Jonathan Slater

Jonathan Slater worked as a public servant for 35 years, firstly in local government and then in the civil service.

He worked for the London Borough of Newham, and then for the London Borough of Islington. In 2001, Jonathan moved from his job as Director of Education and Deputy Chief Executive in the London Borough of Islington to join the civil service.

He worked in the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Defence, holding positions such as the Head of the Economic and Domestic Secretariat, Director of General Transformation at MoJ and MoD, Chief Executive of the Office of Criminal Justice Reform, and Director of Performance and Improvement for Prisons and Probation. In the Cabinet Office he worked for both the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretary, looking into public service and civil service reform.

He was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education from 2016 – 20.

Sine leaving the civil service, Jonathan has become a visiting professor at KCL’s policy institute, which is part of the faculty of social science and public policy. He is also on the Board of the Institute for Government, the Advisory Council of the University of Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy, and the Council of the Federation of Education Development.

An interview that Jonathan carried out with Global Government Forum last year can be found here Former education perm sec Jonathan Slater on algorithms and accountability (globalgovernmentforum.com)