Making Effective Decisions Examples, Scored

As a Grade 7 analytical lead in a housing directorate, I was asked to advise the Director within ten days on whether to extend an emergency accommodation scheme costing £18 million a year.

The evidence was mixed: councils reported the scheme prevented rough sleeping, but our data showed a third of places were used for longer than the intended 12 weeks. I commissioned my team to link scheme records with homelessness statistics so we could test the claimed impact rather than rely on anecdote. I set out three options: full extension, extension with a 12-week cap, and closure with transition funding. For each, I assessed costs, the risk of a rise in rough sleeping, legal duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act and the effect on disabled people, who were over-represented among long stays.

I tested the analysis with legal advisers and two councils, and I was open with the Director that the impact estimate had a wide margin of uncertainty. I recommended the capped extension, with a review point after six months.

The Director and minister accepted the recommendation. The cap reduced the annual cost by an estimated £4.2 million, and at the six-month review rough sleeping in scheme areas had not increased. The equality assessment I insisted on led to an exemption for disabled residents, which I believe was the right decision. I have since used the same option-appraisal structure for two further submissions.

As an Executive Officer in a licensing team, I had to decide whether to approve an urgent licence renewal for a small care provider whose paperwork had arrived incomplete two days before their licence expired.

I checked our guidance, which allowed a short extension in exceptional cases. I looked at the provider's history and found they had renewed on time for the past five years with no compliance issues. I called them to find out what was missing and learned that their insurance certificate had been delayed by their broker.

I weighed the risk of approving without the certificate against the impact of the licence lapsing, which would have stopped care for twelve residents. I discussed the options with my line manager, recommended a 14-day extension on condition that the certificate was sent, and recorded my reasons on the case file.

My manager agreed. The provider sent the certificate within a week and the renewal was completed. The residents' care was not interrupted. I learned to check a customer's history early, as it helped me make a quicker and better-informed decision.

In my HEO role in a procurement team, we had to decide which supplier to use for a new IT support contract worth around £300,000.

Three suppliers bid for the contract. We looked at all the bids carefully and compared them against the criteria in the tender. There was a lot of information to go through, and some of the bids were difficult to compare because they were set out in different ways. We had several meetings to discuss the options and to make sure that we were considering everything.

I was involved in scoring the bids, and I made sure I followed the procurement rules and kept records of our discussions. I also spoke to colleagues in the IT team to get their views on what they needed from the contract. There were some risks with the cheapest bid, so we discussed these as a team.

In the end we chose the supplier that offered the best overall value. The decision was approved by the senior team and the contract was awarded. I think this shows that I can make effective decisions based on evidence and consider different options carefully.