A two-partner consultancy for public bodies

One Team,
one plan,
delivered.

Two operators. A written answer. No deck, no associate layer, no theatre. Built for the work permanent secretaries have to defend in writing.

Brief us in 20 minutes See how we work →

What we do, narrowly

Programmes that have to land.

Leadership advisory for permanent secretaries, chief executives and accounting officers carrying the outcome.

Programmes that have stopped moving.

Delivery rescue. Ninety days from arrival to a written plan a board can act on.

Decisions before money is spent.

Honest second opinions on supplier proposals, business cases and architecture — before the contract is signed.

Operating models without theatre.

Rebuilds where the page matches what the team actually does on a Tuesday.

Engagements

Recent engagements.

We turn down more than we accept. The criteria are simple: the outcome is consequential, the leadership is willing to act on the answer, and we are the right two people for it. If we are not, we will tell you who is.

Engagement 01 · Central government finance platform

The platform behind every UK Spending Review.

The brief

A Government Major Projects Portfolio programme inside a central economic department had to deliver. The platform being replaced carried hundreds of billions of pounds of government expenditure and trillions in assets and liabilities — the financial-reporting and spend-analysis layer behind every Spending Review and Parliamentary Supply Estimate. It was a high-stakes replacement on an ambitious timeline, delivered through a complex commercial arrangement with a single system integrator that called for structure, programme discipline and active supplier management from the start.

The mandate

The department asked us to provide programme leadership.

What we did

We built the programme operation: governance and reporting, financial monitoring, supplier management strategy, requirements traceability matrix, delivery approach and plan, stakeholder engagement. We led the multidisciplinary team — consultants and civil servants — for three years, including a sustained commercial negotiation with the system integrator that protected the public interest and kept the programme on track.

The outcome

Seven custom-built financial modules deployed nationally to more than 500 public-sector organisations. Two national finance-professional events delivered. Three successive go-lives without failure — described by the department's CFO at the time as "some sort of record for government," which usually does not survive its first hurdle.

Typical engagement

4–12 weeks. Fixed scope, fixed price.

Who is on the work

Two named partners. No associate layer.

What you take away

A signed document a non-specialist can read and a board can act on.

Three further engagements available on request

The right answer. Written down. Signed.

Approach

How we work, in the room.

There are three things we do differently. They are not a methodology. They are how a small partnership of operators works with a client who has weight to carry.

Two operators, named. No associate layer.

You get the partners on the page. The names on the engagement letter are the only names that ever do the work.

Plain English, written down.

Every engagement ends in a document a non-specialist can read. If a recommendation cannot be written in a paragraph, it is not yet a recommendation.

Independent of the supplier ecosystem.

No framework partnerships with SIs. No reseller arrangements. No technology badge alliances. Our second opinion stays a second opinion.

We hold the line.

We will tell you what we think, in writing, including when it is not what was asked for. The job is the answer, not the engagement.

Engagements are structured to sit beneath senior sign-off thresholds where the work allows.

People

Who we are.

Two operators with a long working partnership. Backed by a small, named circle of associates we have worked alongside before — never strangers.

David Hunt

Founding Partner · PPM & DDaT Lead

Programme delivery operator. Twenty years inside UK central and local government. David has led national-scale programmes for HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and turned around stalled finance programmes at the Royal Borough of Kingston and the London Borough of Haringey. He arrives, finds the truth, writes it down.

Pete Spence

Founding Partner · Strategy, Executive Leadership & Operating Model

Transformation director. Two decades across central government, the Big Four and the regulated professions. Pete led the Ministry of Justice's Transforming Rehabilitation programme — winner of the 2015 Civil Service Award for programme management — and has since held director-level positions at EY and Deloitte. He brings inside-government delivery and partner-tier consultancy practice in the same person.

References on file

Very good at bringing order to chaos. A doer who gets stuff done.

Charlie Adan Chief Executive · Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

He turned them both around in a very short period. He knows his stuff, and it shows.

Anna D’Alessandro Interim Deputy Chief Finance Officer · London Borough of Haringey

Contact

Brief us in twenty minutes.

Tell us what you are carrying. If we are the right two people for it, we will say so. If we are not, we will say who is.

The fastest path is a short note describing the situation, the decision you need to make, and when. We read every message ourselves.

For procurement, supplier or framework queries, please use the email address below rather than the form.

hello@votragroup.co.uk

Votra Group Ltd · Registered in England

London · United Kingdom