Recommendations & Conclusions
21 items
2
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office did not produce an overarching business case for the Shared Services Strategy, which has hindered progress. HM Treasury’s guidance to government departments states that a business case should be used to support all major programmes and projects considered by the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office did not …
Government response. The government agrees and will develop a hybrid business case/updated case for change, incorporating key areas of a Green Book programme business case, which will be assured by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA). It clarifies that a full business …
HM Treasury
3
Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
Departments do not have the funding they need to deliver on their Shared Services Strategy. There are both short- and long-term funding uncertainties to delivering the strategy. In the short-term, HM Treasury approved a funding envelope of £300 million to support the clusters to deliver the strategy and to address …
Government response. The government agrees and has secured initial funding of £126.58 million for clusters to proceed to the final business case (FBC) stage. FBCs will include whole life costs and a benefits framework is being developed, both to assist in formulating …
HM Treasury
4
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The benefits of the strategy have not been properly quantified. The Cabinet Office did not calculate anticipated benefits of the refreshed strategy, and instead has relied on clusters developing cost and benefits figures as parts of their own separate business cases. These business cases have identified potential benefits of £2 …
Government response. The government agrees and is working with Ernst & Young (EY) to develop a consistent framework for identifying, defining, and tracking benefits across the strategy. A draft report from EY has been produced and is undergoing a detailed feedback exercise.
HM Treasury
5
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office has yet to start monitoring overall progress of the government’s Shared Services Strategy. The Cabinet Office has no performance indicators that measure strategy progress. Shared services performance measures consider only business-as-usual service provision such as payroll accuracy, invoice accuracy, end- user satisfaction, government transfers and mobility of …
Government response. The government agrees and has begun developing a new set of performance metrics, using a portfolio-light approach, to monitor the overall progress of the Shared Services Strategy and track clusters' progress by sourcing top-line information across government.
HM Treasury
6
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
There are lessons to be learned from this strategy that will be applicable to future government projects. We have often reported on the challenges that government faces in delivering cross-departmental initiatives, programmes and strategies. A number of these issues continue to cause problems for the current iteration of the Shared …
Government response. The government agrees and is actively disseminating lessons learned through a stock of documents, tools, and working groups. Examples include incorporating lessons from other programmes, learning from international governments, and committing to future sharing of insights, with briefings offered through …
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office told us that the strategy is on track.8 However, several risks remain to its delivery. For example, the Department of Work & Pensions set out three main risks for the ‘Synergy’ shared services cluster: funding uncertainties; a tight timetable; and realising the potential benefits of the strategy. …
Government response. The government agrees with the committee's observation of risks and commits to assessing the feasibility of the Shared Services Strategy under various funding scenarios by November 2023. They have also secured a contract extension with SSCL until 2025 to ensure …
HM Treasury
9
Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The Department for Work & Pensions explained that the only contingency plans the ‘Synergy’ cluster had in place should it not receive the required level of funding for its shared services plans would be to implement its plans more slowly. However, it would then be faced with the challenge that …
Government response. The government agrees, stating that existing contingency planning includes assessing feasibility under different scenarios and that an extension with SSCL was negotiated to ensure service continuity for ISSC2, addressing concerns about back-up plans and ageing systems.
HM Treasury
10
Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
When we last reported on government shared services in 2016, we recommended that the then current strategy should be supported by a realistic and complete business case that was updated regularly.12 This is in line with HM Treasury guidance that all major programmes and projects considered by the Cabinet Office …
Government response. The government agrees to develop a hybrid business case/updated case for change by May 2024, embedding key Green Book elements and assured by the IPA, to provide comprehensive articulation of governance, costs, and benefits for the strategy.
HM Treasury
11
Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office told us that it did not produce a business case for its current strategy as it believed time was of the essence in terms of both cost opportunities and the fact that old systems were coming to the end of their contracts. It did not want to …
Government response. The government agrees to develop a hybrid business case/updated case for change by May 2024, which will address the previous lack of detail on costs, benefits, and risks, and will be assured by the IPA.
HM Treasury
12
Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office plans to revisit its “Case for Change” now that clusters have completed their own individual business cases, updating this to include a more detailed position on the costs and benefits of the strategy.19 We noted that the production of a central business case at the start of …
Government response. The government agrees to develop a hybrid business case/updated case for change by May 2024, embedding key Green Book elements and assured by the IPA, to provide a detailed central position on the strategy's costs and benefits.
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
Although HM Treasury rejected cluster bids for funding, it approved a funding envelope of £300 million to cover the period up to 2024–25. This was to support these clusters to deliver the strategy and to address the risk that departments could be left with unstable and unsupported systems in the …
Government response. The government agrees and is actively communicating with HM Treasury to ensure funding for the 2024 Spending Review (SR24), with a target implementation date of November 2023. Initial funding of £126.58 million has been granted to clusters, and ongoing work …
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
Departments have stated that this settlement may not be enough to allow them to proceed with their preferred procurement options if final costs, which they currently estimate to be between £382 million and £403 million, continue to exceed the funding available.23 The Department for Work & Pensions told us that …
Government response. The government agrees and is actively communicating with HM Treasury to ensure funding for the 2024 Spending Review (SR24), with a target implementation date of November 2023. Initial funding of £126.58 million has been granted to clusters, and ongoing work …
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office’s original expectation was that the strategy would lead to savings of 10% to 15% in operating costs, based on what other large public and private sector organisations across the world had been able to achieve.26 It did not calculate specific programme-wide costs and benefits from the outset. …
Government response. The government agrees with the committee's observation and is developing a comprehensive cross-strategy benefits picture, with a target date of September 2023. Work is ongoing with Ernst & Young to create a framework for consistent benefit identification, classification, and monitoring …
HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
In autumn 2022, the business cases of three clusters (‘Synergy’, ‘Matrix’ and ‘Unity’) identified potential benefits (both “cashable” and “non-cashable”) of £2 billion at an estimated cost of £0.9 billion.29 However, the three clusters have not calculated these figures on a consistent basis. For example, clusters have different definitions for …
Government response. The government agrees and is developing a consistent framework for benefit identification, definition, and monitoring across the strategy, in collaboration with Ernst & Young, to address previous inconsistencies in cluster calculations.
HM Treasury
17
Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office told us that it is working with HM Treasury and all five clusters to revise and externally validate these estimates and obtain a benefits figure from the ‘Defence’ cluster. It said that it is working to ensure that costs and benefits are calculated on a consistent and …
Government response. The government agrees and is actively developing a consistent, cross-strategy framework for identifying, defining, and monitoring benefits, in collaboration with Ernst & Young, to ensure consistent calculation and validation of estimates.
HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office has no performance indicators that measure progress of the Shared Services Strategy.34 When asked what metrics were used to monitor progress of the strategy, the Cabinet office told us that there are three elements to this: two that are currently underway and one that it is working …
Government response. The government agrees and has begun developing a new set of performance metrics to monitor the overall progress of the strategy, including service improvement and implementation of new systems, by sourcing top-line information across government.
HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The final element that the Cabinet Office is working on is how to identify and implement measures that will drive quality and performance in the future.37 It explained that each cluster is accountable for delivery and has its own team tracking progress, but it acknowledged the importance of being able …
Government response. The government agrees and has started developing a new set of performance metrics to monitor overall strategy progress and service improvement, aiming for a single perspective across government by sourcing top-line information from clusters and supporting programmes.
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
Once the new services and updated technology are in place, the Cabinet Office said it plans to revise the business-as-usual performance measures, many of which are decades old, in order to utilise more modern measurements such as the net promoter score, a metric that assesses the user’s likelihood of recommending …
Government response. The government agrees with the committee's observation and, with a target date of September 2023, is developing a new set of performance metrics. These will evolve from delivery-oriented measures to monitor progress in implementing new systems and demonstrating service improvements, …
HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
We have often highlighted the various challenges that government faces in delivering cross-departmental initiatives, programmes and strategies. These challenges include measuring and reporting of progress, common data, getting departmental buy- in, and achieving the right balance between central and departmental responsibilities, coordination, leadership and ownership. Examples include our 2022 reports …
Government response. The government agrees and is progressing various "lessons learned" initiatives, including meetings with other governments, incorporating past program lessons, developing toolkits, and facilitating working groups, to address common challenges in cross-departmental initiatives for the Shared Services Strategy.
HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office said that each cluster has undertaken a lessons learned exercise. For example, the ‘Synergy’ cluster’s outline business case explicitly goes through the lessons learned and says how those are addressed in their programme.42 The Department for Work & Pensions noted that one of the lessons learned from …
Government response. The government agrees and states that it is progressing a lessons learned strategy, with a target implementation date of June 2025. They have initiated various activities including creating toolkits, holding events, incorporating lessons from other programmes, and facilitating working groups, …
HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Ser…
Accepted
There has been a noticeable change in pace since the introduction of the 2021 strategy refresh.45 The Cabinet Office highlighted what was different, namely that government functions such as HR, finance and commercial had taken the lead and set standards for departments to use. It explained that departments were working …
Government response. The government agrees and is progressing the strategy through relationship management and extensive lessons learned initiatives, including sharing insights from other governments and programs, providing toolkits, and facilitating communities of best practice for clusters.
HM Treasury