National School offers learning built around Universal Skills that every civil servant needs - from digital skills and AI, to leadership and management.

"This launch is part of a drive to boost public sector productivity and accelerate the pace of progress towards delivering the digitally-enabled public services to be expected from a modern state.

"The creation of the school is a powerful statement that the Civil Service values its people, invests in their growth, and is serious about building the capability to meet the challenges of the future in the places where our people live and work."

Bringing training in-house will also reduce spending on external training over time as the school is fully established.

This builds on plans underway to halve government spending on external consultants and reduce departmental administration costs by 16% over the next five years, delivering savings of over £2 billion a year for the taxpayer by 2030.

The National School of Government has also partnered with the annual Civil Service ‘One Big Thing’ learning initiative, this year the theme is ‘AI in Action’.

From: Cabinet Office and Mark Ferguson MP

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