Commercial Awareness

These recommendations can be accepted in full.

They have been addressed through work to date, including:
• job-specific appointments within the NICS generalist grades;
• the piloting of Cabinet Office’s “Commercial Skills Assessment and Development Centre” to evaluate its potential as a mechanism to improve commercial skills across NI Departments;
• the encouragement of senior leaders to access the Cabinet Office / Oxford University Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA);
• the introduction of a new portfolio of commercial awareness and skills training for all generalist grades;
• the introduction of a learning and development framework for economists, including commercial awareness.
• assurances sought from Departments that senior managers will, as a matter of course, review the levels of specific expertise required to deliver their business and take appropriate steps to secure the appropriate expertise and manage the associated risks;
• the issue of corporate guidance on managing handovers for incorporation within departmental procedures;

Further work is required to:
• reform the role and sponsorship of the Civil Service Commissioners for NI
• launch and implement talent management products across the NICS;
• Deliver NICS Recruitment Plan - phase 1 & 2
• Match to job roles and appoint further staff via SO/DP recruitment competition
• Agree scope and timeframe for review of NICS recruitment;
• Develop proposals for the review of NICS workforce model (disciplines, occupational groups, professions, job roles, etc)
• Develop terms of reference for the review of NICS approach to professions. To incorporate recommendations arising from NIAO VFM report and PAC report
• Further alignment of NICSHR resources and operations to deliver on NICS corporate HR priorities including resourcing activities for critical posts.
• Ongoing improvement of recruitment and selection processes.
• Incorporation of the sequencing and flexibility of handling staff moves to secure business (alongside the ongoing work on talent management and skills development) into the review of resourcing.
• Progress implementation of new processes and procedures that enable line managers’ capability and confidence in their people-management roles
• extend the work of the Policy Community;
• develop the role of the SRO in ensuring they have the right skills available to them to deliver the policy, including externally-sourced expertise;
• develop the Guidance on the Use of Professional Services including Consultants, including issues of the ‘intelligent customer’ role and the knowledge transfer needed;
• develop the guidance on assessing the need for specialist support within project management / assurance methodologies, in the TEO Guide to Policy Making.

DoF shall incorporate the handling of commercially sensitive information with training on the handling of personal data.

New arrangements and material for training in this area will be confirmed by the NICS HR Learning & Development Committee and made available from April 2025.

At departmental level, the inclusion of commercial awareness into learning and development plans is the responsibility of the relevant Director.

The inquiry recommended that commercial awareness training be rolled out to relevant staff. A significant range of training on commercial expertise has been provided internally and externally. The specific terms of the recommendation were that decisions about who should access that training should be made at a senior management level. We can potentially address that area.

The third recommendation, which is 9(2), was about training for commercial expertise. A very significant range of training on commercial expertise has been provided. There is CPD training. There was training work from the Cabinet Office. There is e-learning training. The Audit Office's recommendation was that that should be delivered at a senior management level. Our view was that that is a line manager's perspective because they know better what is provided, but the Audit Office wants that to happen at senior management level. That is an area that we can potentially address.

The recommendation as a whole is not currently likely to be fully implemented.

This specific sub-recommendation concerning commercial and business awareness: Implemented.