Serious Fraud Office Leadership Review (July 19)
Inspectors from HMCPSI provided an independent assessment of staff engagement within the SFO.
Inspectors from HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate were approached by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to provide an independent assessment of staff engagement within the organisation.
This was on the back of the 2018 Civil Service People Survey results which showed that there was a decline in staff engagement and indications of potential issues in leadership and managing change. In previous years, engagement scores had always been slightly higher than the Civil Service average.
One of the central findings was that due to the focus on delivery of casework, management was often neglected and in some places there was tolerance of unacceptable behaviour. There was also a clear variation across the business in respect of how far staff thought managers demonstrated commitment to SFO values and managed performance.
The SFO has responded positively to the review and the finding, and work to tackle these issues is already underway. This includes the SFO’s proactive approach to seeing people culture as a corporate priority, to be addressed by a consistent holistic strategy to reinforce staff confidence in management and role models.
The fact that the director SFO and Chief Operating Officer asked us to undertake this review clearly demonstrates how seriously they are in engendering a culture that puts people first at SFO.