Transparency data

Workplace Transformation Programme: SRO appointment letter

Updated 10 November 2023

To:	Andrew Goodman, Senior Responsible Owner for the Workplace Transformation Programme
Date:	25 January 2022
From:	Peter Schofield, Permanent Secretary of Department for Work and Pensions Nick Smallwood, Chief Executive Officer of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Appointment of Andrew Goodman as Senior Responsible Owner for the Workplace Transformation Programme

We are writing to confirm your appointment as Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) of the Workplace Transformation Programme with effect from 15 December 2021. 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 Peter Schofield, as the DWP accounting officer, and the Minister for Employment.

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

You have personal responsibility for the delivery of the Workplace Transformation 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 that the Workplace Transformation Programme is being delivered into. You are also responsible for ensuring the ongoing viability of the Workplace Transformation 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 Change Portfolio Board and/or Capacity Board and the DWP Investment Committee as appropriate.

You remain accountable to Ministers, as set out in the Civil Service Code, and should deliver the Workplace Transformation 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 on by Select Committees to account for and explain the decisions and actions you have taken to deliver the Workplace Transformation 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 the 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 DWP Change Portfolio Office.

Time commitment and tenure

This role will be full time and will require 80% of your time to enable effective delivery of the role and to execute your responsibilities in full.

You are required to undertake this role until at least Phase 1 of the Workplace Transformation Programme has been completed, due by March 2025. In all, the Workplace Transformation Programme is expected to be a 10-year Programme, and will continue on after March 2025, subject to funding. Roles and responsibilities will be reviewed again after Phase 1 has been completed. 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 & Projects Authority consent.

Objectives and performance criteria

As referenced above, the Workplace Transformation Programme is a 10-year programme. It was established to support a change in the Department’s operating model by ‘right-sizing’ the estate. Key deliverables include:

• An overarching strategy which will need to take account of the needs of the Department’s customers and its people and which will pull together the threads of all Departmental and Government strategies impacting on the workplace, including:

a. Office of Government Property key priorities:

i. To reduce the core Government Estate’s footprint and create a smaller, better, and greener public estate;
ii. To strengthen the government balance sheet by redressing lifecycle maintenance liabilities and bringing the quality of our public estate back to required levels; and
iii. To consider disposal of assets that will be costly to maintain or bring up to an acceptable condition including for sustainability, energy performance and carbon emissions

b. Sustainability: In support of the Government’s intent to transition to Net Zero GHG emissions by 2050, delivery of the Programme will help reduce the Department’s CO2 emissions by 19.2k tonnes, its water consumption by 45%, and its utilities usage by 52%. Furthermore, the Programme will start the process of ensuring all of our Back of House/Hub buildings are EPC A or B rated by 2030.

c. Places for Growth: The programme will enable us to meet the target we agreed with Cabinet Office to move roles out of London.

d. The Union Strategy: The programme will ensure that we retain a footprint in Scotland and Wales thus demonstrating our commitment to the Union Strategy.

e. Levelling Up: the programme will allow us to support the people and local communities who need us most by allowing us to retain a presence in the more deprived areas throughout the regions and Nations. We will create and maintain job opportunities by preserving our geographically dispersed network, and these place-based decisions will drive regional investment and regeneration.

• A Network Design to determine which buildings the Department will retain, merge or divest between now and 2028, and the subsequent implementation of that Network Design

• A defined set of ‘design standards’ for those buildings that are retained or acquired, ensuring that the look and feel of all of the Department’s buildings is consistent. This will also include the subsequent refurbishment of the Department’s buildings that are to be retained, which will contribute towards making DWP a great place to work

• A Demand Management Process to balance ongoing demand against capacity

• A PAS3000 assessment, which will assure ongoing organisational design activities

Your personal objectives and performance criteria, relating to the Workplace Transformation are:

• To deliver the Workplace Transformation Programme for the Department, including its core objectives, one of which is to reduce the existing overcapacity in the Department’s Back of House estate. The specifics of the Back of House redesign will be subject to funding constraints and due diligence, which is ongoing at the time of writing, however it is expected that you will enable the Department to exit a number of older buildings by March 2025

• To enable a reduction in the Department’s total carbon emissions from the Back of House estate (which excludes the Jobcentre network) by 36% by April 2030, and to ensure all of our Back of House/Hub buildings are EPC A or B rated by 2030

• To successfully lead through the people implications of the change so as to maximise the opportunity and minimise business disruption by managing employee relation issues and reducing the impact on colleagues by maximising relocation, redeployment and retraining opportunities

By doing this you will deliver a workplace that is driven by the needs of the business. It will enable more flexible, effective and efficient services for the Department’s customers, while also making the best use of taxpayers’ money. Underpinning this vision is the Workplace Transformation Programme objectives, which are to:

• Change the way our people work within our buildings/spaces, both through the implementation of new ways of working and the continuing shift towards the delivery of digital services, ensuring that the value of our estate is maximised and that we can scale up/down our operations as required

• Ensure that any estate related projects (including those that are cross-government) are delivered to meet current needs, while also giving consideration to the future, minimising the impact of re-work. Any proposed changes to scope of the Workplace Transformation Programme which impacts on this intent or the realisation of benefits must be authorised by the Workplace Transformation Programme Board and may be subject to further levels of approval

You are expected to run the Workplace Transformation 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 Workplace Transformation 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 the DWP 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 project/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 Workplace Transformation Programme. Information on these controls can be found here: Cabinet Office controls.

Delegated authority

You are authorised to:

• Authorise expenditure in £1m+ bundles

• Approve a total expenditure of up to £387.5m for Phase 1 of the Programme

• Agree project rescheduling of agreed milestones, where slippage does not impact on subsequent key milestones and deliverables. Any rescheduling that impacts on the critical path must be agreed with the Workplace Transformation Programme Board and may be subject to further levels of approval

• Recommend to the Workplace Transformation Board and Change Portfolio Board 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 Change Portfolio Board.

Appointments

You should appoint a full time Programme Director to support you in the management of this Workplace Transformation 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 Workplace Transformation Programme, including the establishment of a Programme Board with appropriate membership and clear terms of reference.

As primary owner, you must ensure that the Workplace Transformation Programme secures business case approval from the Workplace Transformation Programme Board, DWP Investment Committee, Cabinet Office and HMT. You should also ensure that the Workplace Transformation 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 Workplace Transformation 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 Programme 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 Workplace Transformation 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 Workplace Transformation 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 portfolio director 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 Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

Workplace Transformation Programme status, reporting and transparency requirements

The Workplace Transformation Programme status at the date of your appointment will be reflected in the most recent quarterly return to the Infrastructure and Projects 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 Workplace Transformation Programme to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority while it remains on the GMPP and for providing reports and information to the Change and Resilience Group Portfolio Management Office as required. Reporting should include carbon measurement, and other sustainable development goals demonstrating evidence that the project contributes to an overarching environmental strategy and is aligned with defined Net Zero pathways. Information on the Workplace Transformation Programme will be published annually by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

As the SRO of a project/programme that is within scope of the cross-government Net Zero Portfolio you are additionally required to report into the Net Zero and Climate Change governance structure, specifically reporting into the Net Zero National Security Implementation Group Sub-Group and the Climate Action Implementation Committee.

You are responsible for publishing on GOV.UK a summary of the accounting officer 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 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 Workplace Transformation 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 Workplace Transformation Programme’s time on the GMPP.

Following approval of the business case and entry into the Change Portfolio, the 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,

Peter Schofield CB
Permanent Secretary
Department for Work and Pensions

Nick Smallwood
Chief Executive
Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Confirmation of acceptance of appointment

I confirm that I accept the appointment including my personal accountability for implementation of the programme detailed in the letter above.

Name of SRO: Andrew Goodman

Date: 4 March 2022