The Future Rural Payment Service (FRPS)

Background

The Farming and Countryside Programme (FCP) was created to replace the EU’s farming support system with a new approach that rewards land managers and food producers for delivering environmental benefits.

The Future Rural Payment Service (FRPS), currently part of FCP, is expected to become a standalone programme before FCP closes in FY 26/27. This assignment will help Defra, RPA, DDTS and partners define what FRPS needs to become and how to get there.

Proposed work

• Programme Definition: A clear statement of what FRPS will achieve, why it is needed, and what success looks like. This includes the problem statement, scope (in/out), success measures, constraints, risks, dependencies and delivery approach.
• Leadership and Roles Advice on the senior structure required for FRPS, starting with accountabilities across Defra, RPA and DDTS, and translating these into roles at SCS2, SCS1 and G6. This should reflect RPA’s operational role and the wider Defra interest beyond farming.
• Governance Model: A simple, pragmatic governance model setting out each forum’s purpose, chair, membership, decision scope and escalation routes. It must work across Defra organisations and functional domains and support FRPS’s future expansion into wider grants.
• Projects and Outcomes: A set of projects that fully cover the FRPS scope, each linked to a clear sub-outcome. This should include major dependencies, enablers, acceptance criteria, shared assumptions and a high-level phasing plan showing how the full FRPS scope is delivered.
• PMO Design: A PMO design suitable for a modern, large-scale transformation. It should be proactive, data-driven and able to use automation and AI-enabled insight to anticipate risks, accelerate decisions and maintain momentum. It should be lean but capable of coordinating planning, managing dependencies and supporting delegated decision-making.
• Role of ALBs (Particularly RPA): Clear advice on the role RPA should take and under what conditions. This includes mapping these conditions to the future FRPS operating model, covering accountability, capability and commercial control.
• Roadmap: A realistic roadmap showing:
• today’s starting point
• what needs to be built or decided
• the milestones that create a fully separate programme
• the sequence of decisions required to get there

The roadmap must reflect current organisational constraints.