Guidance

Access to training and accreditation in best practice business cases

Updated 18 November 2022

Updated November 2020

Proposals for public spending should be scoped, planned and developed to offer best public value for money using the Treasury’s five case model. This should be based upon the Green Book supplementary guidance on Business Cases for Projects or the Business Case guidance for Programmes. In addition to this Green Book requirement for training, since August 2014 Finance Directors of Departments and of all other centrally funded government bodies have been asked by the head of the Government Finance profession to ensure that all those engaged in creating and planning spending proposals or in reviewing and approving them receive training and accreditation through the Treasury Better Business Cases programme. This supports a consistent, professional approach to the development of proposals that are best social value for money throughout the public service.

Available training

A number of private sector training organisations are accredited to deliver training in the Better Business Case method. For more detail, follow this link and click on “find a training provider”.

There are no fixed prices - all trainers compete for business, open courses and in-house courses are offered. The Treasury syllabus is based on long standing best practice guidance using the five case model and business case guidance recommended in the Green Book.

Two training courses are currently available:

• Short ‘Foundation’ course (1-2 days) in that provides an introduction and an overview for all those that would benefit from an understanding of developing or approving public sector spending proposals in the form of a public business cases
• Follow on ‘Practitioners’ course (2-4 days) for those who are directly involved in the detailed development, writing and management of business cases. This course builds on the ‘Foundation’ course into a more detailed understanding of the practical development of best value options and development of the case

Tests of understanding will be provided as part of the courses and will enable those passing to be professionally accredited.

HM Treasury also runs an in-house Master Class for Treasury and Cabinet Office Business Case Reviewers - a few places may on occasion be available on this course for reviewers from other public bodies, subject to availability and a small charge to cover costs. To access this please contact the Green Book team greenbook@hmtreasury.gov.uk Shorter top-up and introductory training is currently being developed.

The accredited training organisations are inspected and accredited by APMG and the individual trainers are trained and accredited to set standards. The training and testing will be monitored by APMG who will also administer the accreditation examinations and deal with certification and registration of accredited individuals. APMG have previously performed the role of supporting standards, accreditation and examination for several other UK government methodologies including PRINCE 2 and Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) and perform similar services for a wide range of bodies including international nongovernmental organisations such as the World Bank.

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