● The system should plan to assure capital projects and ongoing expenditure.
● The standard assurance offering should be agreed by HM Treasury Group, Cabinet Office & departments including accountability for the performance of the assurance system.
● Assurance activity should be prioritised and aligned proportionately to financial commitment, risk or complexity of project.
● Projects should produce and share plans for both point in time and continuous assurance.
● Assurance commitments must be aligned to the systems' capacity to deliver at the right quality - for example it should only occur if the relevantly skilled and knowledgeable people are available.
● There should not be an expectation that all projects are subject to the same level of assurance.
● Assurance should commence as soon as possible to turn uncertainty into risk by investing in early assurance interventions.
● Planning should consider how other assurance, reporting and scrutiny activities compliment assurance activity.
● To be independent, assurance should be funded independently of the project.
● Assurance plans should be informed by the lessons learnt from the current application of assurance and input from reviewers.
● The skills and experience of the reviewers is the key factor for successful assurance - the default position should be to staff review teams with civil servants if they have the skills or experience required.
Figure 3 Plan assurance | |||||
Ideal state |
| Gap analysis |
| Suggested priority actions | Measures |
Required element | Purpose | Statement of current position | Evidence for judgement |
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Agree assurance offering. | To identify and agree the types of point in time and continuous assurance that need to be available across central government to meet business needs. This includes consideration of lessons learnt and impact of different types of assurance on project outcomes. | Assurance planning is based on providing point in time assurance. There is no continuous assurance offering for high risk projects. A reliance on point in time assurance can lead to long gaps between assurance interventions. Government has not identified the required staff or an approach to perform continuous assurance. | Good practice comparators use continuous assurance to maintain visibility of the project and trigger other interventions if required. There is no clearly articulated approach or resourcing model to provide continuous assurance. | Implement an approach and develop the capability and capacity to perform continuous assurance and deploy on priority projects. Difficulty: Hard | Approach implemented (indicator - number of projects with continuous assurance deployed). |
Forecast demand for point in time and continuous assurance and assess available resources to meet assurance needs across the portfolio. | To forecast the cumulative assurance requirements based on visibility of all projects in government's portfolio. Project information; for example assurance plans and risk assessments, will inform an understanding of the level of demand. To make visible the medium term (c. 3 years) forecast assurance needs of government's high risk projects so that they are considered as a portfolio. The forecast needs to be reactive to changing project status. To understand current capacity (£ and people) and identify any shortfall of resources against the forecast types of assurance interventions across the portfolio. | A self assessment determines the risk and complexity of projects and informs the level of assurance that a project is subjected to. In line with good practice assurance activity is then adjusted in accordance with the risk and value of the project. Demand for independent assurance is forecast over too short a period. | OGC, HM Treasury and department arrangements are not structured in a systematic way to ensure complete and accurate coverage of the portfolio. SROs feel that the risk potential assessment can be manipulated to influence the level of assurance that a project receives and OGC is not confident that it has full sight of all government projects that may require assurance. Of those projects that produce assurance plans, few routinely share them with OGC. The lack of assurance plans makes it difficult for OGC to forecast, prioritise, resource and plan assurance interventions across the portfolio of projects. Forecasting currently has a six month horizon. | Implement a standard approach to share project information between departments, HM Treasury and OGC and transparently assess and agree the level of assurance required across the portfolio. Difficulty: Easy Implement an approach to forecast assurance activity (and impact on resource requirements) over a 2 to 3 year period. Difficulty: Medium | Approach implemented (indicator - consistent picture referred to by departments, HM Treasury and OGC). Approach implemented (indicator - variation between baseline forecast and actual (for number of assurance interventions and resource demand). |
Plan specific assurance intervention with projects. | To use knowledge of demand to prioritise assurance based on forecast impact on project outcomes and expected return on investment and to justify selection and use of resources (£ and people). To agree the operational plan for a specific assurance intervention with the project and ensure that both the customer and supplier of the assurance product are clear on their respective roles and responsibilities. To agree the timing for the assurance intervention and ensure the assurance team has access to the information they need to successfully perform the review - this will include any previous assurance or scrutiny material and knowledge. | No standard method for planning assurance in projects. Few projects produce clear budgeted plans detailing likely requirements for assurance. | Projects do not routinely produce or share assurance plans as part of their project planning. Thirty per cent of stakeholders stated that projects do not routinely produce an assurance plan at the start of projects and 58 per cent said that assurance plans are only sometimes produced. In planning assurance, there is not enough consideration given to departmental assurance activity (for example technical assurance) and any likely synergies. There is no formalised route to share these assurance plans in departments or with the centre of government. | Implement a standard assurance planning template. Produce and share assurance plans for all projects to inform forecasting of assurance requirements and to plan specific interventions. Difficulty: Medium | Approach implemented (indicator – percentage of assurance plans received). |
Identify and book assurance team. | To ensure that the assurance team has the relevant level of skills and experience for the project under review and to inform assurance resource planning of any mismatch in demand and availability. | Departments pay for independent assurance. In April 2008 OGC began charging departments for the cost of consultant Gateway reviewers. There are insufficient civil servants participating in review teams. OGC relies heavily on consultants to resource assurance teams. | The quality of assurance is impacted by the number, availability and quality of staff in the resource pool. There are insufficient incentives for both individuals and their host departments to participate in reviews. In contrast to public and private sector comparators, contributing to assurance is not promoted as a core part of senior staff development or behavioural expectations. MPRG is praised for having the right people involved but it can be difficult for OGC to resource reviews without turning to consultants. Seventy-five per cent of accredited high risk reviewers are civil servants but in 2008-09 they accounted for only 51 per cent of reviewer days. Only 38 civil servants are accredited to lead high risk reviews compared with 119 consultants. | Implement a requirement for senior civil servants’ objectives to include contributing to assurance reviews where they have relevant skills and experience. Difficulty: Easy | Approach implemented (indicator – percentage |
Source: National Audit Office | |||||