James Transcript

I am James. I work at the Department for Education and I'm a Deputy Finance Director.

The Government Finance Function is a huge community of finance colleagues that has spread all across the country. The community has been hugely important for my career, both professionally in terms of my professional development, but also meeting colleagues who can coach and support you throughout your career.

My number is 5.5 billion, which is a huge number, which was the amount of money that my business partnering team were responsible for supporting during a financial year.

That huge amount of money was supporting some policy areas, which were not just important for the public, but were actually important to me.

You know, I was supporting children's social care. I've got friends who work in the care sector. I've got three children of my own under five at the moment. It's not just improving policy in that area. It doesn't just improve everyone else. It improves me, my neighbours, and at the end of the day, you're seeing results on, not just things that are good for the public good, but there are also things that can be of personal value to you as well.

The strength in numbers means strengthening the number of people in the Government Finance Function and the number of people that are there to support you.

You'll be working on things that at a scale, which is unrivalled elsewhere, having an impact on the public, which again, it's hugely rewarding.

It's also being right at the cusp of current affairs of the day, working with ministers. There's like a real energy around that, that you don't get elsewhere.