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Independent reviews for when the law or your organisation changes
A merger, a new Act, or an emergency can leave you running policies and processes set up for a situation that has passed. We carry out independent reviews that find which parts still fit, which to change and what changes to make first. We read your documents, minutes and data in a desktop review and, through interviews and surveys, hear from the people affected by your policies and processes. If your decision needs evidence from the published research, we can also run a literature review.
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- We rate each one against agreed criteria, so you can see which fit and which do not.
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- We read the peer-reviewed research and grey literature reports, combining those to help evidence your decision.
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- While the review is running, we check that you can put each recommendation in place with the people and the budget you have – there’s no point making recommendations that aren’t feasible.
Are your policies, processes and operating model still fit-for-purpose after a shakeup?
The change may be a merger or new statutory obligations, or a process set up in an emergency may now have to run for years. Sometimes a system has failed instead, and you have to explain why. You need to know what still fits, what went wrong and what to change, and your board, the council or your Minister may need to know too. So, what should you be doing? We answer that question policy by policy and process by process, with evidence for each answer.
- Rate inherited policies against your new obligations. After a merger or a new Act, some policies fit the new obligations and some do not, and it's not always clear which. We build an assessment framework, rate each policy against it and give senior leaders a dashboard of where compliance is high and where it is low.
- Trace why a system failed and what could have prevented it. After a backlog or a breakdown, people’s recollections may disagree with documentation. We read the documents, interview people who were there and match what they told us against the written record; this ensures findings rest on facts rather than perceptions.
- Turn a process built in an emergency into one that lasts. A process set up at speed can work pretty well, yet still need refining before it runs for the long term. We map the workflow, hold confidential discussions with organisations involved and recommend changes you can make without stressing your existing resources.
- Find out who collects what data across your sector. If no directory exists of who collects which data across a sector, you cannot see where monitoring is missing. We search online, then phone the agencies to confirm what we found, and give you a map of who collects what, when, why and how it is used.
How we review
Your terms of reference set the questions, the scope and how we will work with you while the review runs. We then choose the methods to fit these parameters. A desktop review of documents, minutes, workflows and data show how a process was meant to work – interviews and surveys show how it works in practice. If the review needs it, we carry out stakeholder engagements, learn more about that here.
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Check each policy from the top down and the bottom up. From the top, we start with the strategic outcomes you intend and check that your policies carry them through to day-to-day operations. From the bottom, we start with the policies your staff use every day and check that each one links back to your strategy. Each policy gets a rating, and we name the gaps and the places where two policies say different things, so you know which to fix.
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Build Te Tiriti o Waitangi into the criteria from the start. For Callaghan Innovation, we built criteria for strategic alignment, user experience, Te Tiriti o Waitangi integration, alignment with te ao Māori, and maintenance processes. If Te Tiriti obligations apply to you, we include them in the assessment framework from the start of the review.
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Hear every agency involved, in confidence. The Overseas Investment Office asked us to review its Inter-Agency Standing Committee process, which brings several agencies together to assess overseas investments. We held confidential discussions with the core groups involved, capturing honest feedback. We also examined both the governance and the flow of information between agencies. Our recommendations, including stronger inclusion of Te Tiriti principles and te ao Māori perspectives, fitted within the Office's existing resources, and the Office began implementing them immediately.
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Read the research, then test it with the people who work in the sector. For sector research with ConCOVE Tūhura we examined 72 journals in a literature review on work-based training in New Zealand and comparable countries. We then tested what we found with the sector's representative bodies, employers, training advisers and apprentices, and made 10 recommendations.
20 Topics
+210 Resources
Has the situation changed since you wrote your policies?
Book time with an expert.
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Our process
A review judges what you already run against a set criteria, so we lay out that criteria first. We build these from your obligations and objectives and discuss them with you before we rate any policy or process.
What we deliver:
- An assessment framework and a rating. The agreed criteria, and a rating for each policy, process or activity assessed against them, with the gaps and inconsistencies named.
- A review report you and your board can act on. Findings, the evidence behind each one and prioritised recommendations. With it come the tools your team needs to maintain the policies afterwards: a dashboard, a policy matrix, templates or guidance.
Understand
We start by talking through the question you actually need answered, and what evidence already exists to answer it. The terms of reference come out of that conversation: the questions, the scope and how you will use the findings.
Plan
We choose the method to review each question: the documents, minutes and data to read, the people to interview or survey, and what to map. If the deadline is short, we also agree what the review will not cover, so the scope doesn’t creep.
Deliver
We read the documents and the published research, run the interviews and surveys, and rate each policy or process against the criteria. If the deadline is short, we interview the few people with the most direct knowledge first, then the people they point us to. At the end of the interviews, we return to the initial groups to test what we heard.
Review
We hold sense-making sessions with you as the findings emerge, to clarify them together and to check whether each recommendation is feasible within your resources. When a review has stakeholders outside your organisation, they take part in those sessions as well.
Close
You receive the report in the forms each audience needs: a technical report, an executive summary, slides or a one-page summary. We build ownership over implementation into the report from the briefing stage.
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FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
What can a rapid review cover in a few weeks?
A rapid review suits an operational question, and we clarify at the start which questions the time allows and which it does not. Within that scope, the review must still be rigorous, and we hold ours to that standard. It usually takes six weeks or fewer, and some take only a week or two.
For the Ministry of Health's review of the COVID-19 PCR testing backlog we examined more than 700 documents and interviewed 57 people in six weeks. We matched what they told us against the written record and made nine recommendations for improving the testing system.
What sort of recommendations are most likely to be implemented?
The recommendations that get implemented are ones you can carry out with the people and budget you already have. We check feasibility with you while the review runs, so each recommendation fits your resources before the report is final. We can also help you set up responsibility for each policy afterwards, with named owners, review dates and approval requirements.
For Kāinga Ora, after we did our assessment, we worked with the organisation's subject matter experts to update 18 critical policies. Approving the new policies moved the organisation from 46% to 82% alignment with its relevant operating principles.
Can a review test our policies against Te Tiriti obligations?
Clarify in the terms of reference what is fixed, what is contested and what you could realistically change, and say why you want an outside view. Inside those parameters, findings follow the evidence: we report what evidence supports, whether or not that is what you expected. Once you have agreed the scope, let the reviewer work, because a review you intervene in is no longer the independent view you paid for.
How do we brief a reviewer without steering the findings?
Clarify in the terms of reference what is fixed, what is contested and what you could realistically change, and say why you want an outside view. Inside those parameters, findings follow the evidence: we report what evidence supports, whether or not that is what you expected. Once you have agreed the scope, let the reviewer work, because a review you intervene in is no longer the independent view you paid for.
Is a review of our policies the same as an evaluation?
A review and an evaluation answer different questions. A review looks at something already in place (a policy suite, a process, a system or an operating model) and asks whether it still fits and what should change. An evaluation judges what a programme, a fund or a strategy achieved and for whom. Both use document review, interviews and data analysis, and we scope the work to the question you need answered. Learn more about our mixed-method evaluations here.
20 Topics
+210 Resources
Has the situation changed since you wrote your policies?
Book time with an expert.
+70 Webinars
Learn More
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