A CIVIL servant from Sheffield has had an career development idea adopted by the entire civil service after appearing in the Whitehall version of the television show Dragon's Den.
Officials came up with their version, Lions Lair, which follows the same format, using the same studios and even features Peter Jones who is one of the stars of the show alongside their own senior officials.
All 500,000 civil service employees wer
e invited to submit ideas and Kashaf Walayat, head of service improvement and operations in the Department for Children, Schools and Families in Sheffield was selected to take part in the final panel.
He outlined an idea for a "super shadowing" scheme to the judges, who included Helen Ghosh, permanent secretary for the Department of
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
His suggestion to allow candidates to actually step into the professional shoes of a colleague for a day, rather than just watching them at work, won approval and is to be implemented.
A pilot scheme in the Central Office of Information will be followed by extending the scheme across the service.
Mr Walayat began his civil service career in 1986 after leaving school with few qualifications and said one of the benefits of his idea was to help people discover strengths which they might otherwise not have recognised in themselves.
"Historically, people have had the opportunity to shadow someone and I took that a step further, rather than just shadowing to step into their shoes for a day," he said.
"It is about giving ordinary working people, maybe in a junior position, the opportunity to experience something different which will make them realise they have potential," he said.
Mr Walayat, who lives in Rotherham and is currently a member of South Yorkshire Police Authority, was also awarded the OBE as a result of his work.
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