Lord Haskin's report on rural delivery heralded the formation of Natural England, a non-departmental government body bringing together English Nature, the Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Service. Natural England is here to conserve and enhance the natural environment, for its intrinsic value, the wellbeing and enjoyment of people and the economic prosperity that it brings.

During the two-year merger programme, the Executive Board considered how best to provide finance and procurement functions to support its new mission. One of the key strategic options available to Natural England was the adoption of Defra's SSO.

AMTEC carried out a strategic options study to appraise the Board of the practicality, risks and value-for-money of each option. The scope covered all aspects of procurement, finance, HR, payroll and pensions, facilities management and estates.

Following the study, the organisation determined that adopting the Defra SSO was its preferred route.

AMTEC provided project management support to help Natural England to initiate the implementation phase of the project, including setting up the project structure and the governance structure with the SSO; project plans, risks and issues; and contingency planning.

AMTEC went on to provide a variety of implementation support to help migrate the current finance and procurement functions to the SSO. The support covered the Chart of Accounts, management reporting requirements, infrastructure requirements and considerations, setup and configuration, data migration, testing, training and issue resolution.