The Importance of Trust for Governments and Policymaking (The Behavioural Roundtable)

Mr Baugh previously served as a Director of Communication in three government departments – the Home Office, the Department for Exiting the European Union, and the Department for Transport. Before that, Simon had a 15-year career in the private sector, including senior communications roles at Heathrow Airport.

As Chief Executive of GCS, Simon is responsible for leading the entire communications profession across Government. GCS is made up of 7,000 professional communicators from across the UK, supporting and promoting the work of 25 ministerial departments, 21 non-ministerial departments and over 300 agencies and other public bodies.

Simon works with No10 to develop and deliver the Government’s communications strategy and help departments and other public sector bodies work together to tackle the big challenges the country faces.

Monica works to enhancing the evidence base for effective policy making on issues related to trust in public institutions and design and delivery of public services. She has spearheaded the OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions, a cross-country benchmark to assess people’s expectations and experiences with the public sector.

Previously she was Director at the Council of Europe Development Bank (2017-2019), Head of Territorial Statistics at the OECD (2008-2017) and Senior Advisor on Regional Development Policy at the Ministry of Economy in Italy (1998-2007). Monica is an Italian national and holds a PhD in Statistics from the University of Padua (Italy).