The major success stories of the Government Pandemic response lie outside the Civil Service, for example the Vaccine Taskforce, where subject matter experts from outside the civil service were drafted in to develop a vaccine strategy.
The Civil Service approach to dealing with the staff shortages due to childcare issues and illness was to try and recruit across other government departments just when all departments were short of staff. A more effective crisis response would have been to appeal for short term staff at all levels from outside the service with particular knowledge of the issues at stake. This was an opportunity missed.
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