Our People and Operational Management Insights team are experts in the challenges facing government in service delivery, workforce, people skills and capability management.

Director

Kate Caulkin

Kate is an HR and project delivery expert and leads the People and Operational Management Insights team. Kate has worked in the civil service for 30 years in corporate centre roles, including in the Cabinet Office, as Group Human Resources Director at the Department for Transport, and as Co-Director of the Corporate Centre at the Department for Exiting the EU.

Kate is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Contact Kate about challenges facing government in service delivery, workforce, people skills and capability management.

Team members

Alec Steel

Alec has led our operational management work since 2010, and supports government thinking across the UK, Europe, USA and Australia. He has published good practice guides in improving operational delivery for both senior leaders and people managing government services day-to-day. He is an observer member of the strategy board for UK government’s Operational Delivery Profession.

Before he joined the NAO, Alec worked in strategy and change roles in the public sector.

Contact Alec about organisational change, service delivery and continuous improvement.

Scott McMillan

Scott has been a member of our operational management team since 2012. He has supported work across a diverse range of public sector organisations and is the co-author of the NAO’s good practice guides on improving operational delivery. Before joining the team, Scott spent eight years working on both financial and value-for-money audits at the NAO.

Scott is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. He is is working towards a postgraduate award in Service Operations Management at Warwick Business School.

Contact Scott about operational delivery.

Pauline Ngan

Pauline focuses on people and workforce issues relating to the public sector. Since joining the NAO in 2010, she has led value for money work on various cross-government topics, including civil service skills and capability.

Previously, Pauline worked in Parliament, where she was a committee specialist on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee.

Contact Pauline about people and workforce issues.

Our work

The People and Operational Delivery Insights team leads and supports work across the NAO on:

  • managing and improving the services that government provides
  • taking a whole-system approach to meeting government’s policy challenges
  • addressing government’s future workforce and workplace needs
  • building leadership capability for current and future challenges

For more on our work in these areas, see the following topics:

Other Insights teams

Find out about the NAO’s other Insights teams