Agenda item

To consider item 7

The Organisational Development Manager advised that this paper was asking Members to note the positive evaluation of Phase 1 of the Leadership & Management Development Programme and to approve the transfer of a £51k underspend from the 2021/22 Training Needs Analysis budget, into a future funding reserve, to be used in 2022/23 to procure Phase 2 of the programme and fund a delegate onto the Executive Leadership Programme. Members approved a partial growth bid of £50k for investment into the Leadership & Management Development Programme in 2021/22, with an invitation to present a further bid, for the remaining funds needed to fully roll out the programme. Since then, it had become apparent through reviewing the budget for the Training Needs Analysis (TNA) 2021/22 vs what had been procured, that there may no longer be a need for a growth bid, and that a forecasted underspend could be used to fund Phase 2 instead.

Phase 2 involved rolling the programme out to the remaining established managers, this included support staff, watch commanders and crew commander if timings, crewing and funding allowed. The underspend would also be used to fund one Executive Leadership Programme place in 2023, which the Authority had two senior managers being successful in their application for.

The Organisational Development Manager advised that this proposal had been produced in consultation with finance, the training strategy group and procurement, to ensure it met all of their requirements. To ensure the leadership programme content was fit for purpose and that both facilitators and delegates were engaged and finding value in attending, initial feedback, in the form of a survey, was sought from the attendees of cohorts 1 and 2. A summary of the feedback was contained within Appendix 2 and would be used to develop the content for the remaining cohorts of Phase 1, Phase 2 and adapt the facilitators approach where necessary. A more in-depth evaluation would be undertaken as part of the project, which would include re-visiting the initial audit undertaken as part of this project, reviewing of appraisal performance ratings and the culture survey outcomes.

For Members information, once all existing managers had completed the programme, it would then become acquisition training for all new managers/leaders and development for any potential future managers/leaders. This would be delivered internally via the Learning and Development team, therefore no longer requiring additional funding to procure delivery by the external provider.

The Chairman asked about the initial evaluation, under the heading ‘Facilitator’ how many people were the 13 per cent who were not engaged with the facilitator throughout.

The Organisational and Development Manager advised that this was two people. The programme served more as a refresher for the two people rather than new learning.

A Member asked for clarification regarding train the trainer, that the Service would not now need to use an external trainer and was advised that was correct.

RESOLVED -

1.                  That the positive evaluation of Phase 1 of the Leadership & Management Development Programme be noted.

2.                  That the transfer of the £51k underspend from the 2021/22 Training Needs Analysis budget, into a future funding reserve, to be used in 2022/23 to procure phase 2 of the Leadership & Management Development Programme and fund a delegate onto the Executive Leadership Programme be approved.