How does SIB support Departments?
The specific work that SIB’s Strategic Advisers undertake will vary depending on the requirements of individual Departments and projects. We tend to be most useful in complex projects requiring skills and experience not usually found in the public sector. Our involvement is always with the aim of speeding delivery, reducing cost and risk and promoting good practice. Typical roles include:
- acting as interim Director during the early stages of a programme;
- advising on the commercial aspects of contracts;
- advising on procurement strategies;
- assisting in the production of business cases;
- advising on the suitability of programmes for Public-Private Partnerships (PPP); and
- developing the market to encourage competition and drive out value for money.
SIB has funding available to support projects and help enable them to progress through their initial stages. We don’t, however, fund the capital or running costs of the projects themselves. Typically this includes funding specialist financial, legal or technical advisers. The funding can be deployed quickly in order to overcome problems as they arise and without the need to go through a complex approval process. Details of how we spend this money are published in SIB’s Annual Report and Accounts.
In addition to assisting with the funding of individual projects, SIB’s strategy is to help Departments develop their in-house capabilities. One way we do this is by establishing Programme Delivery Support Units (PDSUs). These are small organisations within Departments that provide common support services to projects. The PDSUs assist with the planning and delivery of Departments’ projects and at the same time seek to transfer private sector knowledge and skills into the public sector. They are staffed by a mixture of civil servants, SIB staff and external consultants. We also offer civil servants the opportunity to work on secondment within SIB.