Council Project & Programme Assurance

An independent perspective on how well your programme is managing its key risks and whether it’s optimised to deliver successfully.

Helping you succeed where other projects fail.

Effective project and programme management is essential for projects and programmes to succeed. However, joint research by CIPFA & the Charted Institute of Management Accountants has noted that Councils often experience an in-house shortage of the specialist skills required. Which can increase cost and complexity, cause delays and impact on effective project delivery. Councils are not alone in facing delivery challenges, it is reported that an estimated 60-70% of projects fail to meet their objectives, or deliver on time and on budget. Our project and programme assurance reviews provide an independent perspective on how well the project is performing and act as an early warning system of potential problems before they derail your project.

Bespoke Council Project & Programme Assurance Reviews / Audits

Our reviews assess the key risk areas which often cause projects and programmes to faulter. This is based on our deep subject matter expertise and experience conducting over 200 project assurance reviews in Local Government, covering all Council service areas and type of project and programme. All of our reviews are bespoke and tailored to the key risks facing your project or any areas of particular concern you may have. Typically this includes an assessment of 4 or 5 of the following key areas:

  • A robust business case, aligned to the Councils strategic objectives, may not be in place or have remained valid over time, to underpin and justify investment decisions.

  • Governance structures may not provide appropriate oversight or challenge and ensure that decisions are taken at the right level, based on complete and up to date information.

  • Management may not be able to effectively budget, resource and plan for project activities without a clear, defined and agreed scope, which aligns to the projects business case.

  • Plans may not contain all the required tasks to deliver, be resourced or regularly reviewed. Management may not have fully considered the impact of dependencies.

  • The team may not be clear on the amount  of resource needed to deliver successfully or have access to resources with the required skills and experience.

  • Stakeholders may not have been identified or communicated with effectively to ensure they are engaged and understand what is required of them to maximise benefits.

  • The project may not be fully costed and funded. Budget’s may not be monitored or be delivering in line with projected spending limits.

  • A process of robustly impact assessing proposed changes may not be in place, resulting in changes being made without appropriate consideration and approval.

  • The project may not be covered by fit for purpose commercial arrangements or be managing suppliers effectively.

  • An effective risk and issue management process may not be in place, or followed, resulting in avoidable risks materialising and issues causing delays, overspending or a failure to achieve the desired outcomes.

  • The intended benefits may not have been clearly defined or be supported by a process to allow the project to monitor & demonstrate the realisation of benefits over time.

  • Without clear definition and robust testing, project outputs may not meet the required standard or quality to achieve the intended benefits.

  • The project may not have fully considered the impact of the changes on to those involved or the investment required to successfully go-live and fully embed the changes.

Our assurance reviews take approximately 15 days to complete (dependent upon your teams availability) and are conducted through a series of interviews (via MS Teams depending on your location) with key stakeholders and a detailed review of project documentation. In that time, you will gain a clear understanding of the potential areas of weakness within your project and a plan of the actions required to improve your chances of successful delivery.

Unlike other’s we wont charge you for experts and send junior staff armed with generic question sets. Each of our assurance reviews are conducted by one of our genuine subject matter experts, who have years of experience in project assurance, project delivery and turning around failing projects. Contact us today, all services can be tailored to your specific requirements.

Our Project Assurance reviews give you

  • Visibility & Clarity

    A clear understanding of your projects current status and the barriers to successful delivery.

  • Reduced Risk

    Through an action plan to address the problem areas, containing delays and overspends.

  • Greater Confidence

    In your projects ability to achieve its objectives and realise the intended benefits.

  • Enhanced Reputation

    Safeguarding your personal and professional reputation and building trust in your organisation.

What Our Clients Say About Us

“Katie was diligent, inconspicuous in her approach and outstandingly accurate in her narratives. A highly credible professional.’’

— Director of Public Health

Professional, sensible, pragmatic, realistic – all words which come to mind when I think of Katie. Her advice to my programmes has been invaluable.

— Director of Transformation

The project work Katie completed was very well received by services and enabled them to move forward with an extremely challenging programme.”

— Head of Internal Audit

Recent Programme Assurance Case Studies