Portfolio context
Approx. £300m
Tribunal Transformation Portfolio within the wider £1.3bn HMCTS Reform Programme
HM Courts & Tribunals Service · Case study
Enterprise Transformation Delivery
Integrating national justice reform across services, shared capabilities, suppliers and operational change.
- Enterprise integration
- Portfolio governance
- Operating model
Context
The transformation environment
The approximately £300 million Tribunal Transformation Portfolio formed part of the wider £1.3 billion HMCTS Reform Programme. Delivery depended on individual jurisdictional services, shared programme capabilities, operational transformation and multiple delivery partners progressing as one coherent change environment.
Transformation evidence
Scale, scrutiny and completed outcomes
Embedded leadership
5½+ years
Senior transformation leadership through delivery, completion and transition
Integrated scale
Up to 24 teams
A shifting portfolio of multidisciplinary project teams
Red Team Review
Rated Exemplary
Formal HMCTS Reform Programme assessment outcome
Transformation completion
First jurisdiction
First to complete full transformation and transition successfully into BAU
Comparative delivery
Approx. 12 months ahead
Completion and BAU transition ahead of the remaining programme
The challenge
What had to be resolved
A shifting portfolio of up to 24 multidisciplinary project teams was delivering across distinct jurisdictions with different priorities, maturity and operational pressures.
Service teams depended on common capabilities, including Core Case Data, MyHMCTS, Expert UI, Reference Data, IDAM, and document and evidence management, being available at the right time and in the right sequence.
Cross-programme dependencies had to be identified early, owned across portfolio boundaries and sequenced so that shared capabilities, service releases and operational change could land together.
Benefits realisation depended on connecting programme outputs to service adoption, measurable operational outcomes and sustained ownership beyond transition.
Transformation leadership needed a decision-grade view of outcomes, critical dependencies, delivery confidence and where intervention was required.
The future operating model had to remain supportable across digital services, operational teams, suppliers and the wider reform programme.
The response
How Tawose Group addressed the challenge
- 01
Define the integrated future state
Contributed to target-operating-model definition and translated the future state into an executable delivery environment connecting technology, service design, operations and adoption.
- 02
Create one delivery view
Established integrated roadmaps, shared outcomes, governance rhythms and explicit dependency ownership across service teams and common programme capabilities.
- 03
Accelerate through integration leadership
Combined portfolio governance with hands-on integration leadership, including Scrum of Scrums, direct constraint resolution and escalation where cross-team dependencies threatened outcomes.
- 04
Align delivery with operational reality
Kept service integration, release readiness, supportability and operational ownership visible so that capabilities could land together rather than as isolated technology outputs.
- 05
Integrate delivery with live operations
Following release-related live incidents, brought continuous-delivery and live-operations teams together earlier through code reviews, release visibility and joint assurance. The Operations Delivery Manager and Technical Lead became active participants in release decisions rather than recipients at the end.
Value created
What changed
The Tribunal Transformation Portfolio was assessed through the HMCTS Reform Programme's Red Team Review and rated Exemplary.
The Tribunal jurisdiction became the first to complete its full transformation and transition successfully into BAU, approximately 12 months ahead of the remaining programme.
Created an integrated delivery environment across Civil, Family, Tribunals and common-capabilities reform teams, coordinating a shifting portfolio of up to 24 project teams.
Gave senior leaders a decision-grade view of outcomes, milestones, dependencies and delivery confidence across a national reform environment spanning more than 300 locations.
Improved the sequencing of jurisdictional services, shared programme capabilities and operational change so interdependent releases could land together.
Embedded live-operations leaders in code review, release visibility and assurance, reducing late operational surprises and building service knowledge before handover.
Enabled a faster, lower-friction transition into BAU because operational teams already understood the transformed services, code and release controls.
Leadership approach
Engagement leadership
Specialist transformation and delivery expertise was embedded within the CFT Reform Senior Leadership Team for more than five and a half years, working across Directors, judges, ministerial stakeholders, service owners, technical teams and suppliers. Workstream leads were managed through clear outcomes and ownership, with intervention focused where value, risk or dependency required it.
Engagement led byTayo Tawose, Founder and Principal Transformation Lead
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