May 2023 meeting
The NCA Board met on 4th May 2023. In addition to standing agenda items on performance, assurance and risk, HR and Finance, it discussed the following:
NCA Strategy: Implementation
The NCA Board was updated on plans for implementation of the Agency’s new five-year strategy (approved at its February meeting), including performance indicators. The Board endorsed the plans, noting the importance of situating the indicators in the context of wider Agency performance metric, and having a framework that cascaded into command plans and SCS personal objectives.
Risk Appetite
The NCA Board was content sufficient action had been taken in business planning on the Agency’s Corporate Risks. As part of the NCA’s regular review of Corporate Risks, it was felt that it would be sensible to look again at the Agency’s capability to accelerate a reduction in the key risks by the end of Quarter three (Q3).
Benefits Realisation
The NCA Board was invited to comment on the new Deputy Director Change’s priority actions for 2023/24.
The Board endorsed the actions, and their alignment with existing processes to fully capture the programme benefits. There was more to do on clarifying the benefits in tangible terms for each strand of activity. As part of the work to progress business cases in the Agency, more could be done to specify what the ultimate benefit of a programme was expected to achieve and the impact it would have on the organisation.
Culture
The NCA Board welcomed the progress made on the One NCA Culture roadmap, and was keen to understand the tangible outcomes of the work. As part of the work it was felt that middle management should be better supported and, to that end, leadership training would be helpful. The Board noted a danger of multiple cultural objectives: these needed to be prioritised and situated within the overall practical actions the Agency would take. The Board noted that the Agency planned to review its values as part of its culture work.
