Recommendation 13

We asked the chief executive if he was creating a ‘good news’ culture, which the NAO has identified as a factor in why programmes resets may not work, and which can lead to a situation where decisions are not made and disagreements between stakeholders are not resolved. He told us that having a “can-do” attitude meant NS&I staff were committed to its objectives and transformation, which was “invaluable”, and he was pleased to see higher scores on NS&I’s recent annual staff engagement survey.32 But these scores do not give a full view of the lack of progress on the Programme because the survey only covers NS&I employees and not the large number of suppliers working on the Programme, meaning NS&I is missing an external perspective.33 We questioned whether NS&I had taken action to ensure a “good news culture” did not prevail, but NS&I gave us no details, and could only acknowledge the importance of the tone set from the top.34 NS&I conceded there had been occasions when its culture led to staff being overly optimistic about the delivery of the Programme.35