Beckie Smith

Managing editor @CSWNews. Into gov spending, working lives of civil servants & Whitehall cats. All cats, in fact. Get in touch ↓ 🏳️‍🌈 #pwME

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

Personal news! I'm now managing editor of @CSWnews, which means I'll be editing our quarterly print magazine from now on. If you're a senior civil servant with ideas about what you'd like to see in it, get in touch!

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

It's been an exciting three months putting together our autumn issue ↓ ↓ as @SuzannahCSW and @jessbowie move on to Exciting New Things (more in the mag) and a delight to hand over the news desk to the ace @TevyeMarkson.

Read the autumn issue here: https://t.co/uOcxYymL6R

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

Personal news! I'm now managing editor of @CSWnews, which means I'll be editing our quarterly print magazine from now on. If you're a senior civil servant with ideas about what you'd like to see in it, get in touch!

[alex thomson @alextomo]

UN: commission of inquiry says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

More to the point, if no one on your editorial team knows people who rely on benefits like PIP and UC to survive - and the daily stress of accommodating disability and the costs associated with that - there are going to be huge gaps

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

See also: reporting that people with "less severe" conditions would lose out under the proposed reforms (which were taken out of the welfare bill but will come up again), which is a woeful misunderstanding of the impact it would have.

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

Something you learn as a journalist is that most journalists are not subject matter experts in everything they write about (myself included). We learn as we go. Most reporting on PIP is done by people who have very limited knowledge of how awards work.

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

This is yet another reason why representation and diversity matters. If no one in your editorial team receives any of the benefits you're writing about, and hasn't had regular conversations about it with people who do, there are going to be huge gaps in your reporting

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

Something you learn as a journalist is that most journalists are not subject matter experts in everything they write about (myself included). We learn as we go. Most reporting on PIP is done by people who have very limited knowledge of how awards work.

[Emily Pomroy-Smith ♿️💙🌹 @EmilyP_Smith]

The misinformation about Motability being spread by people who should know better, including journalists and MPs is disgraceful.

You do not get the higher rate of mobility for PIP or DLA for a specific condition. You get it for how that condition affects you.

1/

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

After a social media hiatus, I'm back online - go follow me on the other app if you'd like to keep up to date with what's happening in the civil service: https://t.co/lF0pqW0IkT

[Civil Service World @CSWnews]

DHSC set to launch voluntary-exit scheme as PM abolishes NHS England: https://t.co/8oMmaqwGdo

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

A good day to share this as the PM pushes to cut costs with AI & digitisation. @Marthalanefox on how government's digital overhaul can cut down on “sadmin”: https://t.co/24rG0iTynr

[Dave Penman @FDAGenSec]

As I told @beckie__smith, civil servants in NI have worked through political chaos for 8 years, politicians shouldn't turn around now and blame them for the consequences of their own lack of political leadership.

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

Big (but not totally unexpected) news: Simon Case will step down as cabinet secretary at the end of this year.

“It is a shame that I feel I have to spell this out, but my decision is solely to do with my health and nothing to do with anything else.” https://t.co/RUUju3ZnPm

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

I thought it was a joke about the length of the headline and I've been laughing for five minutes

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

@RichRJohnstone @ConversationUK The feature I wish I'd written!

[Jess Bowie @jessbowie]

Civil servants have been experiencing something rather novel in recent days: declarations of support and respect from their new ministers (can you imagine!). Read our round-up of what incoming secretaries of state have been saying to their officials here: https://t.co/6aBZ4HkOx9

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

Civil servants! What have you heard from your new ministers? I'd love to hear about memos, missives, rallying cries... Drop me a message here or at [email protected]

[Suzannah Brecknell @SuzannahCSW]

Though Vallance (and this is why he's such an encouraging appointment) has a track record of changing the system from within as this excellent profile by @beckie__smith shows
https://t.co/UmwQBuAzeq

[Beckie Smith @beckie__smith]

I've been having fun finding out which of the new MPs used to be civil servants. Among them a former PPS to Nick Clegg, head of the Foreign Office’s Terrorism Response Team and a member of the PM’s Strategy Unit under Brown: https://t.co/DxSlxmD1pW