Jane Woods - Customs and Excise to the NIO

I’m in my second year of a two year interchange to the NIO’s Criminal Justice Policy Division. It has been a very positive experience for me and as they say in civil service speak, a “steep learning curve”! My aim was to meet a skills gap I felt I had in developing policy which had an external focus and in working with government Ministers.

I work for Customs and Excise, which has a long and interesting history. Many well known figures were “excise men” in their day – Geoffrey Chaucer, Robbie Burns and Thomas Payne to name a few.

The work, too, is interesting and I’ve had the opportunity to work in most areas including VAT, Excise, Human Resources and Anti-Smuggling. I had also worked for 3 years in Manchester developing and introducing new Human Resource policies. I enjoyed policy work but it was about internal Customs and Excise policies rather than policies which would have a wider external impact.

I have been very fortunate with the interchange for three reasons. First, the timing was right in that there was a good range of policy work to be taken forward, some of which came out of the review of criminal justice which was undertaken as part of the Belfast Agreement. Over the last two years some of the policy areas I have been able to contribute to are sentencing, restorative justice, hate crime, anti-social behaviour measures and victims and witnesses issues. Second, my manager in the NIO has been a good mentor and has been very supportive - he would probably use the term “longsuffering”! And third, I’ve been privileged to have had a great team whom I’ll very much miss them when I leave.

An interchange involves three main players; you, your organisation and your host organisation. Looking back, I would say that anyone considering an interchange needs to ask themselves :

· What do I need to develop and why do I need to do it?
· What do I intend to bring back to my own organisation and how will I practically add that value?
· What experience and skills have I gained in my own organisation that I can contribute to the one I’m going to?

A final bit of advice. Although the system involves your own organisation keeping in touch with you, make at least as much effort yourself to keep in touch, both on a professional and on a social level.

Stepping into the unknown world of another organisation is probably a daunting prospect for everyone who is thinking about it. For the first few weeks I had that “why did I do this?” feeling, which I’m sure is the same for every interchangee. But if you’re seriously thinking about an interchange and you know the time is right for you then I would say take the opportunity and give as much as you get out of the experience.

I certainly wouldn’t have missed it.

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