Transparency data

Connect to Work programme: SRO appointment letter

Updated 26 February 2026

To:
Angus Gray, Senior Responsible Owner for the Connect to Work (formerly Universal Support) programme

From:
Sir Peter Schofield KCB, Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions; and Becky Wood, Chief Executive Officer of the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and the Senior Accountable Officer for Project Delivery across Government

10 February 2026

Dear Angus

Appointment as Senior Responsible Owner for the Connect to Work programme

We are writing to confirm your appointment as Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) of the Connect to Work programme with effect from 19th June 2023. This letter sets out your responsibilities and the support you can expect from your department and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

As SRO, you are directly accountable to me, as the Accounting Officer for DWP, and are under the oversight of the Minister of State, Minister for Employment. 

Your programme forms part of the Departmental Change Portfolio, under the oversight of the Chair of the DWP Change Portfolio Board and is included in the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP). 

You have personal responsibility for the delivery of the Connect to Work programme and will be held accountable for the delivery of its objectives, policy intent and outcomes. 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 DWP Change Portfolio Board and/or Investment Committee, which are both subcommittees of DWP Executive Team.

You remain accountable to Ministers, as set out in the Civil Service Code, and should deliver the programme in accordance with the objectives and policy intent as set 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 Government Project Delivery’s guidance on the role of the senior responsible owner.

You are expected to run your programme in accordance with the Government Functional Standard for Project Delivery, and the requirements of other functional standards as required, which is mandated for government departments and arm’s length bodies to follow. You should also make yourself familiar with The Teal Book, Government Project Delivery’s code of practice for project delivery, and any further guidance and requirements set by Departmental Change Portfolio Office.

Time commitment and tenure 

This role will require 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 31 March 2026 when activity will be handed over to business as usual. 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 National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority consent.

Objectives and performance criteria 

The policy intent supported by this programme is to meet an announcement in Spring Budget 2023 outlining measures to reduce labour market inactivity, which included Universal Support, now known as Connect to Work, a supported employment programme which will support disabled people, people with health conditions and people with additional barriers to employment into sustained work. 

The Spring Budget announcement focused on inactive disabled people and those with health conditions being the primary target group for Connect to Work. Ministers subsequently agreed that disadvantaged groups should also be eligible for Connect to Work as the evidence suggests such support would be effective for them.

Any proposed changes to scope which impacts on this intent or the realisation of benefits must be authorised by the Accounting Officer, who may delegate his decision-making authority to either DWP’s Investment Committee, or the DWP Change Portfolio Board and may be subject to further levels of approval.

The vision of the programme is to move more of the inactive target groups (disabled people, people with health conditions and people with additional barriers) into sustained work using evidence based supported employment models; and its objectives are to: 

• Deliver a national supported employment model that enables participants from our inactive and in work target groups to enter or remain within sustained employment (288,000 individuals supported through a high-quality Supported Employment Fidelity model by the end of FY 2029 to 2030). 

• Support local economic growth through the employment of people from across our target populations (7ppt of additionality is achieved (at a minimum) across the combined Connect to Work programme participant group). 

• Contribute to a framework for effective, locally driven integrated employment support that can be sustained. Delivered by end point of programme – March 2030. 

• Improve participant general health and wellbeing, including support to build strategies to manage their disability and barriers to work and gain financial independence. Delivered by end point of programme – March 2030.

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

• Provide leadership and direction to the programme to ensure it delivers to its plan, manages the budget effectively, and realises the benefits in the business case. 

• Chair the programme board and ensure that decisions are made in an effective and timely manner. 

• Manage relationships with senior internal and external stakeholders. 

• Provide assurance to the Accounting Officer.

Extent and limit of accountability 

Finance and Controls 

HM Treasury spending controls will apply on the basis set out within the department’s delegated spending 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 Connect to Work programme. Information on these controls can be found here: Cabinet Office controls.

Delegated authority 

You are authorised to: 

• Approve total expenditure of £1,117 million for the whole life costs on the basis set out in your delegated spending authority. 

• Agree programme rescheduling of agreed milestones, where slippage does not impact on subsequent key milestones and deliverables. Any rescheduling that results in a material change and that would breach agreed tolerance levels must be taken to the Change Portfolio Board for approval. 

• Recommend to Martin Hill as business owner and the programme board, Change Portfolio Board and Investment Committee 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 Martin Hill as the business owner and the Change Portfolio Board.

Appointments  

You should maintain the appointment of a full-time Programme Director 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 your programme board, DWP Investment Committee and Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. 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 any updates to the Business Case and that this is 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 project directors in adjacent projects and programmes and with the Departmental Change Portfolio Office and Chief Portfolio Officer 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 Coordinator and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority/your DCPO portfolio manager.

Programme status, reporting and transparency requirements 

The programme status at the date of your appointment is reflected in the most recent quarterly return on the programme to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and is the agreed position as you assume formal ownership of the programme. 

You are responsible for ensuring the honest and timely reporting on the position of the programme to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority while it remains on the GMPP and for providing reports and information to the Departmental Change Portfolio Office as required. Reporting should include carbon measurement, and other sustainable development goals demonstrating evidence that the programme contributes to an overarching environmental strategy and is aligned with defined Net Zero pathways. Information on the programme will be published annually by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority. 

As part of the government’s commitment to transparency on major infrastructure projects, you are responsible for publishing on GOV.UK:

• A summary of the accounting officer assessment completed in line with the approval of the Programme Business Case and summaries of any subsequent assessments should they be required; and 

• A close out report after the programme has completed. 

Your Portfolio Manager in DCPO will assist you through any publishing requirements.

Evaluation 

Evaluation of major projects is a requirement. Given the scale and complexity of major projects, it is essential that they are evaluated properly to learn lessons and help ensure accountability. As an SRO of a GMPP project, you are responsible for ensuring that your programme has proportionate and suitably resourced evaluation in place. Evaluation planning should begin from the very start of the policy development and the initiation of the programme or project. Progress with the development and implementation of evaluation plans will be monitored through the major project assurance process. 

You are also responsible for registering all planned, live and completed evaluations on the Government Evaluation Registry. Guidance on using the evaluation registry is available on GOV.UK.

Development and support 

As a graduate of the Major Projects Leadership Academy, you are expected to maintain your continuing professional development as a project leader, including your status as an accredited assurance reviewer. 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 National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and Government Project Delivery will be available to you for support, advice, and assurance throughout the programme’s time on the GMPP. Government Project Delivery’s suite of standards, guidance, tools, templates and services can be accessed from projectdelivery.gov.uk and we encourage you and your team to register for accounts. 

Following approval of the business case and entry onto the Departmental Change Portfolio, the DWP Change Portfolio Board 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,

Sir Peter Schofield KCB
Permanent Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions

Becky Wood
Chief Executive Officer, National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority 
Senior Accountable Officer for Project Delivery across Government

Confirmation of acceptance of appointment

I confirm that I accept the appointment of Senior Responsible Owner for the Connect to Work programme, including my personal accountability for implementation, as set out in the letter above.

Angus Gray