Service Modernisation Programme

Government Transformation and Service Delivery

Record date: 31 March 2026

Whole-life cost: £1.1bn
Published schedule: 01/04/2022 – 31/03/2033
NISTA delivery confidence: AMBER
Senior responsible owner: Matthew Briggs, Alexander Chaplin

What the project is for

The Service Modernisation Programme (SMP) is transforming services for over 20 million DWP customers, improving how we serve people across society, including children within separated families, people in later life, and individuals with health conditions or disabilities including those looking to progress into work and customers overseas. By transforming how we deliver DWP services, we can significantly improve customer experience and make it easier for frontline colleagues to support those who need us the most. To achieve our transformation aims we have a three-pronged ambition: Digital services with a human touch Embracing new technology, and improving the ways people can contact us Joined-up services, designed around the customer Simplified access, to improve positive customer experience Services that don’t stand still Improved data use helping us to detect and respond to fraud, error, and customer experience barriers

Departmental delivery commentary

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4 the programme’s end-date at 25/26-Q4 remained on schedule. This is due to the following factors: Over the past 12 months the Programme has continued to deliver to plan with 8 major milestones delivered, transforming services for our customers and colleagues. A programme of this size, scale and complexity does occasionally result in some variance in key deliverables. Where this has happened, variance has been managed with no tolerance breaches during the financial year. The Programme’s financial benefit position remains healthy. The latest data available demonstrates the Programme is on track to deliver our financial savings forecasts. Our benefits position has been revised upwards. The Programme's non-financial benefits remain healthy with positive feedback from our customers and our colleagues. We continue to embed new ways of working, and changing our culture, which will be further accelerated this coming financial year. We remain mindful of the associated risks and complexities in this area.

Schedule

Funding for PBC2 has been approved until end of June 2026. We are currently preparing an updated Business Case and commenced engagement with HMT around obtaining funding until 28/29. Conversations have been very constructive, and we are confident of achieving the levels of funding required for continued Programme delivery. (with the exception of Child Maintenance Service’s Policy Reform implementation, where funding is limited to discovery work whilst required legislative decisions remain outstanding.)

Cost

SMP’s departmentally agreed Real Terms Costs at 25/26-Q4 (measured in £m) are £1,150m (rounded to nearest £m). This is primarily due to the following factors: A new iteration of the Programme Business Case (PBC2 Refresh) was approved by HMT that considers: - Spending Review opportunities - an increase of £340m. - A prioritisation exercise, focussing on initiatives that deliver the core objectives of Service Modernisation - a reduction of £68m. - Adding back Service Modernisation baseline Business As Usual staff - an increase of £77m - Updating sunk costs - an increase of £1m.

Benefits

SMP's agreed baseline Real Terms financial benefits (measured in £m) are £2,111m (rounded to the nearest £m). This is driven by: 1. Inclusion of Spending Review (SR) Opportunities within the business case following HMT approval. The Spending Review opportunities include increased benefits for the Programme, due in the main to the inclusion of the following: a) Business Delivery Model - including the Customer Account b) Child Maintenance Policy changes c) Inclusion of Bereavement for the Programme. 2. Activity within Children's Services that has brought additional improvements such as Channel Shift, some re-organisation activity and Continuous Improvement activity. 3. Increases in workload volumes and salary cost increases.