CCS recognised for providing high quality public service

We’re pleased to announce that CCS has achieved a ‘Best’ rating (over 90%) in the most recent Commercial Continuous Improvement Assessment Framework (CCIAF) review. 

The CCIAF is a requirement introduced by the Cabinet Office in 2021 for all relevant public bodies to assess themselves against publicly available procurement standards. The standards define how all Government departments should operate commercially to ensure strong commercial behaviours and obtaining best value for taxpayers money. It is designed to help achieve continuous improvement and set standards for commercial practices across the public sector. 

CCIAF assesses each organisation’s practices against 8 theme areas including capability and resourcing, functional strategy, planning and governance, commercial systems and information and policy.

The assessment provides each organisation with a commercial maturity rating (Good, Better and Best). Best practice and innovations are shared with other public sector commercial organisations.

How we achieved the ‘Best’ rating

Following a previous assessment in 2023, we had already made significant progress, increasing our score by 10 points, to 85%. But given our role as the UK’s biggest public procurement organisation, we knew we had an opportunity and a responsibility to improve this score.

To improve, our Operational Control Centre (OpCC) put in place an action plan focusing on all assessment measures where we scored below 90%. Across the 8 themes of the CCIAF assessment, we identified 88 areas for development and worked collaboratively to address them. Our goal was to reach the ‘Best’ rating by securing a score over 90% .

Our assessment was peer reviewed by another governmental department to verify results. This year, the Department for Education carried out an extremely thorough assessment.

What does ‘Best’ rating mean?

Achieving a ‘Best’ rating means that we demonstrated: 

• the governance and direction of delivering commercial activities is fully integrated with the governance and direction of CCS
• commercial strategies incorporate short and long term targets in line with leading industry practice
• commercial policy outcomes are embedded throughout the commercial life-cycle and outcomes reports are available on demand
• technology is used to make commercial reporting and analytics accessible to inform organisational strategy and policy decisions
• learning from experience and organisational improvement is demonstrated through continuous improvement being embedded and evidenced within the organisation

CEO of CCS, Sam Ulyatt says

“This achievement is the result of a dedicated, cross-directorate effort to strengthen our commercial capability, make improvements, and showcase best practices. Thank you to everyone within CCS who contributed.

While we have demonstrated significant improvements this year to achieve a ‘Best’ rating, we are not intending to rest on our laurels and are committed to continuing to ensure that we are a world class procurement organisation. We will build on this momentum for even greater success in the future and to continue to achieve value for the nation.”

Find out more   

Further guidance on the CCIAF is available on the GOV.UK website.