New service gives civil servants easy access to free one-to-one coaching
Source: gov.uk (2025-09-14)

Government Skills launches new digital platform to help civil servants find a coach

Government Skills has launched a new service that means all civil servants can now get easy access to one-to-one coaching - provided for civil servants by civil servants.

Under Government Skills’ Internal Coaching Service (https://civilservice.onpld.uk/), which is also available through Civil Service Learning, users can access a new, digital platform which enables them to choose from a database of more than 250 fully-trained coaches, all current civil servants. It then sets up a messaging channel between the coach and coachee, through which they can organise face-to-face or online sessions.

The new digital service replaces an older system in which those looking for a coach had to refer to an Excel spreadsheet.

Coach profiles

Now, users can decide who they want to work with based on a short profile of each coach, detailing their professional background and approach. The functionality also allows users to search for a coach by department, profession or name.

“This is a service for civil servants by civil servants and it provides a personalised way of supporting performance development ,” said Helen Ogilvy, pictured, Government Skills’ head of coaching - who herself is one of the coaches on the service.

“ We are confident that this new service will provide an enhanced user experience which will encourage more people to give coaching a go as it is a fantastic way to boost performance and explore fresh ways of tackling work-based issues.

“Crucially, the service is free - giving individuals the autonomy to explore coaching as a development tool without needing sign-off from managers.”

Qualified and trained

“To be part of the Internal Coaching Service, coaches must be suitably qualified and trained,” said Chris Berthoud, who has been a coach at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office since 2016.

“This means we can help people rise to the top of their game (think tennis coaches, but for work) and also work with people who might have challenges around confidence, resilience, relationships with managers and so on.

“We typically offer six one-hour sessions, around three weeks apart. It’s heartening to see people grow in self-awareness; try out new behaviours, and occasionally – undergo some kind of revelation which changes their life for the better.”

Digital matching

The Internal Coaching services works by digitally matching users to a coach who meets their needs and preferences.

Once the user has selected a coach, they use the in-built videoconferencing function that works no matter what IT system their organisation uses.

Jim Squire, consulting fellow at the Ministry of Defence, praised the impact that coaching has had on his approach to work.

He said:

It made me realise it’s ok to ask for support and not a sign of weakness.

My coach’s guidance and encouragement helped me to disassemble quite rigorously my recent past experiences. She gave me the space and just enough nudges to explore the underlying issues, develop my own views on what alternatives I could pursue and finally helped me to make my own decisions that I can basically chose to be optimistic and positive about a future career I have control over rather than remain negatively focussed on things that haven’t gone so well in the past.

I was truly impressed by how skilfully she did this; just the right amount of questions, inferences and challenges. She never took the problems or the solutions off me and what we’ve come to is genuinely my solution, but not one I could have worked through without her guidance”

Explore Government Skills’ new Internal Coaching Service (https://civilservice.onpld.uk/).

‘Coaching is about helping you go from good to great’: Read about Helen’s and Jim’s experiences of the Civil Service Internal Coaching Service here. (https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/coaching-is-about-helping-you-go-from-good-to-great)