Sarah Healey

Sarah Healey
CB CVO
Official portrait, 2023
Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Incumbent
Assumed office
7 February 2023
Prime Minister
Minister
Preceded byJeremy Pocklington
Permanent Secretary of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
In office
1 April 2019 – 7 February 2023
Prime Minister
Minister
Preceded byDame Sue Owen
Succeeded byRuth Hannant
Polly Payne[a]
Personal details
Born
Sarah Elizabeth Fitzpatrick

1975 (age 48–49)
NationalityBritish
Alma materMagdalen College, Oxford
London School of Economics
CB insignia

Sarah Elizabeth Healey CB CVO (née Fitzpatrick; born 1975) is a British civil servant, appointed as Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in February 2023. Previously, she was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).[1]

Life and career

Healey read Modern History and English at Magdalen College, Oxford graduating BA, before pursuing further studies in Social Policy at the London School of Economics (MSc). She was captain of the Magdalen team that won the 1997-98 series of BBC TV’s University Challenge. Having entered HM Civil Service into the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit in the Cabinet Office in 2001,[2][3] she served in the Department for Education as the director for Strategy and Performance for a year from 2009,[4] and then as director for Education Funding 2010–2013, and then in the Department for Work and Pensions as director for Private Pensions for just under a year in 2013.[5][6] She is married to a barrister and has three children.

In December 2013, Healey was promoted Director General in the then-Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In mid 2016, she joined the new Department for Exiting the European Union as one of their two Directors General. After two years at DExEU, she moved to replace Shona Dunn as the head of the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat.[2]

In March 2019, it was announced that Healey had been further promoted, returning to DCMS to be the Permanent Secretary, replacing Dame Sue Owen.[1]

Healey was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for public service.[7][8]

In February 2023, she replaced Jeremy Pocklington as Permanent Secretary to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which reverted to its old name, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, after the Labour government took power in July 2024 under Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner.[9]

She was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to the Royal Household.[10]

Notes

  1. ^ As Acting Permanent Secretaries of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

References

  1. ^ a b "Appointment of new Permanent Secretary at DCMS". GOV.UK. 11 March 2019. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Sarah Healey - Networks of evidence and expertise for public policy". www.csap.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  3. ^ "Sarah Healey - Civil Service Quarterly". quarterly.blog.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  4. ^ Halpern, David (2010). The Hidden Wealth of Nations. Polity. p. 275. ISBN 9780745648019.
  5. ^ "Sarah Healey | Key Negotiators | Project Brexit". The Whitehouse Consultancy. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  6. ^ "The people who are negotiating Brexit". BBC News. 17 November 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  7. ^ "No. 62666". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 June 2019. p. B3.
  8. ^ "MoD and DCMS perm secs among civil servants recognised in Queen's birthday honours". Civil Service World. 10 June 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  9. ^ Smith, Beckie (7 February 2023). "Pocklington to lead new energy department in perm secs reshuffle". civilserviceworld.com. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  10. ^ "No. 64082". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 June 2023. p. B4.
Government offices
Preceded by Permanent Secretary of the
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
2019–2023 		Succeeded by
Ruth Hannant
Polly Payne
as Acting Permanent Secretaries of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Preceded by Permanent Secretary of the
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
2023–present 		Incumbent