The Heywood Knowledge Series: the role of relationships in government
- Date
- 23rd June 2026 11:00 am to 12:00 pm
- Venue
- Online
- Book now
About this event
What if the biggest driver of public service performance isn’t technology, funding or structure – but relationships?
- How do you build services around human connection?
- How do we enable relationships to drive better outcomes?
- Are relationships the missing public service metric?
Relationships lie at the heart of people’s experience of the state. Every interaction with a teacher, nurse, police officer or social worker shapes trust in government as much as any formal policy or institutional structure. And yet when frontline professionals take time to listen, empathise and connect, we still tend to celebrate this as “going the extra mile”, rather than recognising it as a core part of effective public service.
In a new collaboration between the Policy Profession and the Heywood Foundation, Suzanne Heywood CBE chairs this panel discussion with Ray Shostak CBE, former Head of the PM’s Delivery Unit and Sir David Robinson OBE, co-founder of The Relationships Project. Together they will explore the role human relationships play across modern government – from service delivery, to policymaking, to governance itself. Drawing on emerging practice in local authorities and central government, as well as research on social capital, trust and wellbeing, they will discuss why empathy and human connection are not “soft” extras but foundational capabilities of a high‑performing state.