A Developing Self and Others statement should show a capability gap closing. The learning activity matters, but it is only part of the evidence.
Use the 250 words to explain how the need was identified, why you chose that development approach, how you adapted it and what the person was able to do afterwards.
For the broader behaviour explanation, use the Developing Self and Others Civil Service guide.
Choosing an example that gives you something to score
Choose an example where you can describe the starting point and the improvement. That makes the development easier to evidence than a broad story about “supporting the team”.
If you are developing somebody else, make sure they own part of the action. Coaching is not doing the task for them while they watch.
For senior grades, examples that build capability for a future responsibility or improve development across a group are often stronger than one-off training.
Use B-STAR underneath the writing
A useful planning structure is B-STAR: Belief, Situation, Task, Action, Result. It prevents important evidence being missed while leaving you free to write naturally.
Belief
Use the Belief to show your working approach, then move straight into evidence. For example:
I believe development is most useful when it is tied to real work, gives people room to practise and reduces their dependence on support over time.
Situation
State the capability gap and why it mattered. Extra background only uses words you need for the development evidence.
Task
Explain what capability you were responsible for building or improving.
Action
Use Action to show how you diagnosed the gap, agreed the learning approach, created opportunities to practise, gave useful feedback and changed the level of support as capability grew.
Result
The Result should demonstrate increased independence, quality or confidence through something observable: ownership of a task, stronger decisions, successful delivery or the person supporting others in turn.
Full Developing Self and Others 250 word statement example
I believe development is most useful when it is tied to real work, gives people room to practise and reduces their dependence on support over time.
As an HEO, my team was due to take ownership of a monthly performance report from a specialist analyst. Two colleagues understood the data but relied on the specialist to interpret unusual movements and present the findings to managers.
I needed to build enough capability for the team to own the report after the handover ended.
I discussed the task with both colleagues and agreed different development objectives. One needed more practice investigating anomalies; the other was less confident explaining conclusions to senior managers. I used the next three live reporting cycles as the learning plan rather than arranging generic training.
They rotated responsibility for preparation and quality checking. I asked the specialist to coach through difficult examples rather than correct the work for them. For the colleague nervous about presenting, I rehearsed the first update, attended the next meeting as support and gave feedback on two specific areas afterwards. They led the following meeting without me.
By the end of the handover, the team produced and presented the report without specialist support. Both colleagues became peer contacts for the process, which meant new starters no longer had to rely on the original analyst for routine questions.
Example word count: 223. The answer remains within the limit and does not use unused words as an excuse to repeat the point.
B-STAR breakdown
| B-STAR part | What the example shows |
|---|---|
| Belief | Defines development as real practice leading to greater independence. |
| Situation | The team must take over a report but still depends on a specialist for interpretation and presentation. |
| Task | Build enough capability for the team to own the report after handover. |
| Action | Identifies individual gaps, uses live work for practice, coaches rather than rescues and reduces support progressively. |
| Result | The team owns the report independently and the developed colleagues become peer support for others. |
Why this statement works
The development need is specific. The two colleagues do not receive identical support simply because they work on the same report.
Using live reporting cycles makes the learning practical and gives the candidate evidence of progress rather than relying on course attendance.
The specialist is deliberately asked to coach through problems instead of correcting everything, which keeps ownership with the learners.
The result shows a genuine reduction in dependency and a wider capability benefit when the colleagues become peer contacts.
Need more examples than the one on this page?
The grade-specific statement packs cover all nine behaviours with worked examples. They show how development evidence progresses from learning and sharing knowledge into coaching, building capability and creating lasting improvement in others.
What changes by grade?
AA/AO
Recognise your own learning gaps, act on feedback, make time to develop and share what you learn with colleagues.
EO
Identify development needs across yourself and the team, support learning plans, use delegation to build capability and listen to developmental feedback.
HEO/SEO
Plan for current and future capability, coach and mentor colleagues, adapt development to individual needs and use feedback to improve team performance.
G6/7
Role-model continuous development, build capability for future objectives, widen access to learning and use lessons from teams to improve organisational plans and processes.
Describe the gap precisely
“Needed development” is too broad. Explain the task, behaviour or decision the person could not yet perform confidently or consistently.
This also makes it easier to justify the support you chose.
Show the support changing over time
Development should normally lead to less support, not permanent supervision. If you started closely involved, show when and why you stepped back.
Use feedback as a tool, not a diary entry
Specific feedback is easier to believe and more useful to the assessor than “I held regular one-to-ones”. Explain what you observed and what changed next.
Make progress observable
Development is easier to evidence when the starting point and end point are clear. The person may move from observing a task to doing it with support and then owning it independently.
That progression is often more convincing than a rating or confidence score invented after the event.
Your own development can work too
The behaviour includes self-development. If you use your own learning, choose something that genuinely changed how you perform rather than a qualification you completed because it was required.
Show the feedback or gap, what you did to address it and how your later behaviour or results were different. The same B-STAR principles still apply.
Common problems in 250-word statements
Training equals development. Attending a course is activity. Show what the person could do afterwards that they could not do before.
Same support for everyone. Different people may have different gaps even when they are learning the same task.
Taking the work back. If the candidate keeps rescuing the person, the example may show support but not development.
Vague feedback. “I gave regular feedback” is less useful than explaining what changed because of one specific piece of feedback.
No future capability. At senior grades, development should connect to what the team or organisation will need next, not only today’s task.
A final check before you submit
Before you submit, check that the starting capability, your development approach and the increased independence at the end are all easy to find.
If progress was genuinely tracked, use that evidence. If it was not, describe the increased capability in concrete terms rather than manufacturing a metric.
Build the rest of your behaviour statements
The grade-specific statement packs cover all nine behaviours with worked examples. They show how development evidence progresses from learning and sharing knowledge into coaching, building capability and creating lasting improvement in others.
Preparing for interview instead? Go to Developing Self and Others Civil Service interview questions and answers.
