Relying on informal guidance such as word-of-mouth advice, ad hoc emails or asking colleagues creates significant hidden inefficiencies and slows delivery. Without clear, formal guidance processes are applied differently across teams or departments. This can create compliance and reputational risks. Informal guidance is hard to review, hard to update and hard to improve systematically. Because it isn’t visible or owned, organisations struggle to standardise good practice or respond quickly to change.

Informal guidance increases risk and reduces accountability. When guidance is informal, responsibilities are unclear, decisions are harder to evidence and errors are harder to trace. That’s why high performing public sector organisations increasingly invest in clear, accessible, and maintained formal guidance - supported by training and governance.

When public sector bodies need best practice to stick across teams, suppliers, and services, certification programs provide a practical way to make that happen. For more than 30 years, APMG International has worked with the public sector to create certification programs that scale knowledge, build consistency, and support confident delivery.