Guidance

Guide to functional standards

Published 19 May 2021

1. About this guide

This guide explains what functional standards are, and how they are used to improve the way functional work is done across government. It is for anyone involved in functional work in government.

2. Government functions

Functions enable excellence and consistency in the delivery of policy and services across government. They form a framework for collaboration across organisational boundaries, and support efficient and effective delivery of public services. Functions include Project delivery, Commercial and Finance.

Functions work across government. Each is led by a Head of Function, supported by function leaders in organisations. For activities within its scope, each function:

• sets cross-government strategies
• sets and assures standards
• develops capability
• gives expert advice
• drives continuous improvement
• develops and delivers commonly required services

For more on government functions, and expectations about how they are managed, see GovS 001, Government functions.

3.  Functional standards

Functional standards are set by each function to provide direction and advice for people working in and with the UK government.

They bring together and clarify what needs to be done, and why, for different types of functional work. They are mandated for use in departments and their arm’s length bodies through Managing Public Money(DAO letter).

British standards and, later, international standards were created to promote trust and ease trade. Government functional standards work in a similar way. They are system-wide reference documents designed to:

• support coherent, efficient and mutually understood ways of working across government
• provide a stable basis for continuous improvement and professional development
• provide a stable basis for proportionate and tailored assurance activities to monitor adherence, allow risk-based control and compare performance
• clarify accountabilities, by defining the roles needed, what people in those roles are accountable for, and who to

The standards can be used with confidence as a suite, and cross-refer to each other where needed.

For more on functional standards, and expectations about how they are managed, see GovS 001, Government functions and the Handbook for standard managers (pdf, 423 KB).

4.  Ask the right questions

Each functional standard helps accounting officers and senior leaders ask the right questions about functional work, to reassure themselves that in their organisation, for each function:

• people are covering the right breadth and scope of activity
• those directing and managing the work have the required skills and competencies
• the right environment and culture is being created to promote delivery success
• the right plans, roles and practices are in place to meet the standard and drive continuous improvement

The accounting officer is a named role in functional standards. This ensures a clear line of sight between the practices defined in each standard, and the content of Managing Public Money and its complementary guidance, which together set the principles for the stewardship of public resources to Parliament. This relationship is illustrated below:

Figure 1: Functional standards support Accounting Officers to fulfil their stewardship role for the public resources associated with functional work.

The standards are a resource to help accounting officers and senior leaders meet the requirements of Managing Public Money. For example, to support value for money and feasibility considerations, and to inform the content of Accounting Officer System Statements.

5.  Clarity and flexibility for organisations

A functional standard succinctly defines what should normally happen within the scope of a function, using consistent language (see section 9 below) and agreed definitions.

Organisations can tailor how they meet the standard in practice, depending on business need. Compliance should be proportionate and appropriate to the functional work done, and the level of prevailing risk.

The standards are written to take account of the different ways in which different organisations manage the work. For example, they are deliberately neutral about roles and terminology, so that organisations can tailor job titles and the naming of documentation, methods, procedures and processes to the type of work being done.

For more information on how to manage functional documentation, see the Guide to governance and management frameworks (pdf, 533 KB). A functional standard can be used as the basis for assurance and audits of relevant activities, and for peer review and peer support, regardless of the detailed approaches taken in organisations.

6. Supporting continuous improvement

The combination of advisory (‘should’) elements and mandatory (‘shall’) elements means the standards can be used to set ambition for continuous improvement. Different organisations, at different levels of capability and maturity, can progressively meet the standard from whatever their starting point is.

Consistent, comparable self-assessment becomes possible, helping organisations understand how well they are doing in meeting each standard. This enables more targeted continuous improvement activity, including peer review and peer support.

Note: Functions are developing and implementing continuous improvement assessment frameworks. For more detail, see the Guide to continuous improvement against functional standards.

7. Supporting professionalism

Those doing functional work need to follow functional standards. By doing this, the risk of omission is reduced - people know what’s expected.

Function professionals should be able to advise on any aspect of a functional standard that is relevant to their work. The standards should help organisations to build professional capability by supporting shared learning, collaborative working and continuity of implementation.

Functional standards define the most important roles and accountabilities for functional work, at the centre of a function and in organisations. This gives clarity about who does what, and helps encourage cross-organisational working.

The standards define roles, not jobs, giving flexibility for organisations to decide how to structure their operations, to suit the complexity of the functional work being done.

Defined functional roles and accountabilities should be reflected in relevant job descriptions and personal objectives - see also guidance for managing performance in the senior civil service.

8. Supporting joined up government

The suite of functional standards defines a consistent and stable set of expectations and terminology for everyone to work towards.

Over time, as work is aligned to meet the standards, there should be a natural ‘joining up’ of how functional work is managed, and how people work together across boundaries, see figure 2:

Figure 2, alignment to standards supports joined up government.

Functions are aligning their operations to their functional standard. Each standard is part of a coherent suite. Common definitions are used throughout.

This consistent line of sight promotes integrated management, coherent communication, and the sharing of improved and new ways of working.

With a functional standard to ‘refer up’ to, functions can clarify and simplify the wider landscape of functional documentation. Some documents may no longer be needed at all. If you are producing or managing functional documentation, see the Guide to governance and management frameworks (pdf, 533 KB), which provides advice about aligning functional documentation to functional standards.

Aligning ways of working to the standards makes it easier for people to work together across organisational and functional boundaries, and to hit the ground running when they move between organisations. Wherever it makes business sense, organisations should use cross-government functional guidance, methods, tools and processes to meet the standard. This embeds the use of common language, terminology and definitions.

9.  Interpreting a functional standard

Each functional standard follows a similar pattern, to make it easy for people to find what they need.

They start with a boilerplate section which defines the particular words used to denote what is mandatory (‘shall’) and what is advisory. The verbs used are the same as those used in both British (BSI) and international (ISO) standards, where:

• ‘shall’ denotes a requirement, which applies in all circumstances, at all times
• ‘should’ denotes a recommendation, to be met on a ‘comply or explain’ basis
• ‘may’ denotes approval
• ‘might’ denotes a possibility
• ‘can’ denotes both capability and possibility
• is/are is used for a description

The whole of each functional standard should be followed. Paying attention only to the ‘shall’ statements is not sufficient, as this leads to a ‘tick box’ approach where context is unclear and continuous improvement opportunities are lost.

The introductory sections of each standard set the parameters:

(1) About this standard: the purpose and scope of the standard, and references to the other government standards directly needed to meet it

(2) Principles: the mindset needed to follow the standard

(3) Context: essential background information needed in order to understand the main body of the standard

The main body of the standard sets expectations (the ‘shalls’ and ‘shoulds’):

(4) Governance: what governance and management frameworks are needed; requirements and recommendations about strategy, assurance and decision making; the roles and accountabilities required (who is accountable to whom, for what). [Note that the standard defines roles, not ‘jobs’].

(5) Cycle/process: what the work involves, which is usually described in terms of a life cycle or process

(6) Practices: practices which apply across the main body of the standard

The annexes provide additional information:

A. References: directly referenced documents that are needed to meet aspects of the standard

B. Glossary: defined terms used in the standard

C. Other annexes as needed: additional information to augment what is provided in the main body of the standard

The main body of some functional standards differs slightly from the pattern shown above because of the particular content covered.

• Functional Standards collection page
• Guide to continuous improvement against functional standards
• GovS 001, Government functions landing page