Recommendation 18

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 on. Firstly, it is measuring business as usual service provision. Performance measures include payroll accuracy, invoice accuracy, end- user satisfaction, government transfers and mobility of services, as well as a further 40 measures. Secondly, it is tracking delivery of individual projects, such as standardising the processes for people who join, move and leave the civil service.35 However, these measures 26 Q 51; C&AG’s Report, para 2.7 27 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.7–2.8 28 Qq 51, 60 29 Qq 21, 51, 58, 59; C&AG’s Report, Figure 6 30 Qq 54, 58; C&AG’s Report, para 2.12 & Figure 6 31 Q 52 32 Qq 51, 53 33 Qq 51, 54, 60 34 Qq 32, 67, 88; C&AG’s Report, para 12 35 Qq 31–32; C&AG’s Report, para 12 Government Shared Services 13 do not allow the Cabinet Office to understand the overall progress being made on this major programme of change. For example, there are no indicators to monitor progress on data and process standardisation among departments and clusters.36