Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
48th Report - Smarter delivery of public services
Public Accounts Committee
HC 889
Published 22 October 2025
Recommendations
11
Acknowledged
Transformative government changes require innovation, learning from failure, and staff empowerment.
Recommendation
Witnesses told us that the transformative changes needed by government will require both large scale projects and day-to-day incremental improvements involving front-line staff.16 We asked how departments will remove the barriers to innovation by creating a working environment that encourages …
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Government Response Summary
The Profession will continue to measure take-up of resources Heads of Profession (HoPs) and other stakeholders use to engage their staff in improving services, and will continue to use existing HoP forums to discuss and share best practice. Work is also underway to introduce service standards that will enable benchmarking, collaboration, and shared learning across departments and agencies.
HM Treasury
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16
Acknowledged
ODP must broaden capability building and career opportunities to local government.
Recommendation
The ODP also told us how it had invited two senior leaders from mayoral authorities to join the latest cohort of ODP Excel, a learning programme to improve participants readiness for senior operational delivery role, and attend its training events.25 …
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Government Response Summary
The Profession agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and is actively working with the wider public sector by sharing relevant elements of the profession offer, and has explored and identified opportunities to increase public and private sector engagement, by working with the Whitehall and Industry Group (WIG) and departments will be encouraged to engage in programmes such as GovXchange.
HM Treasury
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17
Acknowledged
ODP recognises opportunities for learning and interplay with the private sector.
Recommendation
We asked about how well connected ODP was to the private sector. The ODP told us that there were opportunities to learn from the private sector about how to innovate in the delivery of public services, and said its Senior …
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Government Response Summary
The Profession agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and is actively working with the wider public sector by sharing relevant elements of the profession offer, and has explored and identified opportunities to increase public and private sector engagement, by working with the Whitehall and Industry Group (WIG) and departments will be encouraged to engage in programmes such as GovXchange.
HM Treasury
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Conclusions (2)
13
Conclusion
Acknowledged
The ODP’s focus is on its 290,000 members in the Civil Service. These members work within central government organisations or arm-length bodies within those organisations. Around 80% of ODP members work in just five government departments: the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office, HM …
Government Response Summary
Acknowledges the composition of the ODP membership and states its strategy aims to continue expanding learning for all members across all civil service grades.
18
Conclusion
Operational capability across government is varied and often lacking in what matters most.32 Weaknesses in operational capability can have real consequences for citizens. For example, where a department lacks the capability to understand and deal with demand, the result is backlogs in government services.33 Where a department does not focus …