u/Fancy-Knowledge683

People on this subreddit work in a wide range of departments and have often worked in more than one department, and often, I hear civil servants discuss ministerial and non-ministerial departments and talk about how being in one or the other can influence working culture. With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; do ministerial departments differ from non-ministerial departments, and if so, what are the main differences?

I should probably caveat that I’m referring to if you did broadly the same job in a ministerial department versus a non-ministerial department (e.g. a statistician in DfE compared to Ofsted, or DfT compared to DVSA, or Cabinet Office compared to ONS). I’m aware that, say, policy in the Cabinet Office versus a call centre job in HMRC will be very different for reasons other than whether the department is ministerial or not.

I myself have only currently worked in one non-ministerial department (and not as a permanent civil servant at that), so can’t really provide any insight myself.

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but contrary to my expectations, I’ve successfully secured a permanent job offer in the Civil Service following an interview! I’ve been offered a HEO Data Analyst role at APHA subject to passing pre-employment checks, and I can’t wait to get stuck in and finally be a permanent civil servant!

I’d really like to thank everyone on here, as this forum was a very valuable resource in helping me construct my application and prepare for interview. Everyone here has so much helpful knowledge and insight about the application process, and I definitely couldn’t have been successful without the advice on here!

I have previous experience as a HEO-equivalent contractor at Ofsted, but have never been a permanent civil servant before. Is there anything I need to know about being a permanent civil servant as opposed to a contractor, or about APHA as a department or Defra more widely?

I’m absolutely ecstatic, and I can‘t wait to start; I loved my contract at Ofsted, and I feel like I’ve made it now that I have a permanent job offer and finally bested the civil service recruitment process!