Continuous improvement: assessment against standards
Updated 15 April 2024
© Crown copyright 2024
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-functional-standard-govs-001-government-functions/continuous-improvement-assessment-against-standards
A complete and stable functional standard creates certainty about what is expected, and enables convergence over time towards an effective, coherent and integrated system.
Continuous improvement assessment framework
A continuous improvement assessment framework is a management tool to help organisations consistently identify improvement needs and opportunities against the most important aspects of a standard, by defining what needs to be present or observable in an organisation for it to reach maturity levels of good, better and best.
Resulting management information is comparable across functions and organisations.
Assessment against the framework helps organisations and functions understand whether, and how well, a standard is being met.
The content of an assessment framework is not definitive, and does not dilute the need to meet the whole functional standard.
Raise the bar over time
Criteria in an assessment framework can be recalibrated over time to reflect progress made. This keeps ambition high, and raises the bar for everyone.
Improved practices can be cemented into the functional standard, by turning an advisory ‘should’ into a mandatory ‘shall’ (see also 6.3.2).
Benefits
Consistent assessment provides comparable management information that supports system- wide continuous improvement (see Figure 8), providing the basis for:
- targeted continuous improvement activity within organisations, including through peer review and peer support
- targeted capability building by functions, based on a shared understanding of each organisation’s maturity in meeting standards and undertaking functional work
- input to relevant independent scrutiny
A function is able to publish its continuous improvement assessment framework should it wish to do so, but completed self-assessments by organisations are for internal government management purposes, and not intended for publication.
Note: see also the Guide to continuous improvement against functional standards.
Figure 10: assessment against a functional standard supports system-wide improvement
- Developing / Good / Better / Best
- Minimum expected = Good
- Functions: Targeted capability building in organisations, based on a shared understanding of maturity in undertaking functional work
- Independent scrutiny: Inform studies and audits within or external to government
- Organisations: Comparable management information, ideally based on peer review or audit, to inform targeted continuous improvement