How to prepare for a service assessment
At a service assessment a panel spends about four hours checking a service against the Service Standard. This guide covers booking, who to bring, what the panel asks and what each result leads to.
To prepare for a service assessment, check your service against the 14 points of the Service Standard, meet your department’s assessment team, send a short service brief and bring the people who can answer for the work. The assessment usually lasts about four hours. GDS advises teams to prepare “just enough to make sure you can give an open and honest account of the work you’ve done”.
Check whether you must be assessed, and by whom
If you are developing a transactional service for central government, you must get it assessed, even when only civil servants will use it. A cross-government panel assesses the service if it is likely to handle more than 100,000 transactions a year, or if civil servants in more than one organisation will use it. Otherwise a panel from your own department assesses it.
Book early
Meet your department’s assessment team first. They contact GDS, and GDS asks for at least 4 weeks’ notice before the date you want. Alphas tend to last only 6 to 8 weeks, which is why GDS advises teams to book an alpha assessment within a fortnight of starting. Most assessments take place remotely.
Send the service brief
Before the day, the assessment team asks for a short service brief. It includes:
- a description of the service and its users
- a recent prototype or a link to a development environment
- a high-level technical architecture diagram
- whether the service uses AI and, if so, how
Who sits on the panel
The panel is made up of experienced specialists from the Government Digital and Data community. Normally there is a lead assessor, a user researcher, a designer and a technical lead, and sometimes a performance analyst. GDS updated its guidance on 7th September 2026: if a service includes AI, an AI expert now sits alongside the other panellists. One or two observers may attend, and they do not ask questions.
Who to bring
GDS recommends that at least these people attend: the service owner, a technical architect or lead developer, a user researcher, a designer and, for beta and live assessments, a performance analyst. Beyond that, GDS says to bring “the people you feel are most able to answer the questions you’re likely to be asked”.
The delivery manager and the product manager are not on that minimum list. Points 6, 7 and 8 of the Service Standard cover the team, its agile working and how it keeps improving the service. If your delivery manager or product manager is the person who can answer for those, bring them.
What happens on the day
Spend the first 30 minutes showing what you have built. Give an overview of the service, then take the panel through it as a user would go through it. GDS asks teams not to show only the route where everything goes right, and to cover the offline channels and the work of support staff. The panel uses the rest of the time for questions.
What assessors ask
GDS does not publish a fixed set of questions. The panel chooses them to suit the service and its phase, and it wants to hear why you made the decisions you made. At a beta assessment GDS says you will usually discuss your technology, your performance data, your use of the Design System and your plans and budget for future research. If the service includes AI, the panel asks about those parts, and it may ask about AI tools the team used to design and build the service.
The quickest way to see what a panel looks for in a service like yours is to read past reports. GDS publishes them on the Service Standard Reports page, and you can filter them by stage and result. GDS also reminds teams that “the panel is not there to catch you out”.
The result
A cross-government panel sends its report within 3 to 5 working days, with a green, amber or red result.
With green, the service has met the standard and moves to the next phase. With amber, the service has not yet met the standard but the issues are not critical. It moves on while the team fixes them, usually within three months. With red, the issues are critical and the service stays in its current phase until a panel has reassessed it.
A department panel may give “met” or “not met” in place of a colour. GDS publishes the outcome, and the team can check the report for factual errors first. In GDS’s words, “Not meeting the Service Standard does not mean that you failed.”
Start with a gap list
Write one line for each of the 14 points: what you can show today and who will speak to it. Where the line is empty, you have found the work to do before the assessment. Then ask someone outside the team to play the panel for an hour and put questions to you.
Our one-day course, Agile Across the GDS Service Standard, includes a mock assessment and an assessment preparation checklist. It costs £595+VAT per delegate, and we run it as a private cohort for one team for £4,500+VAT. To arrange a private cohort, contact us.
Questions people ask
How long does a service assessment take?
GDS says assessments usually last about 4 hours. The team spends the first 30 minutes showing the service and the panel asks questions for the rest.
Who should attend a service assessment from the service team?
GDS recommends at least the service owner, a technical architect or lead developer, a user researcher and a designer. For beta and live assessments it adds a performance analyst.
How far ahead should a team book a service assessment?
Your department's assessment team contacts GDS, and GDS asks for at least 4 weeks' notice. For an alpha, GDS advises booking within a fortnight of starting the phase.
What happens if a service gets a red result?
The service stays in its current phase. The team gets a report that explains what to improve, then books a reassessment through its department's assurance team.
Are service assessment reports published?
Yes. GDS publishes outcomes on the Service Standard Reports page on GOV.UK, where anyone can filter them by stage, result and date.