Delivery Ministers wanted to establish a scheme that provided frontline NHS and social care staff in England and Wales with greater peace of mind about the financial security of their dependants. The CLAS received significant political attention and there was significant pressure on the DHSC to have the scheme up and running as soon as possible.

Our role involved:

• Establishing the project and its robust governance structure. This included creating and maintaining a project plan, risk log and reporting structure.

• Owning the production of a business rules document to complement the scheme’s legal rules. The business rules document defined policy requirements and translated the legal rules underpinning the scheme into a series of clear delivery requirements to enable the scheme’s administrator, the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), to implement the scheme at pace.

• Running regular workshops with varied stakeholders, including DHSC lawyers and senior policy experts, the Welsh Government and the NHS BSA to feed into the documentation of the business rules.

• Creating a process for the review of applications to the scheme, including those complex cases that would require medical review before being passed to the Minister for a decision.

• Providing representation at the CLAS Discretion Panel to discuss complex cases and to provide a view as to how cases fit within the scheme’s rules.

Result Working closely with DHSC colleagues, we were able to meet Ministers’ ambitious timelines and have the scheme live in just over 3 months. Our implementation of a robust governance structure ensured that stakeholders understood the scheme’s purpose and remit and were able to work cohesively to implement and promote the scheme. The CLAS is now fully operational and is having a positive impact on the dependants of deceased frontline NHS and social care staff.