Government publishes updated version of The Consultancy Playbook

The Cabinet Office has issued an updated version of The Consultancy Playbook and launched a supporting guidance note on the transfer of knowledge and skills.

Originally published in May 2021, The Consultancy Playbook focused on getting consultancy engagements right at the start whilst ensuring the Government uses consultants “in the right instances to solve sector specific problems, avoiding over reliance on external support, and capturing knowledge and learnings”.

The Government committed to update playbooks annually in order to embed learnings into implementation programmes and drive continuous improvement.

The Cabinet Office said version 1.1 of The Consultancy Playbook, which can be viewed here, “is a light touch refresh that maintains focus on the original three chapters to strengthen current guidance and further support implementation”.

As part of this refresh, it has launched a supporting guidance note on knowledge and skills to accompany V1.1 of the Playbook.

“As part of this update there is now an expectation that all consultancy assignments will generate knowledge, and transfer knowledge and skills across government, through the Government Consulting Hub (GCH) Knowledge Exchange Platform,” the Cabinet Office said.

The contents of the procurement policy note apply to all Central Government Departments, their Executive Agencies and Non Departmental Public Bodies. The Devolved Administrations and NHS organisations are not in scope of this PPN.

The Consultancy Playbook V1.1 and associated guidance are considered good practice and other public bodies should consider taking them into account, the Cabinet Office said.