Projects

Project
Performance Assurance

Client 
Highways Agency

Happold Consulting was approached by a senior member of the Highways Agency’s (HA) management team for assistance with achieving better value for money from their contractors. The brief was to change the focus of current HA audits in order to achieve a better understanding of the performance of these contractors and to review the operational performance of the HA as a client and a business.

The project followed the OGC’s Gateway Process with the initial work involving a strategic assessment and options appraisal. This included interviewing over 50 people to try and gain an understanding of the key issues with the existing arrangements. This helped form the basis of an issues paper to the client, which highlighted a future model for consideration and the options for its delivery.

The next stages included drafting strategic and outline business cases that met Department for Transport standards. These were informed through benchmarking exercises with agencies such as Network Rail and Transport for London (TfL), a full cost-benefit analysis and a soft market testing exercise to understand how our proposals would be accepted by potential audit suppliers. The business cases covered strategic, management, economic, financial and commercial issues.

After presentations of the final business case and delivery model to the client, agreement was reached on choosing a single supplier to deliver a Performance Audit Function (PAF). The OJEU notice for PAF was issued in the summer of 2009, and Happold Consulting are involved in facilitating the tender assessments workshops. The awarded contract is likely to be worth in the region of £5m a year for the next 4 years.

Services
Business Strategy
Business Improvement
Change Management
Market Research and Analysis
Procurement Support

Project
NOACC Audit Requirements

Client
Highways Agency

Happold Consulting was appointed by the Highways Agency to look at the performance of the audit function which undertakes audits of the Managing Agent Contracts (MAC). The aim was to identify the weaknesses in the existing auditing process and develop a new approach. This evolved into a protocol which will be applied to every MAC and TechMAC audit.

We were also required to support the audit function while the auditors were undertaking site work, leading to a number of improvements in the process. As the new approach to audit was rolled out it became clear that the reporting was not consistent. We were commissioned to develop a database to make reporting and collation of findings more straightforward. 

Following on from this project, we were appointed to roll out a programme of training to the audit companies on the framework and to the Highways Agency area teams. The training was undertaken face to face with relatively small groups of people, and a training manual was produced.

Services
Business Improvement
Training