David Pitchford
Executive Director, Major Projects Authority
Which events or policies have dominated your attention during 2012, and how have you tackled them?
This year was an important step forward for building world-class leadership skills within government. We launched our new Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA), in partnership with Oxford’s Said Business School and Deloitte, to develop the skills of senior project leaders across government. By doing so, we will no longer have to rely on external consultancy to deliver the complex projects the country needs – and taxpayers will not have to foot the bills.
The academy is a ground-breaking solution to leadership issues and their effect on project performance. And our goal is that, in future, no one will be able to lead a major government project without completing the Academy.
How have the capabilities of staff working on your agenda changed during 2012?
The MPLA was set up earlier in 2012 to address capability issues amongst the project leader community across the government’s Major Projects Portfolio. So through the Academy curriculum the focus has very much been on addressing project leadership, commercial capability and technical delivery skills, and focuses on projects from both the public and private sector to ensure that participants learn from genuine case studies. Emphasis on these capabilities is also captured in the Civil Service Reform Plan commitments.
Which aspects of the Civil Service Reform Plan are most important to pursuing your objectives?
Definitely the notion that we can improve delivery of major projects, and by doing so, drive efficiencies and offer better public services. A key aspect of this is greater testing and scrutiny of major projects by departmental boards and the Major Projects Authority (MPA) before they move to full implementation, and of course training all leaders of major projects through our MPLA by 2014. The Academy is an important step in our plans to reform the Civil Service, by giving us impressive in-house experts, who know how major projects can be delivered on time and on budget. The CSRP also makes a commitment that in 18 months no appointments to Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) roles will be made unless they’ve been through the Academy.
What are the main challenges that you’re facing in 2013?
Building an MPA that is built to last – ensuring that it is equipped to continue the drive to transform the success of project delivery.
Capturing the impact and benefits from the MPLA – maximising opportunities to share lessons learnt.
Capturing, sharing and amplifying achievements and learning from and for the project delivery community, interactively.
Cracker jokes are notoriously bad. Can you give your colleagues a good joke to tell over the Christmas dinner table?
Who hides in the bakery at Christmas? A mince spy.
What do you call a penguin in the Sahara desert? Lost.
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