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About this guidance

Purpose

This guide aims to improve the way functional work is done across government, by making it easier for people to comply with functional standards. In particular, by helping functions:

• to provide more targeted, coherent and consistent documentation for anyone doing functional work, so people have the right information to do their jobs

• simplify and reduce the volume of requirements and guidance that people are expected to follow

This guide supports functions to meet the expectations in the functional standard GovS 001, Government functions about developing and delivering functional services and products.

Scope

This guide covers governance and management frameworks for functional work. This includes making sure that the requirements and guidance people are asked to follow meet functional standards, are managed coherently, and are easy to find and navigate.This guide is for anyone involved in developing, managing and maintaining documentation that supports the use of a functional standard in practice, which includes:

• common products that apply consistently across government
• tailored or specialised products that apply in a particular organisation

This guide does not cover:

• the content of non-functional governance and management frameworks, for example for running a whole organisation
• the output documentation commonly created by undertaking functional work (such as reports, evaluations, specifications, designs and other routine documents)
• how governance documentation such as degrees of autonomy or reporting structures should be written.

Further information

For background on functional standards, please see the Guide to functional standards.For examples and detailed information about defining and organising documentation for a particular functions work, please contact the relevant functional team.

If you have feedback or questions about this guidance, we would be pleased to hear from you - get in touch through standards@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.

Context

Functional standards

Functional standards exist to create a coherent, effective and mutually understood way of doing business within government organisations and across organisational boundaries, and to provide a stable basis for assurance, risk management, and capability improvement. They support value for money for the taxpayer, and continuity of implementation.

The suite of standards is mandated for use across central government. For more information on what this means, see this Dear Accounting Officer letter.Each standard sets expectations for what needs to be done, and why, relating to the work within its scope. The standards can be used with confidence as a suite, and cross-refer to each other when needed.

How work is done is set out in associated documentation, which is defined and organised through governance and management frameworks see 3.

Management of functional standards

Each functional standard has an owner (usually the Head of Function) and a manager.The standard manager is accountable to the standard owner for keeping the standard up to date, and for the day-to-day management of their assigned standard. This includes oversight of cross-government governance and management (see 3), publication (see 4), and how new and existing documentation should align to the standard (see 5.4).For more detail on oversight and management of functional standards, see GovS 001, Government functions and the Handbook for standard managers.

Governance and management frameworks

Overview

Functional standards are the primary reference documents for implementing consistent ways of functional working in government. Their associated practices and guidance form governance and management frameworks: Definition: A governance and management framework sets out the authority limits, decision making roles and rules, degrees of autonomy, assurance needs, reporting structure, accountabilities and roles, together with the appropriate management practices and associated documentation needed to meet a standard.

The governance and management framework provides a coherent package of information to support ways of working, including the requirements and guidance that people should follow.

An example of the content of a governance and management framework is shown in figure 1.

Figure 1: example content for a governance and management framework

Defining and establishing a governance and management framework

The first governance clause of each functional standard (clause 4.1) requires that a governance and management framework is defined and established to cover the work within scope of the standard. Against each standard, such a framework needs to be in place:

• across government (owned by the relevant function)
• for each organisation (tailored to the work that the organisation does)

This means that the exact content of a governance and management framework differs depending on the standard it relates to, the extent and complexity of the functional work being done, and who owns and operates it.

For example: the HR function owns the cross-government framework for GovS 003, Human resources; an organisation owns a tailored framework for the HR work it needs to do. In this example, an organisation would incorporate cross-government requirements and guidance set by the HR function into their own framework.

Much of the relevant documentation would have existed in some form prior to adoption of a functional standard the standard is simply helping functions and organisations to make sure their management arrangements are appropriate.

The terms defined and established have particular meaning in the standards.

Setting shared norms and ways of working across government

Overview

By firmly aligning documentation to relevant functional standards, functions contribute to:

• consistent and coherent governance and management of functional work
• better understood ways of working, and a common language for functional work
• professional development through shared learning and peer support

This helps people work consistently and to follow recommended practice (often without needing to directly consult the standard).

Joining up across different functions

Functional standards are designed to work as a suite. Clause 1.3 of each standard explains which other standards are directly necessary for the work within scope, and the main body of a standard cross-refers to other standards where needed.Cross-references highlight the circumstances where more than one type of functional work is relevant, and provide context for those setting cross-government requirements and guidance. Where joined-up working is particularly important, functions may decide to create shared products (see 5.4).

Accountability in organisations

GovS 001, Government functions clause 4.6 sets accountabilities for management of functions, and functional standards. It differentiates between the roles at the centre, in departments and

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