Sir Peter James Housden (born 7 December 1950) is a former public official who worked in local and central government. He served as Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government from June 2010 to June 2015. He was previously Permanent Secretary of the

Department for Communities and Local Government The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local governme ...

Early life

Housden was born on 7 December 1950 and was educated at Grove Comprehensive School, Market Drayton, Shropshire. He studied at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the ancient arms attributed to the Kingdom of Es ...

where he graduated in 1973 with a First in Sociology. He began his career as a comprehensive school teacher in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

and worked as an education officer in three county LEAs.

Public Service

Housden was appointed as Director of Education in

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

in 1991. In 1994, Peter was appointed as

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and in his seven years in that post managed

Nottinghamshire County Council Nottinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire in England. It consists of 66 county councillors, elected from 56 electoral divisions every four years. The most recent election ...

through Local Government Review and a wide-ranging programme of modernisation. In September 2000 he was seconded to the Audit Commission for six months to lead their work on the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

national plan. Housden joined the Department for Education and Skills in November 2001 as Director General for Schools. He had overall responsibility for all the Department's work in schools and in early years, and for current priorities on primary standards and secondary reform. He held this role until his appointment as Permanent Secretary of ODPM in 2005. He was appointed Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government from June 2010. In his role as Scotland's Permanent Secretary, Sir Peter was the principal policy adviser to the First Minister and the Cabinet and led significant work on the integration of public services and new approaches to leadership in public services workforces. He was a member of the UK Civil Service Board and its Senior Leadership Committee. As Permanent Secretary in Scotland, his impartiality over Scottish Independence was called into question with for example the Labour leader

Iain Gray Iain Cumming Gray (born 7 June 1957) is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2008 to 2011. He was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the East Lothian constituency from 2007 to 2021, having ...

accusing Housden of having "gone native", but was consistently defended by the leaders of the UK Civil Service. Peter Housden is a Trustee of the RNLI. Peter Housden is Chair of The Civil Service Club.

Publications

* 'The Passing of a Country Grammar School' (APS, 2015) * 'Local Statesman' (Local Government Centre, Warwick University, 2000) * 'Bucking the Market: LEAs and Special Needs' (NASEN, 1993).

Honours and awards

Housden was appointed

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as o ...

(KCB) in the

2010 Birthday Honours The 2010 Birthday Honours for the Commonwealth realms were announced to celebrate the Queen's Birthday on 7 June 2010 in New Zealand, on 12 June 2010 in the United Kingdom, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Sai ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Housden, Peter 1950 births Living people Permanent Secretaries of the Scottish Executive Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Communities and Local Government Permanent Secretaries of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Civil servants in the Department for Education and Skills Alumni of the University of Essex Academics of the University of Warwick Local government officers in England Schoolteachers from Shropshire Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath