Briefly describe the initiative/ project/service; please include your aims and objectives

Brief description of the initiative / project / service:

As part of NorthernWARP we delivered a targeted regional programme to improve readiness for supply-chain attacks, bringing together LGA, MHCLG, Halo, NorthernWARP and YHWARP. The programme comprised five half-day workshops for cross-sector decision-makers and technical teams, followed by a realistic WarGame simulation. Together these sessions combined threat briefings, practical exercises, and an incident simulation to identify gaps, test co-ordinated response, and create actionable, shareable guidance for local authorities and partner organisations.

Aims and objectives:

• Strengthen regional resilience to supply-chain attacks through shared learning and tested processes.
• Build trusted partnerships and clear communication channels between local government, national bodies and response partners.
• Translate technical threat intelligence into practical, organisation-level actions (supplier controls, contracts, assurance).
• Test and validate incident response and escalation processes in a live WarGame to reveal real-world gaps.
• Produce an easy-to-use after-action toolkit/playbook with prioritized recommendations that participating organisations could implement immediately.

Why this demonstrates Partner Excellence:

• The programme was co-designed and co-delivered by multiple partner organisations, aligning national guidance with local operational realities.
• Workshops combined strategic leaders and technical practitioners to ensure recommendations were both governing and deliverable.
• The WarGame created a safe, realistic environment to test joint decision-making, communication and escalation across organisational boundaries.
• Outcomes were practical and transferable: a regional playbook, a set of prioritized actions for suppliers and contracts, and a strengthened network for rapid information-sharing and mutual support.

Impact / benefits:

• Improved cross-partner understanding of supply-chain risks and clarity on respective roles during an incident.
• Identified and closed critical process and communications gaps via the WarGame, producing measurable, prioritized actions for follow up.
• Created a reusable playbook and toolkit that accelerates local implementation of national guidance.
• Established an ongoing regional community of practice that continues to share intelligence, assurance material and best practice.

How this maps to Partner Excellence

The programme was explicitly collaborative — co-designed, co-delivered and jointly owned by national and regional partners — translating diverse expertise into a single, practical outcome for multiple organisations. It demonstrates Partner Excellence by strengthening inter-agency trust, delivering shared outcomes that none of the partners could have achieved alone, and leaving a scalable, transferable capability (playbook, exercise scripts, and network) that improves resilience across the sector.

What are the key achievements?

The NorthernWARP Supply-Chain programme successfully delivered a multi-partner, practical capability uplift: five half-day workshops + a WarGame produced an actionable regional playbook, closed critical process gaps, formalised cross-agency communications, and created reusable assets that immediately improved resilience across participating councils and partners.

Main results & level of impact:

• Complete delivery of the programme as designed — all five workshops and the WarGame were delivered, attended by strategic and technical leads from multiple councils and national partners.
• Actionable playbook and templates created — a concise after-action playbook, procurement/supplier-assurance templates and exercise scripts were produced and handed to participants for immediate use.
• Critical gaps identified and remediated — the WarGame exposed real weaknesses in escalation, roles and supplier contractual clauses; owners and concrete remediation actions were agreed during the programme.
• Faster, clearer decision-making — participating organisations reported clearer escalation paths and decision triggers, reducing ambiguity during incidents and speeding coordinated responses.
• Streamlined supplier assurance — standardised checklists and contract clauses removed duplication of effort between councils and created a repeatable supplier-checking process.
• Stronger cross-partner relationships — routine channels for intelligence-sharing and mutual support were established, reducing friction and accelerating joint action in follow-on events.
• Reusable learning assets for scale — presentation packs, exercise scenarios and WarGame scripts are available to be adopted by other regions, multiplying the programme’s value.
• Behavioural and governance change — attendees implemented immediate follow-ups (contract reviews, risk-register updates, role ownerships) demonstrating rapid translation of learning into practice.
• Demonstrable alignment with national guidance — the programme translated LGA/MHCLG guidance into locally implementable controls, improving regulatory and assurance alignment.
• Sustained community of practice — an ongoing regional forum was created to continue assurance work, scenario planning and coordinated supplier engagement.

Extent to which aims/objectives were met or exceeded

The programme met all stated aims: it strengthened resilience, built partnerships, tested response through the WarGame, and produced a practical playbook.

It exceeded expectations in partner engagement and reuseability — partners co-owned materials and agreed to share the assets regionally, increasing impact beyond the original cohort.

The WarGame’s immediate remediation actions and assigned owners demonstrated tangible, rapid improvements rather than theoretical recommendations.

Cost savings / efficiency and productivity gains (identified)

• Reduced duplicated effort: shared templates and a common assurance checklist remove repetitive supplier checks across councils, saving officer time on each procurement and vendor review.
• Faster incident handling: clarified escalation and roles reduce time-to-decision during incidents, lowering potential service downtime and remediation costs (avoids higher costs associated with protracted incidents).
• Avoided future cost exposure: improving contractual clauses and assurance practices reduces the likelihood and potential financial/operational impact of supply-chain incidents.
• Reusability multiplies return: the ability for other regions to reuse the playbook and exercise materials increases value-for?money from a single programme investment.

Evidence / indicators of success

• Immediate follow-up actions recorded and owners assigned during the WarGame.
• Positive partner feedback on usability of the playbook and templates.
• Commitments from partners to continue the community of practice and to reuse the assets regionally.

 

How Innovative is your initiative?

True co-design and co-delivery across national & regional partners — the programme wasn’t a single-agency training course:

LGA, MHCLG, Halo, NorthernWARP and YHWARP jointly designed and delivered the content. That partnership model (shared ownership of materials, delivery and follow-up) is a different, scalable way of building capability that reduces duplication and increases buy-in across organisations.

Applied WarGame simulation to regional supply-chain risk — rather than only discussing guidance, we ran a realistic WarGame that simulated a supply-chain compromise at scale. Using a live exercise to stress-test supplier clauses, escalation routes and cross-agency decision making at a regional level is a novel step beyond standard tabletop exercises.

Blended, time-efficient learning format — five focused half-day workshops plus a live simulation allowed senior decision makers and technical teams to take part without long single-day commitments. This modular approach increased participation and produced rapid, practical outputs.

Translated national guidance into operational controls and contract changes — the programme closed the “translation gap” by converting high-level LGA/MHCLG guidance into concrete procurement checklists, contract clauses and simple supplier-risk checks that officers could apply immediately.

Joined procurement / legal / technical / strategic actors in one process — bringing those functions together in exercises is uncommon but essential for supply-chain resilience. This broke down silos and produced fixes (legal/contractual and technical) that could be actioned straightaway.

Reusable, scalable assets and scenario library — we produced playbooks, templates and WarGame scripts that other regions can pick up and run without bespoke build-work. That makes the programme low-cost to replicate and fast to scale.

Focused on measurable, actionable outcomes — exercises didn’t produce vague recommendations: they produced owners, prioritized remediation tasks, and contract changes — turning training into immediate governance change.

Catalysed a sustained community of practice — rather than a one-off course, the programme created an ongoing network for intelligence-sharing and coordinated supplier assurance — a behavioural and structural innovation that keeps improving resilience over time.

In short: the initiative pushed boundaries by combining multi-agency co-design, a regional WarGame focused on supply-chain threats, practical translation of national guidance into contracts and checklists, and production of reusable, scalable assets — all designed to deliver rapid, measurable improvements. This blend of partnership, practical testing and scaling is the core of its innovation and why it maps strongly to Partner Excellence.

 

What are the key learning points?

Partnership is the real enabler. The most powerful outcomes came from co-designing and co-delivering with partners who each brought unique perspectives — national policy (LGA, MHCLG), operational expertise (Halo), and regional collaboration networks (NorthernWARP, YHWARP). Early and equal involvement ensured shared ownership, richer content, and faster adoption of recommendations.

Practical, scenario-based learning drives change. Running a realistic WarGame allowed participants to experience decision making pressure, uncover process gaps, and immediately identify fixes. This approach proved far more effective than traditional training or guidance documents.

Bringing different roles together breaks silos. Having legal, procurement, technical, and leadership teams in the same room created a shared understanding of how supply-chain resilience spans multiple disciplines — leading to faster, coordinated action.

Focus on “translation” not theory. Converting national guidance into usable local controls (e.g. supplier checklists, contract clauses, escalation triggers) proved critical. Others can replicate this “translation model” to make national policy meaningful indaily operations.

Keep it short, structured, and repeatable. Delivering five half-day sessions instead of full days maximised attendance and maintained energy and focus. The modular format makes it easy to repeat or adapt for new audiences.

Test, learn, improve. The WarGame revealed gaps that were not visible on paper — especially around communication and Escalation. The openness of participants to address them immediately was key to the project’s success.

Sustainability through community. Creating an ongoing network (post-project) ensures lessons are not lost, and that improvement continues through shared updates and future exercises.

Scalability and replication

The model — five workshops + WarGame + playbook — is fully reusable and can be easily adopted by other regions or sectors with minimal adaptation.

The materials, exercise scripts and playbooks have already been packaged so that others can replicate the approach quickly and cost-effectively.

The initiative demonstrates how collaboration between local and national partners can deliver a shared, measurable uplift in cyber and supply-chain resilience — a proven template for future multi-agency resilience work.

In summary:

The key learning is that joint, scenario-based, practical collaboration delivers faster and more meaningful improvement than guidance alone. The approach is scalable, low-cost, and directly transferable — enabling other regions to strengthen their resilience using the same tested framework.

 

Additional Comments

This programme showcased true Partner Excellence by uniting LGA, MHCLG, Halo, NorthernWARP and YHWARP to strengthen regional resilience to supply-chain attacks. The workshops and WarGame delivered practical outcomes, a reusable playbook and lasting collaboration. It set a new benchmark for partnership-led cyber resilience, turning national guidance into local action and creating a model now being shared across other regions.