Synergy Programme Accounting Officer Assessment (April 2023)
Updated 21 October 2024
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
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Synergy Programme - Accounting Officer Assessment
It is normal practice for Accounting Officers to scrutinise significant policy proposals or plans to start or vary major projects, and then assess whether they measure up to the standards set out in Managing Public Money. From April 2017, the government has committed to making a summary of the key points from these assessments available to Parliament where it involves a project within the Government’s Major Projects Portfolio.
This Accounting Officer Assessment considers the Synergy Programme, which is a cross Departmental initiative for which the DWP Permanent Secretary is the lead Accounting Officer.
Background and Context
The Synergy Programme was set up to deliver the Government Shared Services Strategy to implement the next generation of shared services in four Departments: The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; the Department for Work and Pensions; the Home Office; and the Ministry of Justice. The Home Office has already moved to an Enterprise Resource Planning Cloud solution. The other Departments still use a Single Operating Platform Technology. All the Departments currently use the same Business Process Services provider.
The Programme’s aim is to deliver the transformation of Corporate Services across Departments aligning their financial and human resources processes with cross Government best practice.
The Programme Outline Business Case was subject to review by the four Departmental Investment Committees. Each Investment Committee agreed the release of the Outline Business Case to Permanent Secretaries but asked for further assurance in a number of areas as the case develops. These comments were consistent with feedback from the Infrastructure and Projects Authority review. The Programme’s formal Governance Structure, including representatives from all four departments, agreed for the Outline Business Case to enter the Treasury Approval Process where ultimate approval was granted in October 2022
The Chief Secretary granted funding up to the first iteration of the Full Business Case, totalling £80.3 million for the period to 31 March 2024. This is conditional on Synergy Programme team delivering further work on benefits, setting out all timescales and resourcing requirements for procurements and refining governance arrangements to set out clearer lines of Ministerial Accountability.
Assessment Against Accounting Officer Standards
Regularity
The Programme does not require any new primary or secondary legislation to deliver its objectives. The Programme’s scope falls within existing common law powers, being included in the ambit of the Supply and Appropriation (Main Estimates) Act. HM Treasury approval for the Outline Business Case has now been obtained together with funding to March 2024. The Programme’s plan has a critical dependency on being able to secure Business Process Services beyond October 2023 to ensure service continuity and to give the cluster the time required to safely put the new shared service arrangements in place.
Subject to HM Treasury continuing to provide funding as set out in the approved Outline Business Case beyond the Spending Review 2021 period and the resolution of contracting arrangements beyond October 2023, the regularity test is met.
Propriety
The Synergy programme supports Parliament’s expectation for Departments to join up where there are benefits from doing so. The programme plan is consistent with the Government’s strategy for the future of shared services
In common with many major projects, the Programme requires a large upfront investment to deliver a stream of future benefits and therefore the Full Business Case will need to demonstrate that the benefits continue to outweigh investment costs.
In order to meet its objectives, the Programme will need to manage all aspects of delivery across the Departments within the cluster.
My assessment is that the propriety test is sufficiently satisfied to proceed at this stage.
Value for Money (VfM)
The Programme delivers a positive Net Present Value over the 15 years of the business case.
The economic case shows the most favourable Net Present Value. The financial case is a Net Present Cost because most of the benefits are non- cashable, and these have a payback period of 22 years. The Programme will be working with the four Departments on realising more cashable savings prior to the Full Business Case.
Further work will be undertaken to develop and strengthen the Full Business Case to confirm certainty on costs and that these support significant operational benefits that can be gained through the introduction of an up-to-date Software as a Service based finance and human resources system when compared to a Do Minimum scenario.
Based on the planned further work on costs and benefits through to a Full Business Case, I consider that the value for money test is sufficiently satisfied to proceed at this stage.
Feasibility
As with most major programmes, this Synergy Programme is carrying a number of delivery risks, primarily, resource constraints, supplier capacity and inflation.
Synergy remains a large complex programme to deliver business transformation across multiple government departments through the adoption of converged processes and agreement to work to a Common Operating Model. The Programme faces significant pressure on its timelines and is competing for scarce resources in the marketplace. There are significant risks, such as the dependence on extending the existing contract with the business process provider.
Overall, I consider the feasibility test is sufficiently satisfied to proceed at this stage.
This assessment is subject to all the critical dependencies being met including future funding; agreement of a Common Operating Model, sufficient skilled resource being available, securing the required contract extension together with the delivery of agreed plans across the cluster in line with Investment Committee and Infrastructure and Project Authority recommendations.
Conclusion
In conclusion I have prepared this summary to set out the key points which informed my decision. My overall assessment is that the Synergy Programme currently sufficiently satisfies the requirements of the four accounting officer tests of regularity, propriety, value for money and feasibility to proceed at this stage.
If any of these factors change materially during the lifetime of this programme, I undertake to prepare a revised summary, setting out my assessment of those factors.
This summary will be published on the government’s website. Copies will be deposited in the library of the House of Commons and sent to the Comptroller and Auditor General and Treasury Officer of Accounts.
Peter Schofield