Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Accepted
Conduct analysis of SRRT usage to boost departmental capability for demand variation.
Conclusion
The Surge and Rapid Response Team (SRRT) is a valuable resource but should be there for genuine need and not as a containment for the lack of operational capability needed to deal with demand that should have been predicted or absorbed. The capability to understand and deal with demand is a key priority for government organisations. The ODP is responsible for the SRRT, which helps departments deal with significant increases in demand, including seasonal peaks such as Winter Fuel payments, as well as those caused by emerging crises, such as the collapse of an airline. A benefit of using the SRRT is that its staff can be deployed immediately–for example, they are already security cleared and have contracts allowing them to be deployed nationally and internationally at short notice. Whereas recruiting staff or using a third party could be more time consuming and costly. The SRRT is clearly a valuable resource, and there are many examples of its successful deployment, but departments should not be repeatedly using the SRRT for peaks in demand that ought to have been foreseen and planned for, or which could have been absorbed in other ways. recommendation The ODP should conduct analysis of who is using the SRRT and why they are using it to identify where they need to work with departments to increase their operational capability to better deal with variation in demand. 6 1 The role of the Operational Delivery Profession and its members Introduction
Government Response Summary
The Surge and Rapid Response Team (SRRT) already holds detailed data on organisations and regularly collaborates with workforce planners to understand demand needs and help build departments' operational capability. SRRT will continue to work with departments, sharing learning to ensure effective workforce planning and resource use.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Profession agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented The Surge and Rapid Response Team (SRRT) do hold detailed data and insights on organisations across government, including their internal flexible resourcing processes. It regularly collaborates with workforce planners across government to understand organisations’ current and future demand needs and to inform SRRT workforce planning. In doing so it also helps support organisations in building their operational capability to better manage demand fluctuations to ensure they only seek SRRT support when absolutely needed and after they have exhausted internal options to deal with the demand. The team was created in 2015 to provide operational support to departments to deal with variation in demand arising from either planned peaks or unexpected pressures that cannot be resourced internally. Over the last 10 years SRRT have undertaken more than 700 deployments into 65 different government organisations, supporting some of the highest priority resourcing requirements and crises. The use of SRRT avoids the need for departments to use more expensive contingent labour options and the added expense of extensive re-skilling. Or alternatively having to build resourcing levels up to meet planned or unplanned peaks of activity leading to oversupply of permanent resource and additional costs. Any request for SRRT support is ranked as high, medium or low priority to ensure resource is only targeted to the highest priority areas across government. The criteria were introduced to ensure the most appropriate use of resource and are reviewed on a regular basis. This includes a process to ensure SRRT support is targeted and time-bound, reinforcing that it is not a substitute for other resourcing solutions including permanent resource. As part of the overall service offer, SRRT will continue to work with departments, sharing learning from others to ensure that best use is made of civil service resources through effective workforce planning and identification of best value resourcing options to deal with unexpected or peak demand.