former Permanent Secretary in the Scottish Government
                      

Peter Housden served as Permanent Secretary in Scotland from 2010 to 2015, leading the civil service through the referendum on independence and in major programmes of public service improvement and economic investment.  

Peter began working life as a school teacher and worked in education and local government prior to entering the civil service in 2001.

Peter’s interests lie in leadership and workforce development in public services.  Since leaving the civil service, Peter has developed a leadership and consulting practice with clients in England, Scotland and in Ireland.  He is a Trustee of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and was knighted  in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2010.  His monograph Rethinking Public Services was published in 2015 and he is an occasional tweeter @Housden1Peter