Types of assurance
There are 3 types of assurance which you can use to make sure we're spending public money or building the right thing in the right way.
Team assurance
Team-level assurance methods can help you to make sure that you're doing the right thing.
Some examples of team assurance are:
- design crits
- 2i on content
- accessibility compliance using checklists
- automated tests when code is changed and deployed
- RAG (red, amber, green) reviews
Departmental assurance
Outside of your team, department-level assurance methods are used to make sure you're following the required standards.
These are usually required to ensure we're meeting our governance requirements as a government department.
Some examples of departmental assurance are:
- discovery peer reviews
- DfE panel service assessments
- Show and tells
- IT health check
- Spend control review
- mock assessments
Independent assurance
Using independent assurance methods outside of DfE provides an even greater level of assurance and in some instances is required.
Some examples of independent assurance are:
- cross-government panel service assessment
- security audits or penetration testing
- accessibility audit
- cross-government peer reviews or design crits
Updated: February 2023