Recommendation 15

We were interested to hear about the role of non-executive directors in creating an environment supportive of challenge and diverse thinking. The SRO for Universal Credit explained how it was useful having a non-executive director chairing the Programme Board.49 The SRO for Ajax spoke about how he has reset the Board to expand the number of voices around the table, trying to bring-in more diversity and non-advocate challenge. For electronic monitoring the SRO told us that, when they were discussing a potential reset, they had strengthened the independent voice with a non-executive challenge panel outside formal governance arrangements. This provided a space for ‘incredibly robust challenge’ of the programme.50 The IPA felt it could do more to explore whether departments bringing in appropriate external director skills.51