Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
One of the critical success factors for the programme is having the right people in...
Conclusion
One of the critical success factors for the programme is having the right people in place to deliver it. The programme depends on access to the PNC team but that team lacks capacity to support other programmes as well as manage the PNC, and this issue has caused delays.17 Key staff on the PNC team are approaching retirement, while the specialist skills and knowledge required to maintain the PNC make it difficult for the Department to recruit and train replacements.18 The Department emphasised the difficulties of finding people with the niche skills required, such as working with coding language from the 1970s. It pointed to having carried out various recruitment activities, recent and ongoing, and to having restructured the programme team over recent months.19 We registered our concern that it had taken the Department so long to be getting to grips with an issue about the skills needed to deal with an old legacy programme, when the need to do so should have been clear from the start.20 Poor decision-making about the programme
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: June 2022 6.2 The Home Office Portfolio and Project Delivery Directorate already work with all major programmes to assess the level of capability required to deliver and receive regular reports on project progress, risks, and vacancies. 6.3 These reports form the basis of risk-based discussions at the Portfolio Delivery Board which is attended by both the IPA and a non-executive director. 6.4 To strengthen its existing approach, the department is commissioning and assuring longer term strategic workforce plans for all Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) programmes that set out the required skills and capabilities to deliver these programmes, how these will be filled and how any gaps will be managed. 6.5 The department is also strengthening its project entry criteria so that new projects will not be able to commence without evidence that they have the right resources in place to deliver the next stage of the project. 6.6 The department will provide a further update in April 2022.