The FINANCIAL -- Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, announced today that Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford will design and deliver the new Major Projects Leadership Academy.

According to Saïd Business School, senior leaders working on government major projects, such as the Olympics and High Speed Two, will be the first to benefit from the Government's groundbreaking new approach to major taxpayer-funded projects.

The new academy will build the skills of senior project leaders across government to deliver complex projects – reducing the over-reliance on expensive external consultancy further and building expertise within the Civil Service. In future no one will be able to lead a major government project without completing the Academy.Major public sector projects are large and complex by nature - their scale, complexity and ambition unmatched in the private sector.

The Olympics is the best known example of a major project and programme affecting the whole of the UK, but similarly: the Universal Credit Programme will revolutionise the welfare system, for 8 million households; while Crossrail and High Speed Two are just two examples of huge current investment in the future of the UK’s transport system. The new Leadership Academy is designed to make sure that these projects have world-class leadership. Saïd Business School will design and deliver the programme in partnership with Deloitte, bringing international expertise to the Academy.

The Academy will be managed by the Cabinet Office Major Projects Authority, which was launched in 2010 to oversee major projects and ensure they deliver for taxpayers. The MPA’s current portfolio of projects contains over 200 projects and is worth around £400 billion. The MPA has already saved £147 million by reviewing the Government’s biggest projects to see where costs could practically be reduced within contractual constraints, or wasteful projects stopped altogether.

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