48th Report - Smarter delivery of public services

Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee HC 889 22 October 2025
Report Status Response document linked Recorded deadline: 22 Dec 2025

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Conclusions & Recommendations 29 items (17 recs)
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Government response
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Forth-eighth report from Session 2024-26 · published 19 Jan 2026
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Recommendations & Conclusions

29 results
2 Conclusion
Require Heads of Profession to enable staff for raising ideas and improving services.
Conclusion
There are examples of innovation happening across government but more needs to be done to harness the ideas of the 290,000 members of the ODP for improving service delivery. There are 23 examples of innovation in the NAO’s report, which … Read more
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3 Recommendation
Set out plan to encourage innovation and join up delivery between public and private sectors.
Recommendation
The ODP is not doing enough to join up with the wider public sector, including local government, which plays a large part in the delivery of public services, or with the private sector. The ODP’s focus is on the 290,000 … Read more
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4 Conclusion
Monitor effectiveness of ODP strategy in building capabilities for better government services.
Conclusion
There are gaps in core operational delivery capabilities in government organisations which impact on the cost and quality of services it delivers. Operational capability across government is varied and weaknesses have real consequences for citizens. For example, where a department … Read more
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5 Conclusion
Work with Government Digital Profession to define and include essential digital skills in framework.
Conclusion
It is vital that the ODP keeps pace with advances in new technology and artificial intelligence and the implications for the changing skills its members need. The ODP has created a skills framework, which sets out the skills that staff … Read more
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6 Conclusion
Conduct analysis of SRRT usage to boost departmental capability for demand variation.
Conclusion
The Surge and Rapid Response Team (SRRT) is a valuable resource but should be there for genuine need and not as a containment for the lack of operational capability needed to deal with demand that should have been predicted or … Read more
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1 Conclusion
Committee takes evidence on ODP's role in building capabilities for smarter services.
Conclusion
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the UK civil service’s ‘Operational Delivery Profession’ (ODP), and two of its departmental Heads of Profession, on how it is helping departments build the … Read more
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7 Conclusion
ODP highlights critical role of operational capability at all levels for public services.
Conclusion
We asked why operational capability is so important for government. The ODP told us about the important roles its members have in serving citizens, such as in jobcentres, the Passport Office and dealing with planning applications. The ODP explained that … Read more
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8 Recommendation
ODP acknowledges low public profile despite important role and achievements.
Recommendation
We asked about the status and profile of the Profession, observing that it was the first time the Head of ODP had appeared before the Committee in this capacity, and that the ODP seemed to have a very low profile. … Read more
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9 Recommendation
ODP agrees to enhance visibility of career opportunities to attract young talent.
Recommendation
We asked about whether better visibility could encourage more young people to join the Profession. The ODP agreed that it should be talking more about the career opportunities that are available, such as through the Operational Delivery Fast Stream programme … Read more
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10 Recommendation
NAO report highlights numerous examples of government innovation despite challenges.
Recommendation
There are 23 examples of innovation in the NAO’s report, which show it is possible for teams working across government to continuously improve and be innovative–even in adverse circumstances where operational delivery is highly challenging.14 Ensuing that everyone can contribute … Read more
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11 Recommendation
Transformative government changes require innovation, learning from failure, and staff empowerment.
Recommendation
Witnesses told us that the transformative changes needed by government will require both large scale projects and day-to-day incremental improvements involving front-line staff.16 We asked how departments will remove the barriers to innovation by creating a working environment that encourages … Read more
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12 Recommendation
Effective structures are needed for ideas to flow and foster continuous improvement.
Recommendation
The Departmental Head of Profession for the Home Office told us about the need to build structures that allow ideas to flow and give people time outside of their day job. He told us about HM Passport Office’s continuous improvement … Read more
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13 Conclusion
ODP membership heavily concentrated in five major central government departments.
Conclusion
The ODP’s focus is on its 290,000 members in the Civil Service. These members work within central government organisations or arm-length bodies within those organisations. Around 80% of ODP members work in just five government departments: the Ministry of Justice, … Read more
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14 Recommendation
Whole-system approach with private and local government partners vital for service delivery.
Recommendation
We asked about the importance of taking a whole system approach to service delivery. The Departmental Head of Profession for the Home Office described how his organisation has to work closely with four private sector partners to ensure the end-to-end … Read more
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15 Recommendation
Significant challenges hinder ODP collaboration with local government due to differing models.
Recommendation
We asked several questions which explored how the ODP works with local government, given that local authority staff are not its members. The Departmental Head of Profession for the Home Office described some of the challenges created by the very … Read more
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16 Recommendation
ODP must broaden capability building and career opportunities to local government.
Recommendation
The ODP also told us how it had invited two senior leaders from mayoral authorities to join the latest cohort of ODP Excel, a learning programme to improve participants readiness for senior operational delivery role, and attend its training events.25 … Read more
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17 Recommendation
ODP recognises opportunities for learning and interplay with the private sector.
Recommendation
We asked about how well connected ODP was to the private sector. The ODP told us that there were opportunities to learn from the private sector about how to innovate in the delivery of public services, and said its Senior … Read more
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18 Conclusion
Inadequate and varied operational capability across government negatively impacts citizens.
Conclusion
Operational capability across government is varied and often lacking in what matters most.32 Weaknesses in operational capability can have real consequences for citizens. For example, where a department lacks the capability to understand and deal with demand, the result is … Read more
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19 Recommendation
ODP strategy outlines interventions to improve government capability and service delivery.
Recommendation
The ODP acknowledged that improving capability across government is crucial to delivering better services.36 Its approach to doing so, as set out in its strategy for 2025–28, includes interventions such as a professional skills framework for generic operational capabilities, apprenticeship … Read more
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20 Recommendation
ODP lacks robust metrics to link capability interventions with service outcomes.
Recommendation
We asked how the ODP will know if this approach has been successful. The ODP told us that while it believed that investing in capability would deliver better customer service, and that customer satisfaction is a good measure, demonstrating causality … Read more
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21 Conclusion
Operational Delivery Profession demonstrates progress in building data capabilities and monitoring tools.
Conclusion
We heard about the ODP’s progress in building its data expertise, gathering baseline data and creating data dashboards for particular programmes. The ODP also described how a new maturity matrix will help it measure the influence it is having within … Read more
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22 Recommendation
Operational Delivery Profession's skills framework requires updating for evolving digital and AI capabilities.
Recommendation
The ODP has created a professional skills framework, which sets out the sorts of skills that staff need at different stages of their careers.40 It feels that this framework will be critical to the success of its strategy.41 However, the … Read more
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23 Recommendation
Public sector AI adoption for service improvement remains nascent, hampered by significant skills shortfalls.
Recommendation
Improved digital capability can lead to reduced costs and better services for users. For example, automating straightforward types of demand can increase efficiency, and also enable operational delivery staff to spend more time dealing with customers with more complex needs, … Read more
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24 Recommendation
Government departments demonstrate diverse uses of artificial intelligence to improve services and proactively identify risks.
Recommendation
We asked about the scope for government to make greater use of artificial intelligence to improve services. The ODP told us that there were numerous examples of individual departments using artificial intelligence in different ways. It told us about a … Read more
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25 Recommendation
ODP collaborates with GDS to integrate operational and digital capabilities for service delivery.
Recommendation
Witnesses described the importance of bringing together operational and digital capabilities–for example, by doing work to make a process efficient before bringing in digital tools, such as AI.47 The ODP also described how it was working with the Government Digital … Read more
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26 Conclusion
Government services require resilience for demand fluctuations, supported by ODP's Surge and Rapid Response Team.
Conclusion
Government needs to know that its services can adapt to peaks and troughs in demand and still meet user expectations. It is important to have the resilience to meet expected variations in demand as well as to respond to unexpected … Read more
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27 Conclusion
Departments utilise Surge and Rapid Response Team for seasonal demand peaks and emerging crisis responses.
Conclusion
We asked about how departments were making use of the SRRT. The ODP explained how the SRRT helps to deal with seasonal peaks in demand, such as Winter Fuel payments, as well as with emerging crises, such as the collapse … Read more
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28 Recommendation
Surge and Rapid Response Team provides immediate, high-quality, and flexible staffing solutions for departments.
Recommendation
We were told by the Departmental Head of Profession for the Home Office that a benefit of using the SRRT is that its staff can start straight away–for example, they are already security cleared, and can move around the world … Read more
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29 Conclusion
Departments should prioritise internal agility and automation for demand management, with SRRT as a last resort.
Conclusion
The ODP told us that the seasonality in demand in some departments meant that they would be repeatedly using SRRT.56 We asked about whether departments were in fact using SRRT as a “get-out” clause, building it into their capability plans, … Read more
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