“This success is down to strong leadership. The three senior civil servants running this project started their careers at the bottom and worked their way up, accumulating over 100 years’ experience in social security along the way. They knew exactly what problems front-line staff were likely to face because they had been there themselves. As a result, many of the banana skins that traditionally bedevil government programmes were avoided”.

“It is all too easy to be cynical about the chances of any major government programme succeeding, but the Jobcentre Plus scheme proves that success is possible and that cost overruns are not inevitable. Experience is the key and the rest of Whitehall must learn from this success”.

Mr Bacon was speaking as the Commons public accounts committee published its report into the roll-out of the Jobcentre plus office network today (Thursday 11 September 2008). Between 2002 and 2008, the Department for Work and Pensions rolled out a £1.9 billion programme to replace over 1,500 jobcentres and social security offices across Britain with just over 800 modernised Jobcentre Plus offices in one of the UK’s largest public sector construction programmes of recent years.

The project was successful in delivering nearly all the planned offices, while making savings against the original budget of £2.2 billion. The report finds that a critical factor in the project’s success was the consistent senior management team, who between them had over 100 years of front line operational experience in the Agency’s business. Their willingness to revise the approach to the project as roll out proceeded was also an important factor in success.

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The three senior civil servants in charge of the project were:

• Mrs Lesley Strathie, Chief Executive, Jobcentre Plus (34 years’ service);

• Mr Jeremy Groombridge, Director for Transformation and Product Management, Jobcentre Plus (35 years’ service); and

• Mr Peter Davies, Head of Business Design Division, Jobcentre Plus (43 years’ service).