Our journey to compliance to the English Devolution Accountability Framework
The West Midlands Combined Authority’s Single Assurance Framework was launched in 2016 to comply with the requirement in the National Local Growth Assurance Framework for all public bodies to have an Assurance Framework. It was first launched to support projects being developed through ‘Gainshare’ (Investment Programme). Once established, due to its impact in improving project business cases, the Board took the decision to roll it out to other Directorates. Each directorate was managed in a bespoke way to meet the particular needs of the policy area and the Single Assurance Framework was designed to be flexible and proportionate to respond to these needs.
The Programme Assurance and Appraisal team planned to embed the Single Assurance Framework, by identifying the ‘early adopters’ within the Combined Authority. The first Directorate identified as a potential early adopter was the Transport team on CRSTS – City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement, and applicants, internal and external would be invited to apply for funding using the Single Assurance Framework to articulate their projects and provide the assurance on those Business Cases as part of the decision-making process.
This was followed by work with the Employment, Skills, Health and Communities directorate. By introducing the Single Assurance Framework to them, we identified that we needed to identify who in the Combined Authority needed to be involved in the initiation and development of projects and programmes. As a result ‘The Guide to Corporate Governance’ was developed to support the Single Assurance Framework as a useful guide for who and when to contact supporting services such as Finance, Procurement and Legal, and how they could support.
The newly developed Guide to Corporate Governance also provided a home for the process in managing bids that came in from government departments.
The Housing Directorate already had a Single Commissioning Framework, which reviewed the bids for gap funding of housing schemes offering due diligence and a value for money assessment.
However, their Single Commissioning Framework didn’t cover how the project would be managed by the Combined Authority, or its strategic fit. By not involving assurance in the process, it also did not involve an independent review by the Programme Assurance and Appraisal team. This provided a cultural challenge, as the Housing Team felt that it was a challenge to their technical ability and were concerned about opportunities being lost due to putting extra time in the process. The Programme Assurance and Appraisal team spent time with the Development Managers demonstrating how it would add value, and with support from senior leadership, projects are now being submitted to Programme Assurance and Appraisal for review alongside the Single Commissioning Framework.
Alongside this mobilisation, the annual review of the Framework took place, the main changes being the diagrams and language simplified to avoid misunderstanding about the process. Underlying any review, is the ambition to ensure that it remains flexible and proportionate to the value and risk of the projects and programmes being submitted. Each year a review of each Business Case template with supporting Guidance takes place to respond to feedback from Directorates and the findings from Assurance and Appraisal reports.
To ensure that the Programme Assurance and Appraisal team were consistent in their reviews of programme and project business cases, the team undertook Green Book Training to Practitioner level. The team developed a Business Case Assessment Tool to assess the maturity of the Business Case, with recommendations of how it can be improved. Once the final Business case is submitted, the Appraisal is documented on a standard Risk and Appraisal Report with a recommendation to Approve, Defer or Reject.
The Business Case Assessment Tool quantifies the quality of the project or programme, and the results are analysed and reported to Directorates, with advice on how their Business Cases can be improved. Risks are also analysed and reported. Results are also reported to the Executive Board and the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee for scrutiny on risks, governance and financial standards. The monthly reports to Directorates have driven an improvement to the quality of the Business Cases, lifting the maturity of their cases by an average of 10%. Once the programmes or projects are in delivery, the Assurance team has developed a Health Check tool to review and make recommendations to improve the management of them, if necessary.
To support the Directorates, the Centre of Excellence team works with the project or programme sponsor to discuss the project and decide on the most appropriate Business Case template to complete and the route to decision. To support the Business Case Sponsors, and the general understanding of all staff, a suite of training materials was developed, rolled out as a series of seminars and then developed for the online Training Platform, where it forms part of the mandatory induction for all new staff. The training materials have subsequently been shared with member local authorities to ensure that they also understand the Single Assurance Framework.
This was followed up a year later to Combined Authority staff by a campaign of ‘Be SAF not Sorry’ an innovative and fun way of showing the importance of Assurance and Appraisal to the work of the Combined Authority. Over a dreary wet January in 2024, the colourful seminars based around a quiz-like format on Assurance attracted over 320 colleagues – approximately a third of the total workforce and an even larger proportion of those involved in projects.
A more formal series of events were held for local authorities to understand more about the Single Assurance Framework and for Programme Assurance and Appraisal and teams like Legal Finance and Governance to understand the local authorities’ issues. The outcome was an agreement that the contact needs to be continued.
The Programme Assurance and Appraisal team have a culture of continuous improvement, and its leadership reached out to other Combined Authorities to share processes and information on a regular basis. This is a network that could be of real value to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in the future to discuss improvements to Assurance models to ensure that the taxpayer gets best value for money. The challenge remains on how this network can be further embedded into a Best Practice Network.
HM Treasury under the Conservative Government and continued under the current Labour Government have been in negotiations with us and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to address the way that we are funded into one Integrated Settlement. This was done to address the uncertainty and often short-term opportunistic approach to funding. Programme Assurance and Appraisal see this as an opportunity for better development time for projects and programmes.
Around the same time as conversations started with Government on the Integrated Settlement, the English Devolution Accountability Framework was launched in March 2023. This sets out the requirement for a more holistic approach to programme and project development and delivery, strengthening the requirements for a more strategic approach to portfolio development, based on the ROAMEF approach used by Government. (Rationale, Objectives, Appraisal, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Feedback). The Single Assurance Framework and the associated templates and guidance will need an overhaul to meet its requirements. This is also a real opportunity for the Health Check tool to support the Monitoring Process by identifying any reasons for under or over performance.
The Programme Assurance and Appraisal team believe that they add value to Projects and Programmes. They aim for more than just being compliant with any Guidance, but to improve the quality of projects and programmes, and to ensure that they assist in making West Midlands Combined Authority national leaders in Assurance.