Transparency data

Federated Data Platforms programme: SRO appointment letter

Updated 16 January 2024

To: Ming Tang, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, NHS England

From: Shona Dunn, Second Permanent Secretary, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Nick Smallwood, Chief Executive Officer of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority

28 July 2022

Appointment as senior responsible owner for the Federated Data Platforms programme

Dear Ming,

We are writing to confirm your appointment as senior responsible owner (SRO) of the Federated Data Platforms programme with effect from 1 April 2022. This letter sets out your responsibilities and the support you can expect from your department and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

As SRO, you are directly accountable to Shona Dunn, Second Permanent Secretary for DHSC and the Accounting Officer for the Transformation Directorate’s portfolio, and under the oversight of the Permanent Secretary as Principal Accounting Officer for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and Lord Markham CBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for the Lords).

Your programme forms part of the Transformation Directorate portfolio, under the oversight of the Chair of the Executive Transformation Group (ETG) and is included in the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP).

You have personal responsibility for the delivery of the programme and will be held accountable for the delivery of its objectives, with policy intent and outcomes expected. This encompasses securing and protecting its vision, ensuring that it is governed responsibly, reported on honestly, escalated appropriately and for influencing the context, culture and operating environment of the programme. You are also responsible for ensuring the ongoing viability of the programme and recommending its pause or termination if appropriate. Where issues arise which you are unable to resolve, you are responsible for escalating these to the ETG.

You remain accountable to the NHS England Executive and are expected to abide by their decision-making arrangements, and for DHSC capital spend you will be accountable to the department. You should deliver the programme in accordance with the objectives and policy intent as set by the NHS England Executive and by ministers.

In addition to your internal accountabilities, SROs for GMPP projects and programmes are personally accountable to Parliamentary select committees. This means that, from the date of this letter, you will be held personally accountable to and could be called by select committees to account for and explain the decisions and actions you have taken to deliver the programme.

It is important to be clear that your accountability relates only to implementation, within the agreed terms in this letter; it will remain for the minister to account for the relevant policy decisions and development. More information on this is set out in Giving Evidence to Select Committees - Guidance for Civil Servants, sometimes known as the Osmotherly Rules. Information on the roles and responsibilities of the SRO are detailed in the Infrastructure and Project Authority’s guidance on the role of the senior responsible owner. You should also make yourself familiar with Government Functional Standard for Project Delivery, the requirements of the Government Project Delivery Framework, and the guidance and requirements for project delivery as set by the ETG.

Time commitment and tenure

This role will require at least 50% of your time to enable effective delivery of the role and execute your responsibilities in full.

You are required to undertake this role until programme closure. Progress towards this will be reflected in your personal objectives. Any changes to the agreed time commitment or tenure of the role, as set out above, will require both departmental and Infrastructure and Projects Authority consent.

Objectives and performance criteria

The policy intent supported by this programme includes improving health services, levelling up and pandemic preparedness. The programme is aligned to key NHS and government priorities including the NHS Long Term Plan, Health and Social Care White Paper (Health and social care integration: joining up care for people, places and populations), and the Elective Recovery plan.

Any proposed changes to scope which impacts on this intent or the realisation of benefits must be authorised by the ETG and may be subject to further levels of approval.

The vision of the programme is to connect the NHS to transform care and improve outcomes for patients and its objectives are to:

• enable frontline staff to have the information they need to provide the best possible care for patients
• drive population health management - putting patients and citizens at the centre of service design
• enable integrated care systems (ICSs) to effectively co-ordinate care
• ensure the NHS has access to the information it needs to undertake strategic and operational planning
• increase transparency and patient understanding of how data is used positively

Your personal objectives and performance criteria which relate to the programme are:

• putting in place the data infrastructure to ensure continual progress on learnt behaviours from the pandemic
• creating the culture for exploitation of data to enhance and drive decision-making
• enabling the tooling for population health management and the activation of this through care co-ordination

You are expected to run your programme in accordance with the Government Functional Standard for Project Delivery, the other functional standards as applicable to this programme and the requirements of the Government Project Delivery Framework.

Extent and limit of accountability

Finance and controls

HM Treasury spending controls will apply on the basis set out within the department’s delegated authority letter. Where the programme exceeds the delegated authority set by HM Treasury, the Treasury Approval Point process will apply, and the details of each approval process must be agreed with your HM Treasury spending team. You should consult departmental finance colleagues on how to go about this.

You should note that where expenditure is considered novel, contentious, repercussive, or likely to result in costs to other parts of the public sector, HM Treasury approval will be required, regardless of whether the programme expenditure exceeds the delegated authority set by HM Treasury. If in doubt about whether approval is required you should, in the first instance, consult departmental finance colleagues before raising with the relevant HM Treasury spending team.

The overall estimated budget, resourcing requirements and tolerances for your programme will be agreed as part of the approval process. You will be expected to deliver within these tolerances and report quarterly on these as part of GMPP reporting.

You should operate at all times within the rules set out in Managing public money. In addition, you must be mindful of, and act in accordance with, the specific HM Treasury delegated limits and Cabinet Office controls relevant to the programme. See information on Cabinet Office controls.

Delegated authority

You are authorised to:

• approve expenditure of £500,000 subject to business case approvals and compliance with the relevant Standing Financial Instruction (SFIs) within DHSC, NHSE&I and NHS Digital
• approve changes to tier 2 programme milestones. Changes to tier 1 milestones, objectives and performance measures are authorised by the ETG
• recommend to the ETG the need to either pause or terminate the programme where necessary and in a timely manner

These authority limits are subject to change and other conditions or tolerances may be set as part of the business case approval and ongoing monitoring processes which you should then operate within.

Where issues arise which take you outside of these authority limits which you are unable to resolve, you are responsible for escalating these issues to the ETG.

Appointments

You should appoint a full time programme director and/or manager to support you in the management of this programme and make other appointments as required for the control and delivery of your programme within your delegated authority.

Governance and assurance

You should pay attention to ensuring effective governance for your programme, including the establishment of a programme board with appropriate membership and clear terms of reference.

As primary owner, you must ensure that the programme secures business case approval from the ETG, the DHSC Investment Committee and HM Treasury, along with all relevant Cabinet Office spend controls. You should also ensure that the programme remains aligned to the strategic outcomes, costs, timescales and benefits in line with the approved business case as well as monitoring the context within which the programme is being delivered to ensure it remains valid.

Where a change impacts the scope, costs, benefits or planned delivery milestones agreed as part of an agreed business case, you are responsible for following the agreed change request approval process and setting a new, approved business case baseline.

You should ensure that an accounting officer assessment is completed alongside the approval of the business case, which will be published on GOV.UK as part of the government’s transparency requirements on major projects. You are responsible for bringing to the attention of the accounting officer any material changes in the programme which could require a new accounting officer assessment to be completed and published. Guidance on completing accounting officer assessments for major projects is available from HM Treasury.

Although you are directly accountable for this programme, you are also expected to support delivery of the department’s overall strategic objectives. This means that you are expected to work collaboratively with other SROs and programme directors in adjacent programmes and the Transformation Portfolio Office to manage dependencies, resources, schedules and funding to support delivery of the overall change the department needs to achieve its strategic objectives.

You should ensure that appropriate and proportionate assurance is in place and agree on the level and frequency of assurance reviews through the maintenance of an integrated assurance and approvals plan. You should develop this plan and its maintenance in collaboration with the departmental assurance co-ordinator and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

Programme status, reporting and transparency requirements

The programme status at the date of this letter is reflected in the most recent quarterly return on the programme to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority and is the agreed position for the programme.

You are responsible for ensuring the honest and timely reporting on the position of the programme to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority while it remains on the GMPP and for providing reports and information to the DHSC portfolio management office as required. In future, reporting should include carbon measurement and other sustainable development goals in accordance with evolving government policy and standards. Information on the programme will be published annually by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

You are responsible for publishing on GOV.UK a summary of the accounting office assessment completed in line with the approval of the outline business case and summaries of any subsequent assessments should they be required.

Development and support

As SRO of a GMPP programme, you are required to complete the Major Projects Leadership Academy, and you are enrolled on a cohort.

To widen experience and understanding of the role, SROs are also expected to become accredited assurance reviewers and to lead or participate in such reviews for other government departments, the wider public sector and other areas of health and social care as appropriate. Becoming an assurance reviewer and completing a review will form part of your time at the Major Projects Leadership Academy. To maintain your accreditation, you will be required to participate in a review at least once every 12 months.

The department will assist you in securing the necessary resources to support the programme, and will set clear guidance, requirements and standards, which align to the Government Functional Standard on Project Delivery, to enable good governance and effective delivery. You will be part of the department’s cohort of major project leaders who will be expected to support each other, share good practice and lessons learned and to collectively develop solutions. You should liaise with the department’s head of profession for project delivery to discuss the maintenance and development of your delivery and leadership skills.

The Infrastructure and Projects Authority will be available to you for support, advice and assurance throughout the programme’s time on the GMPP.

Following approval of the business case and entry onto the Transformation Directorate portfolio, the ETG will provide ongoing oversight and support and will take steps to help resolve and escalate risks, issues or constraints that are acting as a blocker to successful delivery.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you every success in your role as SRO.

Yours sincerely,

Shona Dunn, Second Permanent Secretary, Department of Health and Social Care

Nick Smallwood, Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Confirmation of acceptance of appointment

I confirm that I accept the appointment of senior responsible owner for the programme, including my personal accountability for implementation, as set out in the letter above.

Ming Tang