Charlotte Kume-Holland

Head of Major Projects at Cabinet Office

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Head of Strategy, Covid 19 Vaccine Deployment, Department of Health and Social Care

Policy Fellow Alumna, Centre for Science and Policy

Charlotte was appointed Head of Strategy, Covid 19 Vaccine Deployment in January 2021. She previously currently worked in the Department of Health and Social Care as a Senior Private Secretary and Head of Office to the Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, and to the Director General for Global Health & SRO EU Exit.

Charlotte had responsibility for leading a change programme to improve outcomes across the health and social care system through the new 'Collaborate' initiative; spreading innovation, developing open policy making capability and improving cross-sector external collaboration. She also headed up the department's behavioural science function to build capability and increase awareness in and of its application.

Charlotte had experience leading on the No10 Mental Health and Work Review, providing direct support to two senior Independent Reviewers (Lord Dennis Stevenson and Paul Farmer, CEO of Mind) in the undertaking of an expert report on companies’ work to support mental health, as well as facilitating links with the Government's broader agenda on mental health. Charlotte has had responsibilities for formulating and testing policy recommendations, based on the review, with a broad range of stakeholders, and also providing additional policy support to a separate internal review of discrimination law and the Equality Act.

Charlotte was formerly part of the Local Intelligence Team for the Office for Civil Society and Innovation (OCSI), where she was the lead official for London, gathering internal and external strategic insights to better understand user need and challenges, with the ultimate goal of embedding policies more effectively in place. She also led on various areas of policy development and programme delivery within and across OCSI. This included transforming support for rural community assets, and inter-generational volunteering; including work with Behavioural Insights.

Charlotte initially entered the Civil Service on the Social Research Fast Stream, joining the Cabinet Office’s Analysis & Insight Team and leading the evaluation of the National Citizen Service programme amongst others. She then made a decision to move into policy design and development, with a particular interest in Public Service transformation through innovation; from social finance and social action to user-centred design. This resulted in experience in Open Policy Making, running a consultation with 4 million public sector workers for the Chancellor’s Public Sector Efficiency Challenge, culminating in 16 implementable policy ideas in the Spending Review.

Charlotte holds a First class MA in Human Geography from Durham University. This had a strong focus on social psychology and political philosophy but also allowed for a focus on user and participatory research. She is passionate about and has a real interest in mental health and wellbeing, having set up and trained volunteers for a listening service initiative within the Cabinet Office and other government departments. Upon transitioning to DCMS with the rest of OCSI, she led for the unit on a piece of work looking at DCMS policy levers for improving national mental wellbeing.