Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Accepted
Inadequate contingency planning exposes Synergy shared services cluster to significant delivery risks.
Recommendation
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 its extended contract with its current provider, which is being negotiated now, will finish in October 2025. The Department highlighted that these are business-critical systems and that going slower on the transformation pushes benefits further into the future, leading to missed opportunities.10 We asked the Department what the cluster’s back-up plan was should the negotiations with the current BPS provider fail. It told us that it would then work with the Cabinet Office to explore alternative options. We noted that this appeared to be the wrong way round in that it should have the back-up plan in place first. The Department then assured us that it had business continuity plans in place.11 5 C&AG’s Report, Figure 2 6 Q 10 7 Qq 1, 9, 30; C&AG’s Report, para 11 8 Qq 9, 97 9 Qq 73, 83 10 Q 63 11 Qq 78–82 10 Government Shared Services Business case
Government Response Summary
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.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
1.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: November 2023 1.2 Existing contingency planning has been undertaken through the intensive cluster shortlisting of options and counterfactuals. 1.3 As part of this recommendation central teams will assess the feasibility of delivering the Shared Services Strategy for Government (SSfG) within a number of different funding or political scenarios. 1.4 This work will then be used as a tool to assess the feasibility of the future business cases submitted by the Clusters. 1.5 Regarding ageing systems becoming unsupported, in April 2023, an extension with Shared Services Connected Ltd (SSCL) was negotiated on the Integrated Shared Service Centre 2 (ISSC2) contract which will ensure service continuity. 1.6 Integrated Shared Service Centre 2 (ISSC2) customer departments (covering around 200,000 full-time equivalents) require an extension with SSCL to bridge the gap between the current contract end date and the date they have new service arrangements in place. 1.7 The extension negotiated is limited to two years that is business as is, with no significant changes. This will see affected departments - the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Environment Agency (EA), the Cabinet Office (CO), the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Home Office (HO) and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) having their service extended to October 2025. 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: November 2023 3.2 Communication is constant with HM Treasury in regard to how funding can be ensured in the 2024 Spending Review (SR24). 3.3 There is knowledge and experience within the funding space. Previously, for SR21 an extensive bidding process was completed with three clusters (Synergy, Matrix and Unity) which resulted in the programme being granted £300 million in reserve funding. Work then began on initial business cases which resulted in approval and each cluster being granted initial funding of £126.58 million which will allow the clusters to proceed through the final business case (FBC) stage. 3.4 Vitally, FBC’s will contain Strategy whole life costs; this will be beneficial in formulating SR24 bids. 3.5 Additionally, ongoing work on a benefits framework will enable us to qualify the full value for money that the Strategy will deliver which will assist in formulating SR24 bids.