Our work suggests that machinery of government changes and mergers can deliver benefits, but only where the government is clear about the outcomes sought, realistically plans implementation, protects operational delivery, integrates organisational cultures effectively, and systematically tracks costs and benefits.
The greatest risks arise when changes are implemented quickly without clear objectives, robust governance, or a clear understanding of the resources required to realise benefits.
The following six insights set out key findings and lessons from our past reports on reorganising government departments.
1. Be clear about why the change is being made
Reorganisations often proceed without sufficiently clear objectives or articulation of what they aim to achieve. Where objectives are vague, it is difficult to judge whether the change has been successful.
Clarity about the rationale for restructures is particularly important as our operational delivery work across government has shown there is often no direct relationship between making structural changes and service delivery capability improvements.
Key message: Structural change should be driven by clear outcomes, not by organisational redesign for its own sake.
2. Track costs and benefits from the outset
Our past work has found that departments generally do not track the costs and benefits of reorganisations, making it impossible to tell whether they were value for money.
For example, our review of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office- Department for International Development (FCO-DFID) merger into the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) found that while some benefits had emerged, the department had not systematically tracked them and could not fully assess the value for money of the merger.
Key message: Establish baseline measures, benefit metrics and cost reporting before implementation begins.
3. Integration takes longer and costs more than expected
Our work on machinery of government changes indicates the government frequently underestimates transition costs, management effort and disruption to normal business when undertaking reorganisations.
We found that the FCDO’s original merger programme was overly ambitious in both scope and timetable. The department had to reduce the scope of its transformation programme and focus on core integration activities before progress could be made.
Key message: Plan for a multi-year integration effort, with realistic expectations around pace and capacity.
4. Culture, capability and people issues matter as much as structures
In our review of the FCDO merger, we highlighted the importance of combining different organisational cultures, maintaining needed capability and addressing people issues such as HR policies, allowances and ways of working.
Key message: Successful mergers require sustained leadership attention on culture, staff engagement and capability retention—not just systems and governance.
5. Maintain business-as-usual delivery during transition
Restructures create risks of management distraction and service disruption. Departments need strong programme management and governance to ensure operational performance is maintained during organisational transitions.
Key message: Protect operational delivery while implementing change; do not assume reform activity is cost-free in management capacity.
6. Strong leadership and governance are critical
Across our work more generally, we have emphasised the importance of visible senior leadership, clear accountability, effective programme management and robust reporting arrangements. The FCDO merger showed that resetting plans and strengthening governance helped bring the reorganisation back on track.
Key message: Establish clear ownership, decision-making structures and programme controls early.
Author
Kate Caulkin
Kate is an HR and project delivery expert and leads the People and Operational Management Insights team. Prior to joining the NAO, Kate 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.