Stratford-on-Avon District Council

Modern local government requires effective strategic and tactical leadership skills for all parties involved in service delivery. The approach to leadership development must promote shared services and a culture of excellence. Stratford-on-Avon District Council is championing this approach with its neighbouring authorities.

Background

Warwickshire is a county in the West Midlands region with a population of around half a million. It is a mix of market towns and rural areas. There are six councils in the county, varying in size and approach to delivering services.

These councils have typically made their own arrangements for leadership and management development. More recently, however, they established the Coventry and Warwickshire Learning and Development Consortium, where they share development opportunities.

Key issues

Stratford-on-Avon had to undergo a major cultural change following a difficult comprehensive performance assessment (CPA) in 2004. It has now established a record of successful customised leadership and management development programmes. These have contributed to organisational improvement and culture change, helping senior and middle managers deal with hard, practical issues appropriately.

Resource constraints in individual councils can limit the provision of leadership and management development. Shared learning opportunities maximise resource efficiency and create a powerful learning environment for thought leadership.

Stratford’s tailored learning and development programme provides a high-quality alternative to national programmes. It shares learning across councils and strategic partners.

Development programmes must be structured enough to meet accreditation standards but flexible enough to develop to meet ongoing ‘big’ issues.

What we are doing

In March 2007, Stratford-on-Avon reviewed its leadership and management development programmes against future requirements for strategic and tactical leadership. It recognised the benefit of creating a leadership learning environment involving all partners in the area. The council would be a centre for excellence in learning and development.

Stratford-on-Avon set out to create a strategic leadership programme that would meet the following criteria:

• Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Level 7 certification
• customised learning to reflect practical issues for each council or partner organisation
• high-quality content matching Masters in Public Administration (MPA) and other top programmes
• realistic time scales
• opportunities for networking and knowledge sharing
• cost efficient

Middle-manager programmes would meet the same criteria and equate to ILM level 5.
Senior managers from neighbouring authorities begin the first ILM-endorsed Strategic Leadership in Modern Local Government programme in October 2007. It lasts until July 2008 and involves:

• six practical learning modules
• self-managed action learning sets
• online learning support
• external guest speakers
• chief executive sessions
• ILM assessment

There are 12 participant places on each programme. Further programmes will engage participants from partner organisations that are part of many local strategic partnerships.

Key outcomes expected

The practical nature of the ILM Strategic Leadership programme means that participants will be ready to:

• apply strategic thinking skills and tools to improve the quality of their decision making
• take a lead in creating vision and strategies for change
• lead implementation by translating strategy into projects and programmes
• increase self knowledge and leadership influence to build trusting relationships and manage talent
• build high-performing internal and multi-agency teams
• make a positive impact by communicating effectively

Stratford-on-Avon’s Chief Executive, Paul Lankester says:

“This programme provides a real opportunity to bring out the best in senior managers. Previous leadership programmes have helped to change our culture for the better.”

Impact

Strategic Leadership in Modern Local Government is expected to have the following impact in all participant organisations:

• organisational improvement in CPA rating
• reduction of people performance issues
• reduction in sickness and absence
• increased staff survey results
• increased management confidence
• improved relationships between officers and members

Participants will be more effective as place shapers and to deliver modern services.

Resources and who is involved?

The initiative is being led by Stratford-on-Avon’s:

• Chief Executive, Paul Lankester
• Head of Customer Services, Allison Davies
• Organisation Development Manager, Laila Cherry

KBA Solutions, executive and management development consultants, designed and delivered this and previous programmes for Stratford-on-Avon.

Research for the programme was conducted with:

• other chief executives
• West Midlands Local Government Association,
• Birmingham University's INLOGOV
• the IDeA

Participating councils on the first programme have a discounted fee of £2,250 per participant.

Further information

If you would like to follow up on any of the information in this case study, please contact:

Allison Davies
Head of Customer Services
telephone: 01789 260700
email: Allison.davies@stratford-dc.gov.uk
web: www.stratford.gov.uk