Scottish Social Services Learning Networks- Report to National Leadership Steering group.

September 2010.

This briefing highlights key themes and trends which have emerged from the Networks’ activities to support the leadership agenda since June 2010.

1.Facilitating Social Services Leadership Communities across Scotland- Starting Points and Future Directions.

The research to provide a baseline from which to measure SSSLNs progress has now been completed and provides a comprehensive starting point from which to engage further with the sector. This report sets out a vision of what it will look like when the Networks are successfully developing and sustaining leadership communities along with what needs to happen to ensure we move towards this. It also presents the findings from the survey of existing activities.

Developing the Vision for leadership communities, the work undertaken highlighted that a broad vision was already in existence:

Key element of vision / Detail of this element of the vision
Change / Coping with change central to the vision, positively harnessing peoples’ energy to make change happen in the best way. Giving people time to participate.
Service Improvement / Leadership Communities will encourage the workforce (at all levels) to think broadly, strategically and outwith their own organization.
Networks / We will see networks of peers within and across localities, with cross organization supports being developed to offer peer support & challenge, and support the workforce to ask others in the sector for help with leadership issues
Leadership / The connection between frontline services and leadership will be clear; a shared language around what good leadership looks like across the roles within social services will support improved understanding of leadership across the workforce.
The concepts of joint actions and people thinking and working together on their leadership issues are seen as central to building leadership communities. Providing new opportunities for partnership and collaboration are central to the overall approach, as is the opportunity for members to experience different views of leadership. Partnerships across services are the basis for ongoing effective leadership development and Leadership Communities can become an important means of offering a new approach to fostering and building leadership not only at senior management levels, but at all levels within organizations. Another clear message from the research was that we need to foster leadership community development by offering introductory ‘training’ on leadership for some potential participants .
An overarching message that Leadership Communities should not be developed in isolation from other workforce initiatives, and of the vital connection between Leadership Communities as vehicles for the workforce sustaining and building on other forms of leadership development undertaken was very clear throughout all the sources of evidence which contributed to the research and baseline report. As the Leadership Communities are to be marketed at the whole workforce there will be challenges in resourcing this and the Networks need to agree targeting priority groups within the workforce.
A view from the Steering group would be welcome on this.
There appears to be less consensus over the need for the purpose of leadership communities to be clearly defined in order to foster broad participation. However, there was consensus that certain elements did require clarity. Networks need to be clear about:
a. How people access and engage with the leadership communities
b. The purpose of Leadership Communities being about sharing knowledge and acquiring new knowledge around leadership and leadership development.
c. The difference Leadership Communities can make for individuals and their organisations in order to foster increased participation.
Recent Scottish Government documents describe the aim of leadership communities being to “provide a forum to facilitate cross-sector links, secure a reflective space with peers, & deliver a social services orientated leadership programme which addresses current leadership challenges”. This introduces a more specific vision for the communities becoming future vehicles through which any new sector leadership programmes/initiatives can be delivered. Retaining sight of this element of the Government‟s vision for leadership communities will be important as we shape the future direction for this work.
2. Who should leadership communities be aimed at ?
Extremely clear message that leadership communities need to be aimed at all levels of the workforce and to include the most senior leaders as well as practitioners. The table below summarises key players:
Who needs to be involved and committed to building leadership communities?
those in the workforce who link operations with planning & strategy
workforce development staff throughout the sector
existing leadership community participants and leadership champions
senior directors, managers and strategic leaders in order to legitimize participation across the workforce
Scottish Government and service improvement organizations
Local Practitioner Fora
Those in key sector leadership positioned and leaders of the future
Learning Networks themselves need to be committed
3. What kinds of leadership community activities might work best?
3.1 Action Learning Sets.
We now have reasonably robust and rigorous evidence of both the numbers who have engaged with set activity, what their impact to date has been and suggestions for the future direction for this work.
Future measures of success require to focus more clearly on the sustainability of this activity to support leadership development and on participation where the benefits for both individuals and their organization are more purposeful.
For the remainder of 2010/11 Networks need to agree whether a national or regional approach to continuing this activity within aligned resources will be used. A view from the Steering group would be extremely helpful.
3.2 Regional network events
These regional events have engaged large numbers of people from across the sector and there is evidence from these event evaluations and reports that this method of engagement has been a constructive way to promote both initial and ongoing engagement with the leadership agenda. It can also be targeted for particular audiences, and indeed has been so for the early Years sector.
Regional leadership focused events should be developed in future which are aligned with existing regional Networks’ activities and focus on local/regional priorities.
Measures of success around ensuring that these events engage the whole sector and promote cross sector involvement at different levels of workforce would promote wide engagement.
3.3 Coaching & Mentoring
We now have much more robust evidence of the interest from employers and individuals in the potential benefits of mentoring and coaching to support leadership development. These ‘topics’ seem to be meaningful for a wide range of the workforce and successfully ‘hook’ people in to the leadership agenda. Regional Networks are at different stages of building on excisting work, and again, a view from the Steering group on the importance ( or not) of a consistent approach across Scotland would be welcome.
3.4 Co-consultancy & peer consultation
Views were sought from those on the SSKS co-consultancy database to gather feedback on the level of participation and use of this approach with a view to evaluating future options for this approach to supporting leadership development. Indications are that this resource has been used infrequently and that lack of awareness may have contributed to this.
Networks could explore the potential of refocusing this activity regionally/locally which may be more beneficial. However, the support for this needs to be tested out within local areas.
Suggested actions for Networks:
  • Consider whether the more focused tool of peer consultation could offer a clearer platform from which to explore the whole area of ‘co-consultancy’
  • Define benefits and opportunities of co-consultancy and test out appetite for developing this at local levels
  • Explore the potential use of the Networks’ portals for supporting either local or regional once level of interest has been gauged.
Again, a view from the steering group would be helpful as we are mindful of future resource constraints and the need to focus activity where most impact can be made.
3.5 Small workshops/masterclasses for senior leaders.
To date this activity has not been offered across all Networks but there is evidence that this approach successfully engages and perhaps meets the needs of senior leaders who may not be attracted by more generic larger events. These workshops have also been well attended by previous L2D graduates and could become an important vehicle for embedding and building on leadership development undertaken elsewhere. The Networks are currently agreeing a future approach to taking this forward across Scotland.
4. Continuing existing leadership community activities whilst building a new way forward.
Across Scotland the range and extent of leadership community activities have varied throughout the Regional Network areas. Action Learning Sets are continuing in most areas with a range of plans to ‘reinvigorate’ and ‘refocus’ this activity to ensure more purposeful outcomes for those who participate. Planned and actual other activities are at differing stages of development across the Networks and this is currently being mapped. The current goal is to continue to engage around the possibilities of leadership communities and gather information on needs to inform future activities post April 2011.
There is a question around how important (or not) it is that each Regional Network should be developing leadership community activities in a consistent way across Scotland. Each regional Network has their own approach to engaging with partners and making decisions about the way forward which best fits with local needs, resources and interests at this point in time. There is a risk that in March 2011 we look back over the past year and a ‘patchwork’ of different activities that have not been consistently available throughout Scotland emerges. The Scottish Government’s description of the importance of leadership communities being able to “ deliver a social services orientated leadership programme which addresses current leadership challenges “ implies the centrality of the communities as vehicles to both deliver and sustain the future approaches to leadership development.
We would appreciate the steering group’s views on this in order to ‘set off’ in the right direction. Clearly how activities are facilitated will vary across Scotland, but we would welcome your thoughts on how important it is that the ‘menu’ of leadership community activities looks reasonably consistent.
Anne Tavendale
SSSLNetworks Coordinator-Leadership Communities