Sir Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health, will reflect on his time as a Permanent Secretary Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government. 

While at the School, Sir Chris has worked with members of our faculty to examine health system complexity, with seminars on outcomes hosted by the Government Outcomes Lab. The talk will draw on key learnings from across the seminars. It will revisit several case studies from the fellowship and the key themes that have emerged, such as the importance of leadership within organisations when trying to drive improvement in complex systems.

The talk will be followed by a Q&A, moderated by Calum Miller, Chief Operating Officer and Associate Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government and former senior UK civil servant. 

About the Permanent Secretary Fellowships

The Permanent Secretary Fellowship programme aims to strengthening the links between policymakers and public policy researchers. The Fellowships establish a relationship between a current Permanent Secretary – the most senior civil servant of a government ministry in the UK – and the Blavatnik School.

These civil service leaders will use the Fellowship as an opportunity to reflect upon a policy or operational challenge facing their department, supported by interaction with the scholars and practitioners within the Blavatnik School’s global community and the wider Oxford academic community.