Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has assessed the salary outcomes, promotion rates and role progression of participants in the Beyond Boundaries programme compared to a control group of comparable civil servants who did not participate; and whether his Department has undertaken a cost benefit analysis of the programme, including average time to promotion, changes in performance markings, retention rates and the financial return on investment to the public purse.

Beyond Boundaries is a 12-month cross-government talent programme that launched in 2021 and in October 2025 we welcomed 794 participants. It is designed to help participants develop the knowledge, skills and networks required to build a satisfying and effective career in the Civil Service. There has been no direct comparison of Beyond Boundaries participants against a control group. Current evaluation data is based upon an anonymous, post programme, survey of participants providing an aggregated picture of participant outcomes.

In future, Beyond Boundaries will be part of the National School for Government and Public Services and since October 2025 has been supporting our mission to deliver more training in-house and reduce expenditure on external providers to provide better value for the taxpayer. This provided departments with a reduction in the cost per learner of 37.5%