COSLA EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2015
06
APPLICATION FORM
Please refer to the ‘2015 Guidance for Applicants’
before completing this application form.
The application form is split over four sections. It is up to you to decide the content and length of each section, but your application must not exceed three pages in total (excluding the cover pages).
Please ensure that your application covers the key criteria that we are looking for and is effectively presented. Any questions relating to your application or the submission process should be directed to or 0131 474 9275.
The deadline for submission of entries is 5pm on Friday 24 October 2014.
Submitting Your Application Form
Please use our online application portal to submit this application form.
PLEASE PROVIDE SOME DETAILS ABOUT YOUR APPLICATION:
CATEGORY APPLIED FOR / Securing a Workforce for the FuturePROJECT NAME
(as you wish to see it published) / Argyll and Bute Manager – developing leaders and managers for the future
LEAD ORGANISATION / Argyll and Bute Council
DEPARTMENT/TEAM / Customer Services / Improvement and Organisational Development
PARTICIPANT NAMES OR PARTNER ORGANISATIONS / Sally Loudon, Chief Executive / Douglas Hendry, Executive Director – Customer Services
Cleland Sneddon, Executive Director – Community Services / Jane Fowler, Head of Improvement and HR
Jennifer Swanson, Improvement and Organisational Development Programme Manager / Tricia O’Neill, Central Governance Manager
Katy Grubb, Improvement and Organisational Development Project Assistant / Eileen Wilson, Improvement and Organisational Development Project Officer
CONTACT NAME / Jennifer Swanson
CONTACT DETAILS / / 01546 604298
CAN WE PUBLISH THIS APPLICATION FORM ON OUR WEBSITE? / YES / NO
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / In one short paragraph please describe this project is about, what it has achieved, and why it is delivering excellence.
The Argyll and Bute Manager is the first ever leadership and management development programme designed specifically to meet the needs of Argyll and Bute Council’s managers. For the first time, Argyll and Bute Council has taken a blended learning approach, aligned to the corporate objectives, to develop excellent leadership and management skills in its workforce. The programme is integral to supporting excellence in service delivery by ensuring that everyone in a management and leadership role has access to support and feedback to enhance skills, competencies and knowledge. The Argyll and Bute Manager programme has been designed to be practical and flexible in delivery and to relate to the corporate context. Excellent feedback from managers shows that we have an effective and affordable programme that’s delivering motivated and skilled employees to secure a workforce for the future.
PLANNING / What is your project about, and why is it important? What are you aiming to achieve, and how does this fit with the bigger picture? Does it tackle the issues that matter most to your community or your organisation?
Argyll and Bute Council is committed to supporting change by enhancing employee skills, competencies and knowledge. The Argyll and Bute Manager programme was designed to support this work, and managers at all levels, and aims to:
a) ensure that managers have the required knowledge and skills to work in accordance with, and to deliver, essential policies and procedures, and
b) develop leadership capacity and behaviours to support managers and their teams to be resilient and sustain high levels of performance.
The restructure of Council services in 2011 resulted in a number of technical and functional professionals moving to line-managing employees. This highlighted the need for those individuals to have management training and this, combined with the changes to HR policies and procedures and a drive for a consistent approach, led to the design and development of the Argyll and Bute Manager programme. The Council’s employee survey in 2012 highlighted the need for employees to be well-managed in terms of their performance and development. Developing ‘soft’ skills was therefore also included in the Argyll and Bute Manager programme, for example Communication and Coaching Skills.
The Argyll and Bute Manager builds on our existing competency framework as its foundation and was developed in two parts: a leadership and a management development programme. The leadership programme was aimed at managers at third tier level and above while the management programme was designed for all those who manage people. The programme included everything a new manager would need to know as well as ensuring that those people who had managed for a while were using consistent approaches. Overall, the programme is designed to develop managers’ knowledge, skills and confidence and make a real difference to how we live, work and learn in Argyll and Bute.
The programme consists of a blend of hard knowledge and soft skills. For example, the HR policies and procedures that every manager needs to know including Recruitment and Selection to make sure we have the right people in the right jobs; Maximising Attendance and Improving Employee Performance aim to reduce absence and improve employee engagement; Managing Stress in the Workforce and Equalities were included to help reduce absences related to stress and to help create the right culture for employees to be themselves at work, as well as familiarise managers with their responsibilities in relation to Council policies.
DELIVERING / How have you carried out your project? How did you ensure that this was done effectively? What are you doing to continue to improve?
Following a procurement exercise in November 2012, external providers were appointed to deliver a leadership development programme and to deliver short courses to form a tailored management development programme. The Argyll and Bute Manager was officially launched at the COSO (Chief Officers and Senior Officers) event in June 2013. Heads of Service were invited to nominate managers to participate in the programme. Both the pilot Leadership programme and the first cohort of the Management development programme commenced in September 2013.
Familiarisation sessions were held for all nominated managers to find out more about the programme and provide an opportunity to answer questions about it. Each session included a welcome from either the Chief Executive or an Executive Director, sometimes by video conference as each event was held in a different locality. Participants at the first round of events found them to be very beneficial. Evaluations provided suggestions which were subsequently included to improve the second cohort’s events and these were also very well-received.
Feedback from the Leadership pilot showed overall satisfaction was 80%. Third tier managers reported that they particularly benefited from the Action Learning Sets and this will be a focus of the leadership programme as it is rolled out. Overall satisfaction in the first year of the management development programme was 83% and this is expected to increase as suggested improvements are incorporated into future modules. Managers reported that the induction sessions and face-to-face courses encouraged collegiality, creating bonds with people with whom they had previously only known via email. This is a critical success factor in such a geographically widespread organisation as this collegiality has helped to increase resilience by building a network of moral support within cohorts.
By taking a blended approach we reduced travel costs and learning time as the eLearning modules could be completed in half-an-hour at a time and place to suit managers. The tutor-led courses are now being delivered throughout Argyll and Bute to reduce travel time and costs for managers.
Heads of Service prioritised their managers to join the programme over a 3-year period. Managers were offered a choice of dates to undertake 10 tutor-led courses and were given access to 5 eLearning courses to complete at a time that suited them. The programme is flexible and managers have 18 – 24 months to complete the courses. Ten managers completed the programme within the first year. Combining face-to-face with eLearning is an important factor with a geographically widespread group in order to reduce travel and increase productive time. Face-to-face modules are delivered by a range of external providers as well as professionals across the Council who are recognised experts within their area of knowledge. This skills and knowledge development is helping managers to respond to current and emerging challenges by giving them the tools they need to manage and develop employees. Managers have already reported that the programme has helped them to tackle management issues.
The leadership development programme brought together third-tier managers for master classes and action learning. This, too, had an excellent response and managers found action learning to be a useful way of finding solutions to work challenges. This programme will continue to identify improvements.
Everyone with a responsibility for managing people will take part in the Argyll and Bute Manager. In 2013/14, 150 managers started the programme. Managers are encouraged to take every opportunity through this process to maximise their potential and be supported in delivering outstanding services. Participants have told us that they discuss their development with their own line manager more now than before.
Managers are supported in the programme with access to a special section on the Hub (the Council’s intranet) and have a passport to record their progress through the programme. On completion, we celebrate managers’ success at a recognition event, hosted by the Provost and Chief Executive.
INNOVATION & LEADING PRACTICE / Why is your project innovative? How is it helping to prepare for the future? What is happening to help other organisations benefit from your approach?
This is the first time that a blended learning leadership and management development programme has been specifically designed and delivered for managers in Argyll and Bute Council and the evaluation results have been excellent. Other leadership and management development programmes can be costly to deliver but Argyll and Bute Manager has delivered a quality programme at a very competitive price. This is due to the blended approach of external tutors, in-house experts and the use of internal venues.
Our in-house Learning and Development team worked with subject matter experts to develop tailored eLearning as part of the programme. This helped to develop the team’s skills in producing eLearning courses as well as encouraging managers to undertake further development using eLearning due to the high quality of courses available. Managers are further supported by guidance on the intranet which can be accessed at a time to suit them. We provide flexibility by offering a choice of dates for each topic and a choice of locations to reduce the need for managers to travel which saves valuable time.
RESULTS & IMPACT / What impact are you having, or expect to have? How are you measuring this, and what does this tell you? Are you delivering what you set out to achieve?
The Argyll and Bute Manager has received excellent feedback from all those involved. Managers have reported that they feel valued and supported and their teams are being better-managed than before.
Evaluations following each course are followed up by the Learning and Development team and improvements have been made, for example offering more courses in different locations and adding new topics to the programme. A further assessment will be carried out to determine the full impact of the programme and to identify further improvements that can be made. We expect to see improvement in future employee survey results compared with previous years.
Feedback from managers:
“In my opinion this programme is integral to supporting excellence in service delivery by supporting managers to develop their confidence, competence and resilience in dealing with significant change and driving improvements and the managerial issues that surround this.”
“The Argyll and Bute Manager makes sure we have a consistent approach across the whole of the Council and has helped me to tackle some management challenges of my own. It’s also a great way for managers of different departments to network and share ideas.”
Due to the successful feedback from the first cohort of 60 managers, a further 90 managers started the programme in April 2014 (50% more than planned). The programme will continue to be rolled out to all managers and we will continue to improve elements in response to feedback.
Please limit your application to 3 pages or less and use font size 11or greater
NEXT STEPS
ü Have you answered the criteria set out in the guidance?
ü Is your application form 3 pages or less. (Anything more, including appendices, will be automatically rejected)
ü Has your application form been authorised by an appropriate person?
ü Have you indicated whether you wish the application form to be published?
ü Have you provided details for someone we can contact about your application?
SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION
PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION BY 24 OCTOBER 2014 USING OUR ONLINE APPLICATIONS PORTAL: