Users can already record decisions about projects in Prepare.
These decisions are made after the project has been discussed at the advisory board meeting.
Their advice is then sent to the Regional Director for the region the project is happening in.
They make the decision about whether a conversion or transfer can go ahead.
In exceptional circumstances, the decision may also be taken by a a Regional Director from another region.
It may also be escalated to a Director General, minister or the Secretary of State for Education.
Delegated decision making
There has been a recent change to who can make these decisions.
These decisions can now be delegated to other Civil Servants.
In some cases, decisions can be made without the need for advice from an advisory board.
New decision makers
Now, decisions about the progress of a project can be made by Civil Servants in roles that are in the following 2 job grades:
- Deputy Director
- Grade 6
Adding the new roles to the list
We simply added 2 new radio buttons to the existing list of decision makers.
We also made sure that the names of those decision makers could be recorded.
This was because while there might only be one regional director there are multiple people in Deputy Director and Grade 6 roles.
It's therefore less clear who that decision maker might be.
Also, even if there is just one person in a role higher up the chain, they will leave at some point.
Recording the name removes the need to try and go back to try and confirm who was in a particular job on a particular date if that decision ever needed to be reviewed.
To improve data quality and accountability we added a question that asked who the decision makers was.
We applied this to all decision makers.
This information is captured in reports that other teams monitor.
This is a relatively small change but it's important to capture this information so that projects can be correctly audited and DfE are able to make sure the proper processes have been followed.