LORD JEREMY HEYWOOD – MEMORIAL BLOG
19 June 2019
#Remembering Jeremy – Be a part of his extraordinary legacy
By ZAMILA BUNGLAWALA
This week will be the memorial service for Lord Jeremy Heywood of Whitehall, the late Cabinet Secretary. It is a moment for us all to remember and honour Jeremy, his extraordinary devotion to public service, celebrate his life and collectively take up the mantle of his legacy and propel it forward.
Jeremy’s leadership is truly commendable as he touched the lives of so very many of us – including through celebrating and championing our work, inviting our opinions, including us in key conversations, and making us remember and cherish always how we are the beating heart of the Civil Service and across the public sector.
Jeremy had a great passion and zest for ideas, innovation and identifying new ways of working in the Civil Service and across the public sector to help tackle complex challenges.
He also set as one of his top three priorities as Cabinet Secretary the need to increase the diversity of the Civil Service, including at senior levels. Jeremy is the first Cabinet Secretary to set targets for ethnic minorities and disabled persons in the Senior Civil Service.
The Heywood Foundation, heywoodfoundation.com, of which I am a proud Trustee, was recently established in Jeremy’s honour to promote his two key passions – inclusion and innovation.
The Heywood Foundation will take forward Jeremy’s belief in innovative policy creation and diversity. Each year one or more public policy challenges will be set by the Cabinet Secretary, in consultation with the Foundation. A Heywood Fellow will be appointed to develop an actionable and measurable plan to address these, incorporating a wide range of views. The topics will be of national importance, will not be business as usual and will be difficult to solve. Often they will be social policy issues, for example rough sleeping, although they could also be solutions in search of problems, like exploring new public sector applications for robotics. This work will be greatly valuable, have positive impact and be an excellent way to continue to celebrate Jeremy for many years to come.
Many people from across the Civil Service, wider public sector and private sector have directly approached the Heywood Foundation and Trustees to ask how they can help – which is truly great and very humbling. We want as many people as possible to share in Jeremy’s memorial and be a part of his legacy.
We are also trying to raise £1.5 million to enable the Heywood Foundation to run for at least ten years to help realise Jeremy’s vision for greater innovation and inclusion. All money raised goes directly to the delivery of the Foundation’s innovation and inclusion work.
We have already raised over £1 million – our sincere thanks to all whom have already donated. Please help us to push towards our goal by giving whatever you can through the Foundation – please visit: heywoodfoundation.com
I know there are many worthy causes out there – this is the first I know of aiming to make a positive impact on innovation and inclusion and that will contribute directly to the better workings of the Civil Service and public sector.
Jeremy Heywood is greatly missed by so many – his legacy through this Foundation is a wonderful way to honour him, continue his work and benefit us all!