Recommendation 13

Without the right environment, individuals may be afraid to report problems in a timely and honest way, which makes it harder to identify the need for a reset and the issues a reset should address.41 We heard from the SRO for Universal Credit that creating this openness was the hardest, but most important, thing to achieve in projects.42 Also, the SRO for Crossrail spoke about how the programme started to believe its own ‘on- time, on-budget’ mantra which stopped many people raising issues.43 He also felt that, in hindsight, the governance structures did not provide the Department for Transport, as sponsor, enough transparency over potential issues.44 The SRO for electronic monitoring described a positive experience with the relevant Minister who had a firm belief in the role of electronic monitoring. He created a space and appetite for candid conversations about the programme challenges and how they could be resolved.45 From a Ministry of Defence perspective, the SRO for Ajax mentioned the additional cultural challenge of being an integrated military and civilian organisation and acknowledged that, for Ajax, it was very difficult for individuals to continually have the confidence to speak up. He explained how the MoD was working hard on this and recently commissioned a report on psychological safety in major programmes.46