15 The Department is undergoing a period of significant change alongside making headcount reductions. It has a portfolio of some 47 change programmes and initiatives for which oversight and reporting arrangements are in place.
16 The Department will need to profoundly change how it works to ensure it can deliver its strategic objectives with fewer staff. It has struggled to do this in the past with previous initiatives to reduce headcount such as PACE and Streamlining which did not change ways of working although they did successfully reduce headcount. We acknowledge progress is being made to change ways of working in the Defence estate and corporate services; and other initiatives, such as those at the Defence Equipment and Support organisation, seem to be heading in the right direction. We have not, so far, seen enough detail to determine whether in aggregate the overall programme of change initiatives will really transform how the Department works. Without real changes to ways of working, cutting headcount is likely to result in the Department either doing less with fewer people or trying to do the same with greater risk.