Recommendation 19

HM Government Accepted

4. PAC conclusion: There are gaps in core operational delivery capabilities in government organisations which impact on the cost and quality of services it delivers. 4. PAC recommendation: The ODP should monitor how effectively the approach set out in its strategy is building the capabilities that are needed to deliver improvements to the cost and quality of government services. 4.1 The Profession agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: September 2026 4.2 The 2025-2028 ODP Strategy sets out a clear plan to improve operational delivery capability and enhance government services. While the Profession recognises the inherent challenge of evidencing a direct causal relationship between ODP activities and outcomes for citizens, it will seek to carefully measure the impact of all ODP products and services. 4.3 Central to the strategy is the ODP Professional Skills Framework (PSF), which provides departments with a consistent foundation for building capability, outlining the skills required for each ODP job family at every grade and link to relevant learning solutions. The Profession regularly reviews the learning curriculum, qualifications, and development programmes to ensure alignment with both the PSF, and emerging and future skill demands to enable effective delivery to citizens. 4.4 The Profession is developing metrics to monitor progress against the strategy; initial measures will be baselined by September 2026 and monitored throughout the strategy’s lifecycle. As the strategy matures additional measures will be incorporated to reflect the evolution of the strategy. The Profession will work with cross-government partners and consider academic and other sources in identifying measures which can reflect the impact and effectiveness of profession deliverables, including both quantitative data and qualitative insight. 4.5 The profession will consider a range of measures and indicators including cost avoidance, acknowledging that in providing products and services centrally this reduces duplication and inefficiency in departments procuring individually, thereby reducing cost to government. 4.6 The Profession is also currently developing common methodologies to measure operational delivery outcomes, enabling benchmarking, collaboration, and shared learning across organisations, while respecting individual departmental contexts. This work will facilitate greater understanding of service delivery performance and, subject to Cabinet Office endorsement, will assist Cabinet Office in holding departments to account on delivery of government services.