The Ministry of Defence has signed Deloitte to a £2.5m seven-month deal to help shape the development of a new recruiting programme for the Armed Forces.
Over the next three years, the MoD will be working on the development and implementation of a new recruitment model for the Army, Navy, and Royal Air Force. The cornerstone of the Armed Forces Recruiting Programme (AFRP) will be a digital system for managing the recruitment process of new soldiers and officers.
Deloitte has been tasked with lending consulting support to the early stages of the programme. This will include helping the MoD “develop a recruiting operating model” as well as assisting with the development of a “statement of requirement for the future service to enable tenders to be released to the supplier market”.
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The firm has been given a contract worth £2.45m, commencing on 7 August and concluding on 31 March 2020. The deal was awarded via the Management Consultancy 2 framework.
Another short-term deal – dedicated to “creating a data map” of the requirements of AFRP – is also due to be awarded soon. In June, the MoD published a Digital Marketplace contract notice seeking a supplier to provide “digital project support” to the process of creating a statement of requirement.
AFRP will replace the troubled Recruiting Partnering Project, a long-term £1.3bn engagement between the ministry and Capita. The outsourcer was first appointed in 2012 to lead the Armed Forces recruitment initiative.
Since then, the programme has consistently failed to meet targets, including an annual shortfall in new recruits that has never been less than 21% and has sometimes exceeded 40%. A new website developed by Capita also launched four years later than planned – and at triple the intended cost.