Transforming culture, media and sport

The DCMS review found no areas of serious concern. Its conclusions included that:

• The department has had a number of successes, including the BBC charter review, winning the bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and beating its school sports target.
• It is on track to meet its efficiency and headcount savings.
• DCMS responds well to unforeseen circumstances.
• The department has some high profile challenges ahead, in particular the 2012 Olympics, which will be the department’s biggest ever challenge.
• It needs to improve its leadership capacity to increase its impact.
• DCMS should engage more strategically with its sponsored bodies, look at where it can best add value, and redistribute its resources accordingly.
• There are good examples of evidence-based decision-making and the department should expand this.

The department has drawn up an action plan – a ‘transformation programme’ - which sets out the work it has already put in train to respond to the review’s findings. This includes strengthening the leadership at the top of the organisation with a new board structure and changes to the top of its Olympic team. In January, following a review initiated by the new Permanent Secretary in November, the department announced structural changes to put in place the commercial and project skills needed to monitor future delivery of the Olympics.

DCMS is one of five departments in the third tranche of the cross-government programme to assess the capability of Government departments to meet delivery challenges.

Part of the wider civil service reform programme, the reviews look at three key areas (leadership, strategy and delivery). Involving staff, stakeholders and delivery partners, they examine departments’ strengths and where they need to improve. The reviews are carried out by the capability review team which is part of the delivery and transformation group in the Cabinet Office.