Chapter 7: Progress

Julia was gathering up her notes for a meeting with Sylvia. She stepped out of her office. Passing by in the corridor was Oliver, the man that Suzanne Trench had been talking to in the presentation. He stood back to let her pass by but then said, “Excuse me, Ms Fain. Do you have a moment?”

“Is it quick?” Julia didn’t like to diverted when she had a meeting with the Minister.

“It’s just that Ms Trench asked me to let you have this file. It’s the report on the first three months of the Entrepreneur programme.”

As she took the brown folder, she was struck by the politeness of the man. Of course, it was implied in the Respect Agenda but it was only a few months before that she had found herself continually trying to be taken seriously by the men in the department. At the time Henry had been sympathetic, saying that they would eventually come to see her strengths. He might have been right, Julia thought, but the New Order Government had certainly made it happen quicker. The man was still waiting. “That’s fine,” Julia said. “Tell Suzanne I’ll have a look at it and let her know my thoughts.”

“Thank you, Ma’am,” he responded. As he turned to go Julia noticed a tell-tale bulge in his trousers. Suzanne had obviously gone through with her threat of caging him. Maybe that was helping him with his compliance to the Respect Agenda, she thought with a smile. She was a little surprised. She had always thought of Suzanne as one of the more timid members of the department. Obviously, Raven’s session had brought her out of her shell.

A few minutes later she was in Sylvia Atterbury’s office.

“I was pleased with the feedback from Ms Courten’s session last week,” Sylvia said to Julia. She put to one side the report that she had been reading on Raven’s demonstration “Everyone in the department seems to think sessions like that would be very helpful. Well, everyone except the men.”

Julia was surprised. Sylvia wasn’t renowned for her sense of humour.

“I think we can move on the next stage with this. I’d like you to get Ms Courten to come up with a plan for a set of sessions that we could run for the other department, something that looked as though it could be turned into a commercial proposition if we turned it into a national programme – you know how the PM likes ideas that can be self-funding.”

“You know that Ms Courten will feel this ought to attract some level of payment.”

“Well, I think the results of the first session are such that we might put some money behind this. I’m not suggesting we should pay her anything like her usual professional rate, you understand, but a normal consultancy rate plus reasonable expenses. You know the sort of thing.”

Julia was pleased to be given such freedom. Sylvia must have been impressed by the feedback, she thought, if the department’s purse strings were being loosened in this way.

“Thank you, Minister, I’ll get on it. Oh, and I’ve been thinking about what you said about sponsorship. I mean, I know that the civil service has to be independent but I can see how important it is to set an example regarding the way that government sees society developing.”