Cross-government and Public Administration Sector

The cross-government team’s Value for Money (VFM) work highlights areas for improvement and examples of best practice in common disciplines such as:

• financial management

• procurement

• asset management

All public bodies can draw on in their efforts to increase efficiency and improve service delivery.

Two recent reports, Government on the internet and Improving corporate functions using shared services address the use of technology in service delivery, which was made a government priority in the 2005 report on Transformational government and Sir David Varney’s 2006 report to Treasury, Service transformation.

The Cross-government studies team is closely linked to and shares knowledge, insight and resources with the Efficiency Practice. For example, the team has assessed government’s procurement capability and performance, a central component of the government’s drive to improve efficiency, in a number of recent and upcoming reports.

Much of the team’s current and upcoming work is examining the impact of initiatives coming out of the Cabinet Office, most notably the Departmental Capability Reviews.

Further reports assess government bodies’ approach to, and support for, innovation and learning. We followed these reports up with a conference entitled Changing Culture, Strengthening Delivery, to highlight the lessons from our reports.

Features

Innovation across government

In early 2009 we published reports on Innovation across Central Government and Helping Government Learn. They looked at varied projects, programmes and initiatives from across the public sector, and assessed how good government was at innovation and learning. The examples in the reports show the diversity of efforts being made to innovate and learn. The reports also highlight common themes:

• the need to make innovation and learning a routine part of day to day working life, rather than an add-on;
• the recognition that systems and processes are not enough on their own, and that cultural change is also needed; and
• the importance of senior leadership to encourage and guide change.

A conference on Changing culture, strengthening delivery explored these issues in greater depth with individuals involved in innovation in central government, local government and third sector organisations. We have also produced five short films highlighting some of the examples of good practice from the two reports.

At Civil Service Live in July 2009 we talked to visitors about how to break down the barriers to innovation. 

Civil Service Live 2008

The NAO exhibited at Civil Service Live, held at the QEII Centre in Westminster. Our objectives were to demonstrate how good practice can be disseminated through guidance, toolkits, events and NAO Focus Magazines.

For more information please see the Practical Tools leaflet (468 KB)

Managing financial resources

Strong financial management is crucial to a department's efforts to provide its customers with value for money. The history of financial management in government, however, is poor.

Following the introduction of full Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) in 2001, HM Treasury has introduced a range of initiatives to help central government bodies to achieve 'World Class' standards of financial management.

Read full article: Managing financial resources

Managing risks to improve public services

On 8 February 2005 we held a conference to cover a wide range of aspects related to risk management across government.

Read full article: Managing risks to improve public services