Service
Project and programme health check
Most large programmes report on themselves. Delivery teams are optimistic because they have to be, suppliers are commercially invested in the plan they sold, and nobody wants to be the one who escalates. Amber holds for months longer than it should, and by the time a status report turns red the expensive decisions have already been made.
A health check is a short, independent look at whether a programme is going to deliver what its business case promised, in the time and money it has left, done by someone with no stake in the answer. The approach is based on the government gateway review model: structured evidence gathering, confidential interviews, and a delivery confidence assessment rather than an opinion dressed up as one.
It is built for programmes where a large-firm assurance engagement would be disproportionate. Too small for that scale of fee, needed too quickly for that kind of mobilisation, or in an organisation where a six-figure consultancy invoice is not politically available even when the budget technically exists. Housing associations, local authorities, NHS trusts and mid-market private sector programmes are the regular shape of this work.
A health check is not a sales exercise. The findings are what they are, including when they are uncomfortable for the people in the room. If a client wants help acting on them afterwards, that is a separate conversation, and the conflict of moving from reviewer to deliverer is named openly before it starts.
Typical shapeFive days, fixed scope and fixed price
Bought bySenior responsible owners, programme boards, CFOs, audit and risk committees
You getDelivery confidence assessment, findings report, ranked recommendations, sponsor walkthrough
Right-sized forProgrammes where a large-firm assurance engagement would be disproportionate