Next Level Leadership

Client: Ministry of Justice

The Ministry of Justice People Function faced a pressing challenge: to empower senior leaders to deliver its ambitious People Vision—Brilliant Basics, Professional Service, and Collaborative Culture. Partnering with with CIPD, a radical new approach to leadership development was adopted: Next Level Leadership.

Too often, leadership development is designed with the false assumption that education and inspiration alone will drive behaviour change. In a busy, high pressure environment, we believe you need to consciously design for sustained, measurable and relevant behaviour change. Put leaders in the driver's seat of their own development, add challenge through accountability and give them excellent support. As a result, they get measurably better in what matters most.

Co-led by Mark Adam (then Chief People Officer, now Director General for People and Capability) and designed/facilitated by Andrew Larkin, this programme redefined leadership development for the public sector. Inspired by how AI improves through rapid iteration, the programme embedded continuous feedback, peer coaching, and stakeholder engagement into leaders’ day-to-day work, generating fast, measurable, and lasting change.

Rather than vague aspirations, leaders identified concrete goals grounded in feedback. The results were astonishing: a 54% average improvement in targeted behaviours as rated by the people they lead—far surpassing industry benchmarks. Improvements in collaboration, communication, empowerment and visibility translated into more confident, aligned, and effective leadership.

This transformation has changed how leaders show up and deliver strategic goals. Indeed, the Next Level Leadership programme offers a replicable, scalable, and evidence-based model for transformation across the public sector.