Making Effective Decisions: the Success Profiles framework explained
Making Effective Decisions is the Success Profiles behaviour about using evidence, sound judgement and clear reasoning to reach decisions at the right pace. It applies at every grade, but what counts as effective changes as the decisions get bigger.
What the behaviour actually means
In the Success Profiles framework, Making Effective Decisions is about being objective: using evidence, knowledge and sound judgement to give accurate advice and reach well-reasoned decisions. It covers how you gather information, weigh options, handle risk and commit to a course of action.
Four things run through every level of this behaviour. You base decisions on evidence rather than assumption. You consider more than one option before choosing. You understand the impact of what you decide. And you know when a decision is yours and when it needs to go higher.
From the official guidance
GOV.UK publishes the Success Profiles guidance, including the behaviour definitions and level descriptors, at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles. Read the job advert alongside it, because departments choose which behaviours and levels apply to each role.
The behaviour is deliberately broad because decisions look different at different grades. A dispenser juggling a stock shortage and a director pausing a £30m programme are both making effective decisions, each at their own level.
How the level descriptors work
The framework sets out level descriptors for each grade group, from AA and AO up to the Senior Civil Service. Each level builds on the one below.
Junior levels focus on decisions within your own role: checking facts, following guidance and escalating what sits outside your authority. Middle levels add analysis of conflicting information, risk assessment and decisions affecting a team or service. Senior levels are about setting decision frameworks, handling contested evidence and being accountable for choices with organisational consequences.
For example, at AO a strong statement might describe deciding how to cover a shift when a colleague was off sick. At Grade 7, the same behaviour would look like reallocating a six-figure budget between workstreams when demand changed mid-year.
Assessors score your statement against the level descriptor for the grade you applied for, not against a generic standard. A well-told AO-level decision scores full marks for an AO role and very little for a Grade 7 one.
How levels map to grades
Departments attach a level of the behaviour to each job; where the advert does not name it, the grade tells you which descriptor applies.
- AA and AO: day-to-day decisions within clear guidance, knowing when to escalate.
- EO: analysing information from several sources and deciding within policy on your own caseload.
- HEO and SEO: weighing evidence, cost and risk on decisions affecting a team or service.
- Grade 7 and Grade 6: strategic decisions with incomplete data, budgets and organisational impact.
- SCS: setting decision frameworks, owning the biggest calls, accountable to boards and ministers.
If the advert names a level, follow the advert. As of July 2026, most departments still map levels to grades in the standard way, but there is no single enforced rule, so check the success profile attached to the vacancy.
Why assessors treat this behaviour differently
Making Effective Decisions is one of the behaviours where process matters as much as outcome. A decision that went well by luck scores poorly; a reasonable decision that went badly despite sound reasoning can still score well, provided you show the thinking.
Your statement needs to show its working: what you knew, what you did not, which options you rejected and why. The result still matters, but at every grade the reasoning is the evidence.
Tip
Before writing, list the two or three options you genuinely considered in your example. If you cannot name them, pick a different example, because the assessor will be looking for exactly that comparison.
Frequently asked questions
The published guidance describes the behaviour in terms of objectivity: using sound judgement, evidence and knowledge to give accurate advice and make well-reasoned decisions. For the exact wording, read the Success Profiles publication on GOV.UK, because departments quote it directly in job adverts.
They overlap but are not the same. Problem solving is about finding a fix; this behaviour is about choosing between courses of action with sound reasoning. A strong example shows you identified options, weighed evidence and committed to a decision.
No. Every grade has its own level of the behaviour, and junior levels are about decisions within your own work: handling a refund edge case, rerouting a delivery, prioritising a backlog. What matters is that the decision was yours, evidence-based and explained with clear reasoning.
GOV.UK publishes them in the Success Profiles guidance at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles, and some departments attach the relevant descriptors to each vacancy. Read the descriptor for your target grade before writing, because assessors score directly against it, not against a generic standard.
Next step
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