Meeting Synopsis

Management Board Meeting and Coach Champions Training

Tuesday 30thMarch 2010

Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting.

Present:

  • Lee FoleyWolverhampton(Chair)
  • Louise BarnettSandwell
  • Phil ChallonerSandwell
  • Peter MaidmentSolihull
  • Sue GrovesTelford
  • Justine KerrWychavon
  • Liz Wallace Herefordshire
  • Mark FreathyWalsall
  • Tracey Roberts Staffordshire
  • Janet McCaffreyWMLB
  • Shelley HowellBirmingham
  • Tracy Leonard WarwickDC
  • Ann HancoxWarwickshire
  • Karen EganCoventry
  • Samantha DarbyImprovement and Efficiency West Midlands
  • Christopher McGillImprovement and Efficiency West Midlands

Apologies:

  • Lynda KeySandwell
  • Rebecca DavisImprovement and Efficiency West Midlands
  • Lucy MarderHerefordshire

* authorities not represented at the meeting – please request a briefing session with the IEWM project team if you require any further information in addition to these notes.

Please see below a summary of what was agreed at the meeting:

2.0Selection of New Chair

Peter Maidment has agreed to step up into the role of Chair as Lee Foley has completed his term as Chair of the coaching pool. Lucy Marder will continue in the role of Vice Chair.

3.0Minutes from the last meeting

The minutes from the last meeting where agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

Main Business

4.0Quick Update Points

4.1Procurement

On Monday 22nd March Lucy Marder,Tracey Roberts, Rebecca Davis and Samantha Darby interviewed the top three shortlisted tenderers for the ongoing provision of coach training and supervision services.

Following the interview a contract has been offered to OPM who greatly impressed the panel with their experience, expertise, enthusiasm and ideas for developing of the West MidlandsCoaching Pool.

Since this contract offer to OPM a challenge as been received from one of organisations that were not shortlisted. Therefore the procurement process has been paused whilst the challenge is being resolved.

4.2Skills Gym

The coaching pool Skills Gym scheduled for 31 March has received over 30 bookings.

This Skills Gym is being facilitated by Lee Foley along with Yassir Mahmood and Colin Smith from Coventry. However for sustainability the management board need more volunteers to facilitate future Skills Gyms, the content and delivery notes have been developed and are ready to be easily delivered by other experienced trainers.

Following on from the discussion at the last meeting the management board agreed that the continued success of the Skills Gyms and potential demand from new partners joining the pool still makes them worthwhile to deliver. As well as targeting new partners, specific targeting of Accelerate and Catalyst delegates along with other development programmes should be undertaken. It was agreed that the skills gym would provide a complimentary addition to many development programmes.

Further discussions were had about other topical Skills Gyms that could be delivered through the pool. The board felt that effective team coaching is a growing need that should be run as a session.

It was agreed/actions:

  • Phil Challoner, Tracey Roberts, Ann Hancox, Tracy Leonard and Janet McCaffrey all offered to put people forward to deliver the next skills gyms
  • Projects team to send the training notes to the above board members and a conference call will be arranged so that delivery and training material can be discussed. Lee agreed to talk through and answer questions about the sessions
  • It was agreed that the lead of the sessions must be someone who has attended a previous skills gym
  • Projects team to put together a schedule of dates – starting in the autumn, the WarwickshireAcademy may potentially host a date
  • Projects team to work with Tracey Roberts on developing team coaching training

4.3Contracts

All contracts have been received by the Projects Team so all existing partners will continue in the pool for another year.

4.4Coaching Activity

The coaching pool has experienced a large increase in the number clients accessing the pool resulting in over 300 clients to date. In the last quarter 60 clients accessed the pool, half of which were as a result of the Catalyst programme.

The high demand has meant that the number of coaches on the matching site has gone down to zero.

This incredible demand over the last few weeks has highlighted the need for both the projects team and the management board to take a more proactive role in ensuring that there are sufficient coaches available on the matching site to adequately cover demand.

The board discussed the fact that a number of coaches seem to be unclear of their responsibilities and what they are contracted to. The projects team highlighted that email reminders are not being effective enough and so the board agreed that it is vital that face to face discussions are carried out to help understand where issues lie. It is critical to the pool that coaches understand their role and pool processes to ensure we can meet demand.

It was agreed/Actions:

  • Projects team to give all coaches who have not been chosen in last 3 months a weeks notice that they will be put live on the site unless they respond with a valid reason not to be
  • Projects team to produce and circulate to board:
  • a ‘Coaches Guide’ to remind coaches of what they have contracted to, a reminder of processes and where to find information
  • a brief questionnaire to gather data from coaches about any issues
  • Management board members or Coach Champions to go and see each of their coaches;
  • To remind coaches of their commitment to the pool and highlight things they need to action: talk through ‘Coaches Guide’ and pick up actions from stats
  • To find out what is going on for them as coaches and encourage them to put themselves live on the matching site
  • To collect information from the coaches to help us feed into the next board meeting to direct discussion: using brief questionnaire
  • Questionnaires completed with coaches must be sent to projects team by 12th May to be analysed and reportedfor the next board meeting

5.0Protocol for Managing Clients

As previously agreed the pool is aimed at those with management/leadership responsibilities and sessions should be focussed around organisational and individual development. The matching site now allows the management board members to see who is accessing the pool from their organisation as soon as they have chosen a coach. As a result the question was raised about how to manage clients accessing the pool to ensure they were using the pool for the right reasons.

Discussions were had about asking clients the reasons for their coaching either through the matching site or a board member contacting them and establishing whether their reasons were appropriate. However, as the client will have already gone through the matching process it was recognised that this could cause issues around confidentiality, making clients uncomfortable explaining their reasons to someone who isn’t their manager or coach, and also the difficulty caused cancelling a coaching relationship if deemed necessary.

It was agreed/Actions:

  • No follow up with clients should be made to ask about their reasons for coaching, instead clearer and targeted promotion should be in place to ensure people know they are right for coaching
  • Coaches to be reminded of the purposes of the coaching and requestthey stop any relationship if the objectives or focus cannot be linked to organisational or individual development
  • Coaches to also be reminded about stopping long term coaching relationships where a client may have become dependent on them or the objectives have been continuously changed

Sub Group Meetings

6.0West Midlands Coaching Conference 2010

Subgroup Members: Lee, Peter, Tracy, Phil, Sue, Liz, Shelley, Ann and Chris.

Following the success of the last two coaching conferences and the need for the coaching pool to generate a significant proportion of its own revenue the management board agreed that a Coaching Conference for 2010 should go ahead.

Conference Format

The conference programme and timings from last year were well received by delegates and it was agreed that this year’s conference should follow the same format.

Theme for the Conference

The group agreed that the theme for the conference should be relevant to the changes and challenges currently being experienced by the public sector. Topics around how coaching can aid transformation, downsizing and doing more for less would be appropriate. However the group agreed that the theme should remain flexible until a clearer picture of who will be speaking and what workshops will be delivered are confirmed.

Workshop/Masterclass Topics

Ideas for main speakers, workshops/masterclass topics where generated and will be forwarded to interested parties for them to propose workshop ideas and plans for approval by the conference sub-group.

Ideas for workshop topics included:

  • Advanced skills
  • Team coaching
  • Coaching in challenging/uncertain times
  • Emotional resilience
  • Coaching for innovation
  • Leadership development
  • Return on investment

Budget for Conference and Cost Per Delegate

The sub group discussed the possibility of using unallocated budget to enable Coaching Pool coaches to attend the conference for free. The subgroup agreed that coaches should still have to pay to attend the conference but at a reduced rate.

The group agreed that the Cost for Coaching Pool coaches should be £99 and (roughly) £149 for external delegates if the conference is to attract delegates.

Audience

Previous Coaching Conferences have shown that one of the keys to success is having the appropriate audience in attendance. Therefore the audience will be qualified coaches and coaches in training as the purpose of the conference will be to offer this audience:

  • A opportunity to network
  • Share experience
  • Develop skills through learning something new

It was agreed/Actions:

Projects Team to:

  • Invite organisations/trainers to put forward ideas for workshops.
  • Source a relevant speaker with required knowledge, experience and charisma to deliver keynote address.
  • Source the venue and secure a date.

7.0Coaching Pool Business Case Development

Subgroup Members: Tracey, Mark, Louise, Karen, Justine, Janet and Sam.

As the coaching pool grows and becomes sustainable it needs to ensure the focus, direction and business case meet the needs of the partners. The subgroup discussed what is required for this and agreed the following needs to be re-established:

  1. Vision – what are we aiming for
  2. Benefits of being in the pool
  3. Governance arrangements, Terms of Reference, Roles and Responsibilities
  4. Contractual obligations – what do partners sign up to
  5. The Future Business Case and Risk Assessment

The current arrangements for the first 4 points are detailed in the coaching pool partner pack which it was agreed should be reviewed and finalised to establish the future business case.

The subgroup also agreed that a discussion about internal coaching should be revisited, (currently internal coaching does not count towards a coach’s commitment to the pool).

To support further discussions annual figures for 2009/10 need to be provided.

It was agreed/Actions:

  • Projects team to circulate the current partner pack
  • Subgroup members to review and scrutinise before the next management board meeting to feed in recommended changes
  • Projects team to produce annual stats where possible including the following data for each organisation: Number of coaches, clients, sessions per coach, sessions per client, total number of hours per coach, levels of clients, source of client (i.e. Catalyst, Accelerate etc).

8.0Coaching Pool Champions Meeting (Session 3)

A lot has happened since the last Coaching Pool Champions meetings and the group took time to explore and reflect on the developments.

The main topic of conversation was about the shift in approach from promoting coaching (and the coaching pool) to supporting the pool to assist in it meeting future demand for coaching. This support will mainly be focused on coaches and enabling them to manage the number of clients.

A secondary focus will be ensuring the clients going through the coaching pool are accessing coaches for the right reason and have suitable expectations of what they want to achieve through coaching (and hopefully reduce the number of unsuitable clients accessing the pool).

The new DVD was shown at the meeting and feedback from both the champions and others that have seen it has been incredibly positive. Due to the issues around demand discussion was had about the best way to utilise the DVD without causing a surge of clients.

It was agreed/Actions:

  • Champions to ensure promotion and information about the coaching pool is very specific and clearly outlines who coaching is aimed and the outcomes they can expect
  • The DVD should be used as a way to build a culture of coaching and raise awareness of people building their own coaching skills
  • Carryout a recruitment drive to find qualified coaches in your organisation to join the pool
  • Encourage coaches and clients to develop more case studies to continue demonstrating the value of the pool
  • Use the ‘Coaches Guide’ to ensure coaches are aware of responsibilities

9.0Items for the next meeting.

Due to the success of the sub groups in this meeting it was agreed that the same format will be carried forward at the next board meeting.

  • Update of coaching demand
  • Coach Questionnaire Results
  • Coaching Conference 2010
  • Business case development
  • 2010 Skills Gyms/development activities

NEXT MEETING –Wednesday 23rdMay2010

Telephone -0121 245 0156
Email -
Website-

1