The report lists among the reasons for the project’s success co-operation between politicians and across organisational boundaries; budget transparency; and continuity of key personnel. Some civil servants worked on the Olympics for the full seven years, noted report author Emma Norris, and “it was clear that [this] was incredibly beneficial”.
The report argues that Whitehall must be “smarter” about redeploying people who have built up such project expertise. “This does not seem to be happening systematically for the people who worked on the Olympics,” it warns.
Norris also told CSW that the Olympics project shows the benefit of paying higher salaries to secure the “best in class” people to work on projects.