***CENSUS 2027 PROJECT IS CURRENTLY UNDER PLANNING AND TERMS OF REFERENCE ARE EXPECTED TO BE AVAILABLE EARLY 2024***
1. Role of Board
Note: On 15th September 2020, Government agreed to defer Census by one year to April 2022 due to Covid 19 - - all references to changed to the Census occurring in 2022
This board was set up in October 2017 by the Management Board. The main role of the Board is to govern and oversee the Census 2021, subsequently Census 2022 project which includes a parallel administrative census in 2021. Therefore, the Census Project includes the following components
• Traditional Census in 2022
• Administrative Census in 2021 (this project will still run in 2021)
The responsibilities of the board are in set out in section 3 below.
2. Structure
• The pyramid below shows the structure in place in the CSO in relation to the Census 2022 Board. The board sits between the Management Board and the Census project management teams.
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3. Decision Rights and responsibilities of the Board
The Census 2022 project board will:
• Agree the project milestones, project overview and supporting documentation;
• Monitor progress against the plans and agree any revisions necessary as the project progresses;
• Assist in problem solving (e.g. by helping to resolve scope and objectives that are not clear);
• Identify and manage risks and issues;
• Agree any reprioritisation of work or reallocation of resources necessary to ensure milestones are achieved and risks managed effectively;
• Resolve issues brought to it by the project teams.
• Take cognisance of other cross over developments which may have an impact on the Census 2022 project.
At each meeting, the Project Board will:
• Review the project report which will be circulated in advance;
• Monitor the risk register;
• Escalate to the MB any issues deemed necessary.
The following table outlines the Decision Rights and the criteria for escalation of issues to MB by the board:
It is the responsibility of the Board to escalate issues that the Board deems to be of high impact/medium risk, medium impact/high risk and high impact/high risk to MB.
The formal process of escalation will be
The board will decide to escalate a decision to MB through a formal vote of the board.
Governance board secretary will Email MB/DG office describing the issue and on what a decision is being sought.
Staff resource issues must be escalated to MB in a timely fashion, supported by the business case and assessment/recommendation from the board.
In assessing decisions the board will closely consider the Corporate Impact and Corporate Risk associated with the project with particular reference to the Corporate Risk Appetite (see Appendix 2) as set out by MB.
Table 2 outlines the guidelines for assessing the Corporate Impact & Corporate Risk
4. Working Methods
The following sets out procedures around meetings:
Pre Meeting:
• Secretary to set a pre meeting or phone call with the Chair at least 2/3 days in advance of the meeting.
• Documentation to be circulated to the board at least 2 weeks in advance of the meeting.
• Board members to familiarise themselves with the material in advance of the meeting.
• All members to attend in person
At the Meeting:
• Board members should conduct themselves in a professional manner;
• Participation should be on the basis of a critical, challenging but never personal nature;
• Timeliness – meetings shall not run overtime and will usually be 2 hours duration;
• Confidentiality will be adhered to at all times;
• Decisions will be made collectively as a board.
Post Meeting:
• Actions arising will be circulated 2 days after the meeting
• Minutes will be circulated to the board within 1 week of the meeting
• Minutes will be published on Corporate Documents within 2 weeks of the meeting.
• The secretariat on behalf of the board will submit quarterly reports to MB using the standard format (see Appendix 1). The reports will be compiled within 3 weeks from the end of quarter and forwarded to the secretary of the MB.
General Information:
• The Board will meet every quarter initially but this can change as the project progresses
• An annual meeting schedule will be agreed in advance
• The secretary to the board will maintain a log for capturing and following-up on longer-term actions & decisions
• The board may establish working groups and sub- committees at its own discretion.
• The board will ensure that all data & information accessed or available to board members as part of their role will be securely & appropriately managed according to office policies e.g. ISO 27001 etc.
• The board will use standard reporting procedures & templates to report to MB (see Appendix 1)
5. Membership
• Members were appointed 1 November 2017 by MB
• Additional members were appointed in 2019 and 2020
• Termination of membership shall be at the end of the Project in late 2023.
• A record of attendance will be maintained by the secretary of the board. However, all members must attend each meeting in person. Project Board members cannot nominate alternates for attendance at meetings.
• A member from the Administrative Census management team can be added to the board in the future.
6. Annual Review
The terms of reference can be reviewed on an annual basis.
Appendix 1 Standard Reporting Procedures & Template to MB
Standard reporting procedures, using a common template and frequency of reporting by governance boards to MB
Three of the boards examined (TPB, PGB and Technology Governance Board) act as oversight boards for projects and summary reports from these boards can be aligned to a standard format with a RAG dashboard highlighting project status and issues (see template below). Suggested Report Headings:
• Project Name
• Project Manager
• Achievements
• Still to do
• RAG status of project
• Issues/Concerns for MB attention
• Costs – Estimated Project Budget
• Costs – Costs to date
• Costs – Anticipated cost to completion
• Timeline – Current phase of project (Pre-project/Initiation/Planning/Execution/Closure)
• Timeline – Planned Completion date (ab initio)
• Timeline – Current assessment of expected completion date
• Risks - Technology risks
• Risks - Wider business impact
• Strategic driver
It should also be recognised that this type of project-by-project report will necessarily contain a lot of information and will continue to place a significant time demand on MB, given the number of projects ongoing, particularly IT projects. Therefore it may be appropriate for T&P to compile a summary report to give a high level view of progress across the governance boards.
(1) For consistency and comparability of reporting it is recommended that TPB, PGB and ITGB should adopt a standard reporting format. An example is attached in Appendix 2 – adoption of this format to be discussed with CDSC & Editorial Board with a view to roll-out across all boards.
(2) To facilitate compilation of summary reports and cross-checking across reports from each board, it is recommended that each governance board submit a report to Transformation & Performance ten working days in advance of MB meetings which are scheduled to review governance board reports.
(3) To assist boards in preparing for quarterly reporting to MB it is recommended that a meeting and reporting schedule is set out at the end of each year.
Appendix 2: CSO’s Risk Appetite Statement
Risk appetite – What levels and types of risk is the CSO willing to accept (or not accept) in pursuance of our strategic goals I.E. completing a successful Census 2021?
• The CSO must take risks in order to achieve its aims and deliver beneficial outcomes to its stakeholders.
• Risks will be taken in a considered and controlled manner.
• Exposure to risks will be kept at a level deemed acceptable by the Management Board.
• The acceptable level of risk may vary from time to time.
• Risks must always be strictly controlled if they have the potential to cause significant harm, severely compromise the CSO’s reputation or substantially jeopardise the CSO’s ability to deliver on its strategies
The Management Board considers that some particular risk above the stated acceptable level may be accepted if the cost of controlling them is excessive, if there is a limited period of exposure or if there is a likelihood of a reward/benefit which may arise. In such cases the Management Board will set the level deemed acceptable on a case by case basis.