making a business case

TLDR
A bespoke training programme for public sector teams who write, contribute to or review business cases. Gives your team a shared, proportionate approach to building a business case that decision-makers can approve with confidence.

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What would you need to see before approving a significant spend of public money? A good business case answers that question before anyone asks it.

Your work may involve drafting a business case, coordinating inputs from finance and commercial colleagues, or reviewing a proposal before it goes for approval. This programme gives your team or group the understanding, vocabulary and tools to do each of those well. No prior economics or finance knowledge is needed.

Before the day, a discovery conversation and pre-workshop questionnaire tell us about your team and the spending proposals it works on, and we build the case study around them. The programme is applied in your own environment and context, in line with your team’s and organisation’s values, code of ethics and tone guide.

  • By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:

    • Identify the right type and scale of business case for a proposal, and explain how it supports a sound decision about public money

    • Apply HM Treasury’s Green Book and the Five Case Model to a proposal, from the case for change through to delivery and evaluation

    • Write a clear, evidenced case for change with outcome-based objectives

    • Develop and shortlist options, and explain value for money well enough to work with economists, finance and commercial colleagues

    • Write an executive summary that gives a decision-maker the proposal, the ask and the key point from each case

    • Business cases that give decision-makers a clear, evidenced basis for approving spending

    • Proposals sized to their scale, cost and risk, so effort goes where it counts

    • Better use of specialist time, with economists, finance and commercial colleagues brought in at the right point with the right questions

    • A shared language and consistent approach to business cases across the team

    • Evidence and assumptions set out transparently, ready for assurance and scrutiny

    • Evaluation planned from the start, so the organisation can show what its spending achieved

  • Pre-workshop questionnaire
    A short discovery conversation and questionnaire covering the business cases and spending proposals your team writes or contributes to, the approval routes they go through and where the team wants to build confidence. We also ask for your organisation’s strategy papers and any internal business case guidance or templates, so the day follows your organisation’s own priorities and processes. This shapes the case study and examples used on the day.

    Full-day core workshop (in-person or virtual)
    Participants work through a running case study adapted to your organisation, alongside a business case or submission each of them is working on. Every session pairs a short input with practice, so participants leave having drafted parts of a business case. Groups of 12 to 16 in person, or 10 to 12 on Teams.

    Follow-up virtual meetup (2 hours, 1 month later, optional)

    • Review how the new approach is being used

    • Work through anything that needs further work

    • Identify any remaining gaps

  • 09:30 – 09:45 | Welcome and context
    Introductions, aims for the day and what a decision-maker needs to see before approving a proposal. Each participant picks a business case or submission they are working on to use as a reference point.

    09:45 – 10:30 | Why business cases matter
    What a business case is for, the accountability behind it and the golden thread from policy to outcomes. Includes a quick-fire quiz that tests common assumptions about business cases.

    10:30 – 11:15 | The Five Case Model
    The question each case answers, the types and stages of business case, and how much each stage needs. Groups sort typical business case content under the right case.

    11:15 – 11:30 | Break

    11:30 – 12:45 | The strategic case
    Making the case for change with SMART outcome-based objectives, a fair business-as-usual baseline and a simple theory of change. Groups rework objectives from the case study and sketch a theory of change for it.

    12:45 – 13:30 | Lunch

    13:30 – 14:15 | The economic case
    Critical success factors, the options framework filter and value for money as a balanced judgement, with the appraisal terms to recognise and what to ask an economist. Groups filter options for the case study and agree a shortlist.

    14:15 – 14:45 | The commercial, financial and management cases
    What each case needs, and planning evaluation from the start in line with the Magenta Book. Each group sets out the questions an approving authority would ask of one case.

    14:45 – 15:00 | Break

    15:00 – 16:00 | Writing for decision-makers
    An executive summary that can be read in two minutes, with a clear ask and transparent evidence and assumptions. Participants draft a half-page summary for the case study and review a partner’s against a checklist.

    16:00 – 16:30 | Commitments and close
    What each participant will do differently on their next business case, and what the team agrees to do consistently going forward.

Sue Calthorpe, Teamshaper Associate Trainer
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