Taking forward the review

There are a number of bodies who are involved in taking forward the Review of Public Administration (RPA):

The Central RPA team

The Programme Management Board

Project Teams

The Central RPA Team

A central RPA team has been set up in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) to oversee the overall RPA programme for Northern Ireland.

You can find general information about RPA on the Review of Public Administration website.

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The DE Oversight Board

Within the Department of Education (DE) an Oversight Board has been set up to oversee implementation of the education aspects of RPA. The Board provides leadership and direction for the review and will manage arrangements to ensure the smooth transition to the new structures. The members of the Board are:

• Chair:   Will Haire (Permament Secretary)
• Senior Responsible Officer (DE Projects):   John McGrath (Deputy Secretary)
• Senior Responsible Officer (ESAIT Projects):   Gavin Boyd (Chief Executive Designate ESA)

Members:

• Robson Davison - (Deputy Secretary)
• Stanley Goudie - (Chief Inspector)
• Maura McCusker - (Head of Corporate Services Division)
• David Woods - (Head of Strategy, Performance and Accountability Division)
• Mark Browne - (ESAIT Programme Director)
• Roger Platt - (Non Executive Director)
• Kevin Steele - (Non Executive Director)

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The Strategic Programme Management Office (sPMO)

A Strategic Programme Management Office (sPMO) has also been set up within the Department. The role of the sPMO is to provide assurance to the Programme Management Board on the overall Programme and support the DE and ESA project managers in planning, management and reporting on their projects.

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The Project Teams

A series of projects have been set up to deliver the new structures for delivering education policy and services. These projects and their main objectives are set out below.

• Education Strategy and Operational Planning
  

  To develop a framework of planning arrangements which will be fit-for-purpose in the post-RPA era and reflect the respective roles of DE and ESA; and, for 2008/09, to provide suitable transitional arrangements.

• Organisation Design and Implementation
  

  To determine which operational functions within DE should transfer to the ESA and put in place a strategy and plan for the acquisition, utilisation, improvement and retention of DE staff that will support and help achieve DE's new purpose and objectives.

• Policy Development and Codification
  

  To secure the compilation of an initial Policy Code reflecting the Department's current policies across the full spectrum of education provision and thus the policy parameters within which we expect ESA to operate; and to draw up guidelines and procedures for the Department's ongoing work on policy review and development, to ensure that this is approached in a consistent and coherent way.

• Finance and Accounting
  

  To identify the key issues/actions to be addressed in relation to the budgeting, accounting and accountability arrangements for DE and ESA with effect from 1 April 2008 and to develop and implement a timetabled programme of actions to secure delivery of the required outputs.

• Legislation
  

  To oversee the production of the necessary primary and subordinate legislation to implement the establishment of the Education and Skills Authority.

The ESA implementation team has been set up to maintain core education services while designing a customer focused approach to school support to deliver the vision for education in Northern Ireland. This team is taking forward a number of parallel projects to achieve these objectives through the delivery of the new organisation (the Education and Skills Authority).  Additional information is available from the Education and Skills Authority Implementation Team (ESAIT) website.

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