The D2N2Public Service CompactAnnual Report for 2016

Marje Toward, Service Director for Customers and Human Resources, Nottinghamshire County Council and Chair of the D2N2 Public Service Compact Steering Group

The mission of the Compact is for public service organisations in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire to work together to address the particular challenges that face the public sector in the two counties. These include issues associated with recruitment and retention, workforce development and access to resources. We also need to address difficulties in ensuring that the sector is responsive to changing economic circumstances.Member organisations are committed to increasing the number of Apprentices working in the public sector and facilitating partnership arrangements to develop collaborative approaches to issues of common concern and interest.

Following this year’s merger of the two existing Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Compacts, funding has been secured from a variety of sources to ensure that the Compact continues to benefit from external support for its activities. These sources include one-off sponsorship arrangements, a Compact 'member organisation' subscription scheme and charging delegates from non-member organisations a small fee to attend good practice events.

The vision for the Compact in 2017 is to work collaboratively across the public sector in the two counties to improve recruitment and retention of key knowledge, skills and experience and enhance opportunities, now and for the future, across the directly employed workforce and wider commissioned and supply chain workforce.

We will achieve this by changing perceptions, within the public services, amongst potential employees and the wider public and raising the profile and promotion of the public sector as employers of choice across D2N2.

Good Practice Events in 2016

Our Good Practice Events are well attended and feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Sponsorship and support from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue, University of Derby and Nottinghamshire County Council allowed the Compact staged threeGood Practice Events this calendar year:

The Launch of the D2N2 Public Service Compact marked the beginning of a new era as the two existing Compacts for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire merged. The D2N2 LEP has been working closely with the new Compact to align activities. The event allowed for the development of the vision and objectives of the Compact through networking and collaboration.

The Changing Face of Apprenticeshipslooked at how will the Apprenticeship Levy affect you? How can we ensure that apprenticeships are worthwhile and offer high quality training? Are you aware of the latest information released by BIS? This event will answer these questions and more, with speakers from the cutting edge of training provision, the TUC and alarge local authority. We had both national and local representation amongst the speakers.

Positively Public – promoting the Public Sector for recruitment and retention explored how the general public view the public sector: do they associate it with cuts, austerity, the people who like to say ‘no’? How could we present the public sector in a more positive light, as a great place to work and build a career? This event looked at the ‘image problem’ of the public sector, motivational management, developing the existing workforce and incentivising valuable employees to remain in the public sector when meaningful pay rises are increasingly rare. Speakers represented the public and private sector as well as the unions.

Keeping our eye on the ball …


Quarterly Steering Group meetings in 2016 accommodatedone-off presentations to disseminate information and current practice that would be useful to the membership as well as allowing member organisations to share both challenges and good practice.

Plans for 2017

The Compact will continue to work to support the Skills agenda of the D2N2 LEP. Additionally the Compact has an aspiration to support joined up collaborative approaches to workforce planning issues. A key issue in this respect is the promotion of the sector as an ‘employer of choice’ and early in 2017 the Compact will showcase and promote the concept of a ‘public service career’.

Through horizon scanning activities the Compact will poll and share our collective knowledge and the sharing of good practice through the staging of a series of events will enable us to highlight and address the key priorities and issues. It is likely that a major focus for the Compact will be to continue working together to deliver high quality public services in an austere environment.

In these times of financial constraint, we will continue to focus on more effective use of resources through partnership working and providing information to our members on opportunities to access additional funding from a range of sources.

As a Compact member organisation you will be entitled to:

  • Free delegate places at all good practice events in 2017
  • Full membership of the Steering Group – a chance to shape the Compact agenda in 2017
  • Full access to the Compact web site to share and download resources and access news items and the site’s document bank

Subscription Rates for 2017

£500 for organisations with over 500 staff

£250 for organisations with between 50 and 500 staff

£150 for organisations with less than 50 staff

NOTE: Subscription rates are held at the same level for the 6th year in succession


Our members in 2016:

Aim Awards
Ashfield District Council
Babington Business College
Buxton and Leek College
CT Skills
D2N2 LEP
DBC Training
Derbyshire County Council
East Midlands Chamber of Commerce
Futures Nottingham
GMB Union
Health Education England
Mansfield District Council
New College Nottingham

North East Derbyshire District Council
Nottingham City Council
Nottinghamshire County Council
Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue
One to One Support Services

Prostart
Rushcliffe Borough Council
Shared Service Architects
Training for Business
University of Derby

We look forward to welcoming you as members for the coming year!

Marje Toward

Service Director Customers and Human Resources, Nottinghamshire County Council and Chair of the D2N2 Public Service Compact Steering Group

November 2016