Delivery Plan

Our approach to delivery reflects a mixed model of transformation programmes, organisational frameworks and supporting plans, all of which are monitored through the ONS Accountability Framework and/or the ONS portfolio plan.

Key Deliverables

The table below shows the key deliverables for this 2022/23 Strategic Business Plan refresh.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Strategic Benefits

ONS has adopted and embedded Impact Evaluation and Theory of Change principles across the organisation in line with requirements from the joint Cabinet Office and HM Treasury Evaluation Task Force (ETF). Furthermore, ONS recognises the recommendation of the 2020 Magenta Book and 2020 Green Book Reviews that place increased emphasis on measuring impact and the delivery of strategic goals. The monitoring, evaluation and strategic benefits are set out in Annex B.

Strategic Risks

During 2021/22, there has been continued investment in, and focus on, developing the UKSA’s risk maturity. The UKSA Risk and Assurance team is focused on building and providing assurance that risks to the delivery of the UKSA Strategy and ONS Business Plan are managed within risk appetite.

2021/22 saw a number of notable developments, including:

• Refreshed Quarterly Strategic Risk and Assurance Reports, giving an overview of the evolving external risk profile and the development of associated mitigating actions and controls.
• The management of the Strategic Risks being considered in the budget allocation / planning process for the first time.
• The development of a number of tools including Strategic Risk Metrics and Assurance Maps.

As we progress into 2022/23, there will be a continued focus on managing the Strategic Risks related to Security and Quality, as well as ensuring there is a resilient and sustainable model for funding and delivery. There will also be a continued drive to build more professional risk management capabilities across the UKSA in order to ensure a consistent risk and assurance culture and application across all levels of the organisation. This enables us to ensure that we have an effective and connected Lines of Defence framework that is core to the provision of assurance to the Authority Board, Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and the Executive, over the management of key risks.

The UKSA’s Strategic Risks, endorsed by the Authority Board are set out in Annex C.  All of them have assigned Risk owners at the senior leadership level and are overseen by the relevant executive governance forum.

Stakeholders

We remain committed to putting users at the heart of our work and are proud that our latest stakeholder insight shows that we are viewed as being collaborative and a valued partner. Close relationships and collaboration with users not only helps us to identify opportunities to improve the quality and coverage of our statistics, it also helps us to be radical and ambitious in setting out to provide answers to society’s most pressing questions. We recently established the National Statistician’s Expert User Advisory Committee (NSEUAC) to bring us even closer to our users and further build the needs of our users into our approach.

Our commitment to inclusivity transcends our statistics; we continually look to expand our engagement to reach as wide a set of users as possible to fully reflect diverse needs. As part of this, we have created the National Statistician’s Advisory Committee to provide a route to building the needs of our users into our approach and an Engagement Hub to provide more resource as we build work with our communities that are inclusive, sustainable and will benefit the whole statistical system.