Effective cross-government working must be more than a ‘nice to have’, PAC urges
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Effective working across government must become more than just a
‘nice to have’. In a report published today, the Public Accounts
Committee (PAC) calls on both HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office to
take a firm grip in facilitating and improving cross-government
working, and to learn from the barriers that prevent it. Different
parts of Whitehall working together is fundamental to successful
delivery of much government policy, but the PAC regularly sees
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Effective working across government must become more than just a ‘nice to have’. In a report published today, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) calls on both HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office to take a firm grip in facilitating and improving cross-government working, and to learn from the barriers that prevent it. Different parts of Whitehall working together is fundamental to successful delivery of much government policy, but the PAC regularly sees important programmes hindered by difficulties. The inquiry heard that common barriers include structures and bureaucracy getting in the way of planning and delivery; poorly-understood ministerial priorities; inconsistent join-up in spending decisions and allocations; a lack of routine data-sharing between Departments; and poor arrangements for sharing best practice and learning. Many cross-government projects that come before the PAC are hindered by missing or inadequate data. Areas named in the report include the criminal justice system and tracking net zero investment, but the PAC has reported time and time again on the impact of poor IT, with extreme complexity and inconsistency a feature of data systems across government. The report notes that difficulties with data sharing, due to technical issues or departmental unwillingness to do so, has been identified by the Government as the main barrier to cross-government working. The report finds that it is not always clear which departments are involved in delivering policies which cut across departmental boundaries. Cross-cutting outcomes covering major policy areas including net zero, health and social care, and levelling up are not consistently reported on by Government, and the PAC says the Cabinet Office should more clearly publish these kinds of cross-cutting outcomes and progress made against them. Initial steps have been taken to evaluate optimal cross-government working, but the PAC calls on HM Treasury to use its influence to go further, for example by only approving business cases for proposed projects that clearly demonstrate a link to the relevant cross-cutting aim they support, and contain appropriate plans for evaluation, and detail on what cross-government outcomes and outputs should be delivered. Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “So many important Government projects are dependent on Whitehall working in harmony with itself. Yet so often difficulties with cross-government working are precisely what is hindering these projects and the benefits for citizens. While departments are rightly focused on their own policy areas, complex societal issues cannot be solved in departmental silos. “Both the Treasury and Cabinet Office have made good progress in naming the problem by identifying the barriers preventing good working across government. The Government must now continue the process of toppling these barriers. We hope the recommendations in our report help it to do so.” PAC report conclusions and recommendations Understanding what approach works best and in what circumstances is fundamentally important to optimise cross-government working. A common purpose and shared vision across departments, supported by strong leadership and political support, is crucial to successful cross-government working. However, government departments can work together in different ways. HM Treasury has set out six delivery models for cross-government working in Managing Public Money, including details on responsibilities and accountabilities for each model. It has not yet analysed how these models are being used across government, or which approaches work best in different circumstances. Recommendation 1: HM Treasury should analyse how different models of cross-government working are being used, so it can provide more support to departments on which models work best for different projects. It should use this work to develop training for departments on how to approach cross-government working. Many cross-government projects that come before this Committee are hindered by missing or inadequate data. The government has historically had an issue with poor quality and inconsistent data and with ineffective data sharing arrangements. Whilst there have been some positive improvements, such as establishing data standards across government, difficulty with data sharing was the most commonly identified barrier in a recent HM Treasury survey about cross-government working. In addition, insufficient data capacity and capability across government means the skills needed to interpret data are not always available, which can hinder projects, and make it difficult to evaluate effectively what works. Recommendation 2: HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office should work with the Evaluation Taskforce and the Analysis function to:
Effective cross-government working is fundamental to delivering government’s priorities but there is a lot of work to do to make it more than just a ‘nice to have’. Efforts have been made to incentivise cross-government working through reward and recognition but HM Treasury acknowledges there is a lot of work still to do. In 2019, the Shared Outcomes Fund was set up to fund pilot projects that test innovative ways of working across the public sector, with an emphasis on thorough plans for evaluation and whether these small-scale projects can be scaled-up. More recently, HM Treasury has developed guidance to encourage joint-bids at spending rounds. But HM Treasury concedes that it is disappointing there were only 28 joint bids at the last Spending Review. It recognises that it is going to have to do more in the next Spending Review to encourage joint bids from departments and to make more top-down requests for joint bids. Recommendation 3: HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office should:
HM Treasury has taken initial steps to evaluate what works but now needs to fully embed this to improve cross-government working. In 2021, the Government set up a joint Evaluation Task Force to support evaluation of policies and programmes across government. HM Treasury made greater use of its powers, requiring departments to include plans for evaluations for it to approve funding at the 2020 Spending Review. More recently, the Task Force has set up an evaluation registry which shows what government has already done in a policy area and what others are planning so that examples of good practice can be better shared. Review of this will become mandatory prior to business case approval from next year. All business cases should include plans for monitoring and evaluation. However, departmental approvals processes vary in terms how much they take these plans into account as part of their approval decision. Recommendation 4: HM Treasury should use its influence to improve cross-government working, for example by only approving business cases that clearly demonstrate a link to the relevant cross-cutting aim they support, appropriate plans for evaluation, and detail on what cross-government outcomes and outputs should be delivered. Government does not consistently report on cross-cutting outcomes. The Cabinet Office and HM Treasury are responsible for supporting and monitoring the delivery of departmental objectives and 20 cross-cutting outcomes set-out in Outcome Delivery Plans (ODPs). Departments published their first ODPs in July 2021 but cross-cutting outcomes were not always consistently reported. For 2023-24 departments will only be required to produce internal ODPs. HM Treasury expects Departments to set out their performance against their ODPs in their 2023-24 annual reports and accounts. Recommendation 5: Cabinet Office should publish departments’ ODPs to improve transparency, along with plans to deliver them. The Cabinet Office should also more clearly publish cross-cutting outcomes and progress made against them. |