Overview
Sport England is responsible for delivering the government’s sporting objectives by creating opportunities for people to participate in sport, stay in sport and succeed in sport. To help it achieve these goals, Sport England invests in and distributes funding for a range of sporting projects.
Followed criticism of its grant management process in two reports from the National Audit Office (NAO), Sport England brought in the management consultancy business of Capita to audit and improve the system. Following completion of the project, a subsequent positive report from the NAO endorsed the improvements made in the financial controls and processes.
The business challenge
In the wake of two below par NAO reports, Sport England was under pressure to audit and improve its grant management system. As well as needing to ensure a positive verdict from the next NAO report, it needed to obtain a clearer view of its existing grant management system and to identify and implement actions to enhance it.
In order to meet these objectives, and achieve a number of other benefits springing from greater financial clarity, transparency and control in its management of grants, Sport England chose to partner with Capita.
The solution
Partnering with Sport England, the Capita team first undertook a comprehensive audit of the grant management process and mapped it end to end, right from the point of receiving an application, through the decision making process, to the way grants were allocated.
The audit enabled us to identify several areas for improvement, mainly around financial control measures. This analysis then provided the basis for the design and implementation of a new model governing the grant management finance process, including an online application system. The new process included a range of improvements and new controls, which Sport England then implemented.
Our capabilities
During the engagement for Sport England, Capita applied a range of capabilities including business process reengineering, audit, business process review and financial controls implementation.
The outcome
Sport England has a new model and end-to-end process for its grant management finance system. As a result, it benefits from lower financial risk and liability, improved communication between the support centre and regional offices, and a new and highly efficient online application process. The project also successfully introduced a set of common templates and documentation for use by all Sport England stakeholders, and created valuable insights into the value for money and performance of individual projects. The changes resulted in a positive NAO report endorsing the financial controls and process improvements.
Following the project, Sport England staff can now handle the same volume of applications as before the restructuring, but using 30% fewer resources. The processing time for applications has been reduced from 12 weeks to 10, and has gone down further to eight weeks. Following this success, Capita worked on a number of other projects with Sport England, including developing an internal self-audit process for compliance with a range of standards and benchmarks, and advising on the business process for the new National Sports Foundation.
“I have worked extensively with Capita on a range of key projects core to Sport England’s operations. I have found their relationship management, project management and technical expertise and skills to be of the highest quality. They have consistently delivered against key objectives and added value at all stages.”
Clive Heaphy, former Director of Finance for Sport England
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