The Institute of Local Government Studies (INLOGOV) is a leading provider of tailored training delivered locally to an individual local authority or group of local authorities. We can help you with any training that your authority needs.
Our Workshops can be adapted for individual councils, and run on your premises over either a day or half a day.
We can also run workshops on more specialist topics, such as the scrutiny of partnerships, health scrutiny or the scrutiny of finance and budgets - the latter being extremely relevant in times of cutbacks and budget pressures.
This is a cost-effective way of getting bespoke training for your authority: the costs per person compare well with the costs of sending one or two people on a standard external seminar or conference.
Simon Baddeley, part-time visiting lecturer and a trained psychologist, runs specialist training for local authorities on chairing, questioning skills, weighing evidence and developing good relationships between executive and scrutiny members and officers.
For information about in-authority training, contact Sue Platt: +44 (0) 121 414 5002, email: s.p.platt@bham.ac.uk
Political and strategic leadership
Member induction package
Each presentation can be delivered as a whole-day event, including group work, exercises and extended discussion. Alternatively, each can be a half-day (three-hour) event. Or each can be delivered as a two-hour evening event, focusing on the essentials of the material, with limited discussion. Member induction events include: Leading and managing effective councils, new roles for all councillors, making a success of overview and scrutiny and more.
Leading and managing effective council
This workshop provides an introduction to the system of local government leadership introduced in England in the Local Government Act 2000, and further extended following the Local Government White Paper of November 2006.
Councillors who attend this workshop will come away with a clear understanding of how the system works, the way decisions are taken, and how they can influence them, and the way in which they can work with council officers.
The workshop will look at:
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The roles of council constitutions
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How policy and executive decisions are made
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The role of the Full Council in approving the Policy Framework, including the Community Strategy, and the budget
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The workings of the cabinet (informal as well as formal)
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The Policy Framework
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The Forward Plan
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The role of political parties, party groups, the proportionality rules, and the whip
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The doctrine of ultra vires, under which council decisions are made
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The general powers of economic, environmental and social well-being
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The importance of probity
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The operation of monitoring officers and Standards Committees
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The part played by senior officers, how they are appointed, how they relate to elected members, and what elected members can reasonably expect from them
Having introduced and considered the building-blocks of the system, the workshop discusses what is needed to make it work well in the particular situation of the commissioning authority.
If time permits there is discussion of:
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How decisions are made by Local Strategic Partnerships, and at regional level (e.g. Regional Planning Framework, transport plans)
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The role of joint boards, notably Police and Fire Authorities, and Passenger Transport Authorities
New roles for all councillor
This Workshop is intended for councillors who are not members of the Executive. Councillors who attend this workshop will come away with a clear understanding of how they can take the lead in their communities, how they can get things done and how this relates to their other roles in the communities they represent.
It considers the roles they play:
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In the Full Council
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In quasi-judicial regulatory committees, such as Development Control and Licensing
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In area committees (briefly, since there is another workshop on this topic)
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In other ways in their communities
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As caseworkers
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As representatives on external bodies
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In overview and scrutiny (briefly, since there is another workshop on this topic)
The emphasis is on the role of councillors as community leaders: different forms of leadership, how to run campaigns, organise petitions and use the power of the media.
There are also discussions of different kinds of casework, focusing on the ethical dilemmas cases may present, the different kinds of follow-up and the importance of good-record keeping.
Making a success of overview and scrutiny
Overview and scrutiny could be the most influential processes for members and officers. They provide members with opportunities to initiate, develop and direct the policy of the council. To achieve this potential, new principles and approaches are required to those used under the old committee system.
Councillors who attend this workshop will discover what scrutiny is really about and how it can be effective, both in holding the Executive to account and in developing policy.
The objectives for the workshop are:
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To ensure that all involved in overview and scrutiny (especially newly elected councillors, but also members of the Executive) understand what can be expected from scrutiny and what makes it effective.
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To work through the ‘nuts and bolts’ of scrutiny, so that members know what they have to do to make it work well. The workshop gives special attention to setting up scrutiny investigations so that they have the best chance of success.
Introduction to local government finance and budgeting
Influence and effectiveness in local government can be greatly improved with knowledge of how budgets are managed, how financial controls operate and how the local government financial system impacts on the authority’s finances.
This day-long workshop provides councillors with an up-to-date briefing on the main financial concepts and issues in budgetary decision-making, and the key current issues in local government finance.
Attendees will be taken through:
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The ‘nuts and bolts’ of budgets
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The basics of budget decision-making
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Basic issues in financial control and probity
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The overall workings of the system of local government finance
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Options for the future, including an overview of the debate surrounding the Lyons Inquiry into local government finance
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Key features of local government capital spending, including the system of prudential borrowing
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The key concepts of the Private Finance Initiative
Councillors who attend this workshop will come away with an understanding of how a local authority budget is compiled, and what they can do to influence it. The skills learnt on this course will enable attendees to play a meaningful role when Overview and Scrutiny Committees become involved in the scrutiny of budgets.
Performance and procurement
More than half of the typical local authority’s spending goes through some form of procurement process: works, goods, and services bought by the local authority to meet the needs of local communities.
Elected members need to ensure that the processes of procurement and strategic commissioning are in place to secure the council’s objectives. They also need to ensure that the local third sector is able to compete for council contracts, and that equal opportunities and, where possible, sustainable procurement rules are being applied.
Councillors who attend this course over a full day will enhance their understanding of how procurement takes place and how their council’s performance is measured. They will also be given many ideas about how both processes may be improved.
This workshop looks at:
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A range of strategies and tactics for making efficiency savings while improving the quality of their services – the challenge is to find an approach which fits local circumstances and is politically acceptable, given the significant changes to policies and operational methods which may be involved
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The mechanisms that councillors can use to challenge and improve their council’s performance
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How the national performance measures are created and how these are likely to change in response to the recent Local Government White Paper
Partnership working and outside bodies
Local authorities are increasingly working in partnership with other local authorities, agencies and voluntary organisations.
This workshop will look at:
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The different kinds of partnerships and the issues they raise
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Issues of accountability, value for money and probity
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The case for creating new legal forms such as companies limited by guarantee
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Issues for councillors appointed as company directors
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Techniques for measuring the quality of local partnerships
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Techniques to improve the quality of local partnerships
Councillors who attend this programme will reach a detailed understanding of why there are so many partnerships which involve their council, what is needed to make them successful and how they themselves can contribute to this process.
Chairing and managing meetings
The new system has given increasing importance to the chairing of meetings. This is particularly, but not exclusively, an issue in overview and scrutiny, where witnesses come in to meetings be questioned and the outcomes are not obvious.
This workshop can run in relation to meetings in general or focusing specifically on Overview and Scrutiny meetings. It will improve the skills and performance of those who chair meetings.
This workshop is structured around the planning of meetings:
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What needs to be done before, at the start, during, at the end and after a meeting
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Relationships with council officers, who prepare agendas, write reports, and probably propose draft recommendations
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Tactics for keeping to time, making sure that all present are properly involved and keeping the process moving forward
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Techniques for questioning: putting those being questioned at ease, getting maximum information
For information about in-authority training, contact Sue Platt: +44 (0) 121 414 5002, email: s.p.platt@bham.ac.uk
In-house overview and scrutiny workshops
These workshops aim to:
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Guide participants through the key steps to making overview and scrutiny work successfully
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Increase understanding of the role of overview and scrutiny committees in relation to the executive
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Note positive aspects of in-house overview and scrutiny
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Agree areas for further attention
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Develop learning plans for enhancing the individual skills of Overview and Scrutiny members and officers
A workshop can be run for one or more scrutiny committees in the same authority, sequentially or at the same time. They can be run for members alone or with inputs from the chief executive and other officers. Length and time of the workshops can be adjusted to suit the needs of the authority.
Typical workshops include:
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Workshop 1: Planning and scoping
Scoping may take up only 10% of the time of an enquiry but its significance in planning an investigation is huge.This workshop will focus on agreeing the purpose, range and outcome of a review.
Goals:
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To explain where and why scoping fits into other stages of a scrutiny investigation
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To help members appreciate the role of scoping in team-building and increasing the influence and reputation of scrutiny
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To plan selecting and filtering issues for investigation
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To practice scoping key lines of enquiry, resource needs and timescales for a review
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Workshop 2: Questioning skills
The emphasis of this interactive workshop is on questioning skills that foster a spirit of enquiry, demonstrate curiosity and allow silences for shared thought. The overall aim is to identify and practise habits of intelligent conversation among all involved in the scrutiny process. The workshop will cater for different levels of experience.
Goals:
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To increase familiarity with different types of questions
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To help members appreciate their purpose and effect, alone and in various permutations
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To practice planning lines of questioning for exploring an issue
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To increase confidence in the process
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Workshop 3: Weighing up evidence
Scrutiny offers elected members a new tool for investigation and evidence gathering. If they are to get the most out of it, those members need to become adept at weighing up evidence. That is the focus of this workshop.
Goals:
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To emphasise the contribution to local services of a reflective, evaluative and evidence-based organisational culture
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To explore the skills involved in investigating below the surface of policies and strategies
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To help members evaluate direct and indirect written, visual and verbal evidence
Inlogov working with your council for better scrutiny - Scrutiny Training and Advice
The Institute of Local Government Studies, part of the University of Birmingham, has worked with councils for over 40 years. We can provide a range of activities to support your work.
Scrutiny Training and Advice
INLOGOV can deliver training in chairing, scoping, weighing evidence, interviewing techniques, and report writing – see below. Also in specialist areas such as health scrutiny, finance, scrutiny of partnerships, and scrutiny of PFI projects. We can also assist in preparing and briefing the members who will be involved in a particular investigation.
For a modest fee, we give your scrutiny procedures a scrutiny health check, and write a constructive report on the delivery of your scrutiny function.
INLOGOV can provide Scrutiny Advisers or Expert Witnesses for particular investigations, to help prepare questions for witnesses, and advise on – or even write drafts of – final reports.
Our next five-day training programme, with optional assessment, will run in December and January (13-15 December and 10-11 January).
All our programmes are open to members and also to officers.
The INLOGOV scrutiny team
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Andrew Coulson, a former councillor and a former council officer, has extensive experience of scrutiny training – especially in chairing and scoping skills.
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Simon Baddeley, a psychologist with specialist interest in the relationships between members and officers specialises in weighing evidence, questioning skills and report writing.
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John Cade has recently joined the team having been previously Director of Scrutiny with Birmingham City Council. As an experienced practitioner, John has a good well-rounded knowledge on all aspects of Scrutiny, Governance and Members Services.
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Philip Whiteman is INLOGOV’s specialist in the scrutiny of performance and scrutiny in district councils.
Competitive Prices
INLOGOV’s basic price for a full day of training is now £950 plus expenses. For less than a full day the cost is £650.
Making Cabinet and Senior Officers’ relationships work more effectively
This workshop covers: Role development Work management Creating the capacity for policy development and direction Improving the way cabinet members work together as well as taking account of issues such as clarity of priorities, cabinet responsibility, personal responsibilities, agreed objectives and resources, developing an evidenced based approach, risk management and regular appraisal.
This workshop covers:
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Role development
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Work management
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Creating the capacity for policy development and direction
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Improving the way cabinet members work together
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How the working relationships between cabinet, senior officers and the rest of the authority can be improved and enhanced
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The rest of the authority can be improved and enhanced
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The concept of a performance management framework for cabinet
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Taking account of issues such as clarity of priorities, cabinet responsibility, personal responsibilities, agreed objectives and resources, developing an evidenced based approach, risk management and regular appraisal
The workshop will be tailored to local circumstances and at least one preparatory pre-meeting is included in INLOGOV’s fee.
Cabinet Chief Officer Working - Constructing Trust at the Top
The working relations of cabinet and chief officers will be crucial to meeting the corporate assessment criteria of CPA2007.
This programme is designed to increase senior members’ and managers’ shared commitment to the work of good government. The focus is on direct service delivery - housing, environment, culture - as the underpinning for a corporate position on ambition, prioritisation, capacity, performance, achievement and investment.
The tutor / facilitator will design and facilitate a programme of in-house events for cabinet and chief officers at times convenient to them, to strengthen political-management working. This will lead to a shared event for both members and officers. Previous menus have included briefing and presentation skills, succeeding at peer review and a performance framework for cabinet that spreads to the organisation and its partners.
Members’ allowances
Experience of new political structures and allowances reviews. Dr Hall has been associated with over 60 allowances reviews from Tynedale in Northumberland to Caradon in Cornwall, including the review of allowances for Wales commissioned by the National Assembly of Wales.
As the second cycle of allowances reviews begin under the 2003 Members’Allowances (England) Regulations, Declan Hall of INLOGOV can provide a number of services:
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Chair a panel
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Sit on a panel
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Act as advisor / consultant / researcher for a panel, including drafting and completing prompt, independent and robust reports, including the rationale for the panel’s recommendations, so that they are built upon a logical, transparent and defendable construct
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Train panels, providing a bespoke service to suit your panel’s requirements
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Present recommendations to council and / or media
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Address the political and administrative complexities in allowances reviews and schemes, e.g. mechanisms to deal with non-attendance, benchmarking against appropriate comparator authorities (such as the Audit Commission family cluster), questionnaire analysis
Declan Hall has worked on members’ allowances, support and performance for the past ten years. He has been associated with over 60 allowances reviews from Tynedale in Northumberland to Caradon in Cornwall, including the review of allowances for Wales commissioned by the National Assembly of Wales. He was also Chair of the Northern Ireland Remuneration Working Group and is currently a member of the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee.
Recent reviews include:
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West Yorkshire Fire Authority
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Local Government Association
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Cleveland Police Authority
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Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority
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Wigan Council
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Winchester
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Bucks
Workshop on effective leadership
Effective leadership - both political and managerial - has been identified as one of the five regional priorities in the South East as part of the Pay and Workforce Strategy. Effective leadership requires the ability of managers to be able to work effectively within a political environment, be politically aware and able to understand and work within the complexities of politician / officer relationships.
This one / two day workshop on effective leadership can be tailored to a specific council or group of councils and partnerships.
It will be tutored collaboratively by INLOGOV and South East Employers.
For information contact Sue Platt: +44 (0) 121 414 5002, email: s.p.platt@bham.ac.uk or South East Employers (mark@seemp.co.uk or 01962 840664).
Managing at the political interface
This tailored workshop focuses on the ‘construction of trust’ between members and officers, and strategies to achieve or maintain it. It takes on extra value now that the quality of political-management relations is included in future CPAs as a dimension of performance.
The tutor / facilitator uses research on member-officers working across the UK, to which is added:
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The assembly of public data (e.g. ward maps, photos, roles in Parties and the Executive) to help senior officers interpret their political environment for the benefit of colleagues
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Understanding of member-officer relations via films of local politicians and officers speaking to each other about how they work
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Exploration of local issues through case studies that draw discretely on anticipated challenges
For information about in-authority training, contact Sue Platt: +44 (0) 121 414 5002, email: s.p.platt@bham.ac.uk