This contribution draws on insights into the policy process gained by the contributor as part of a research project – an organisational ethnography of a central government department – and later from working as a policy adviser in the same department. It focuses on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the crises that arise around animal health. The contribution shows how these crises introduce new rhythms and uncertainties into the policy process, disrupting the usual way of doing things, but also challenging the perception and usefulness of seeing the policy process in a linear, stagist way, where the role of different forms of expertise is clearly demarcated and proscribed.

Rather than focusing on where policy making went wrong during these crises, the emphasis here is first to see that crisis does not amount to failure. Instead, the crisis allows the recognition of the messy and chaotic nature of the policy process and the unforeseen and/or uncontrollable contingencies that affect policy outcomes. Second, it shows crisis as an opportunity to allow a more diverse range of voices and different forms of expertise into the policy process. The contribution concludes by exploring how the shifts in the policy process during a crisis have acted as a driver for more sustained change in the Department.