Transition and service difficulties

1.20  CCS was launched on 1 April 2014. At the same time, the Department for Communities and Local Government transferred its procurement responsibilities to CCS. Three departments had already transferred some procurement responsibilities to CCS's predecessor, the former Government Procurement Service.5 Three other departments transferred some responsibilities during 2014-15.6

1.21  Leading up to the launch of CCS, and in the following months, departments told us that they had concerns about the quality of CCS services and lacked confidence in CCS's ability to transition services in line with the Cabinet Office plan.

1.22  In May 2014 a Cabinet Office review concluded that CCS had failed to meet its ambitious transition programme. It found that CCS had consistently promised more to customers than it could provide and that the central implementation team had not communicated well with the individual project teams. As a result, CCS suspended transition for new departments. It replaced the central implementation team and redesigned the transition process. It continued to transfer services from three departments that had begun this process but had not yet completed it. CCS aimed to start transitions for new departments by January 2015.

1.23  At the same time, departments started to question the risks of transferring their procurement to CCS. The seven departments already receiving services from CCS were becoming dissatisfied with the quality of service. CCS worked with the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Work & Pensions to establish improvement plans to address weaknesses in CCS's services. These weaknesses included delayed procurements, incomplete transition and lower savings than anticipated. Departments thought that the factors that contributed to them included a lack of capacity, a lack of robust processes and a lack of planning.

1.24  During 2015, CCS and departments continued to assess what could be transferred to CCS but did not formally commit to a new transition programme. By October 2015, CCS managed around £2.5 billion of spend and contracts for seven departments (Figure 8 overleaf). At this time, CCS suspended the transition programme again and began a review of its operations. Part Three discusses that review.

CCS did not transition £13 billion of spend from departments

CCS transferred spend from seven departments before it stopped transition in 2015. By that point, it managed £2.5 billion on behalf of departments

Departmental spend which is directly managed by CCS (£m)

Number of departments with spend directly managed by CCS

  Target

  Actual

Note

1  Spend directly managed by CCS in 2016-17 is driven by demand and not yet known

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5  During 2013-14, the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and Home Office transferred some procurement responsibilities for common goods and services to CCS.

6  The departments were the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Work & Pensions and the Department for Transport.