Nottinghamshire Member Development programme 2010/2011
In September 2010 the partnership of Nottinghamshire authorities (Nottingham City Council, Ashfield District Council, Mansfield District Council, Broxtowe Borough Council, Gedling Borough Council, Rushcliffe Borough Council, Newark and Sherwood District Council and Bassetlaw District Council) embarked on a comprehensive programme of Member Development.
The partnership was supported by East Midlands Councils throughout the design, coordination and successful delivery of the programme.
Programme approach
The programme provided the elected Members in Nottinghamshire with a comprehensive programme of development opportunities designed to meet their identified learning needs.
The programme covered 15 different subject areas, with a total of 35 different sessions. Over 340 Members attended sessions across the programme. This partnership approach to Member development provided authorities with an opportunity to network across roles, local authority boundaries and political parties.
Overview of the programme
The programme provided a range of development opportunities for Members, covering six core areas, which included; community leadership, regulating and monitoring, scrutiny and challenge, communication skills, working in partnership and political understanding. Key briefing sessions were also provided to explore and understand the key issues facing local government as well as tailored support to Executive Members and Scrutiny Chairs.
Feedback from the programme
The partnership authorities have been very pleased with the outcomes from the programme. Feedback from the members who attended the modules has been highly positive, with 94% of respondents rating the overall quality of the learning experience 4 and over out of 6; 90% of respondents rating 4 and over out of 6 that the session content met their needs and 91% rating the practical value of the sessions 4 and over out of 6.
Feedback from the steering group of officers and Members has also been very positive, particularly in respect of how East Midlands Councils took a proactive, flexible and quality approach to the support provided throughout to ensure the partnership achieved their objectives.
The important messages from the programme
The collaborative partnership working approach developed during the programme has led to a shared understanding of the needs of Members across the partnership authorities.
During the programme Members commented on the positive contribution that the partnership working approach had made to the training sessions they attended. Many Members commented that this made the sessions more beneficial, as it provided an opportunity for Councillors from different authorities to share experiences and discuss approaches to problems or initiatives.
The pooling of resources through the partnership helped to create a cost effective response to Member development and the delivery of a comprehensive programme that has provided elected Members with a variety of opportunities to meet their learning needs. Clearly it also reduced duplication and repetition of development activity within individual authorities. The financial analysis of the programme demonstrated that the cost per delegate per session was £119.00. The fact that the programme was delivered in the sub region also reduced travelling costs.
The importance of considering the timing and relevance of the sessions to be delivered is critical to the level of engagement.
Having East Midlands Councils supporting various stakeholders, eg steering group, individual members as part of the delivery of the programme, enabled the partnership to achieve good levels of engagement and attendance and members to feedback the positive results highlighted above.
The benefits of the partnership working approach to Member development
The benefits of the programme have not merely been about developing a common approach and value for money. The programme was also focused on providing Members with enhanced learning opportunities. The partnership working approach has enabled elected Members from across Nottinghamshire to meet and work together, those engaged with the programme benefited from the diverse perspectives and the networking opportunities.
“Hearing what is happening in other authorities that may affect or influence my own”.
Furthermore, this approach to working and delivering member learning and development needs together has provided a sustainable way of working together in the future.
East Midlands Councils delivery of the programme…
East Midlands Councils worked closely with the Nottinghamshire authorities in the design, coordination, delivery and reporting of the programme. For details of the support provided by East Midlands Councils please see the information below;
Identify their learning and development needs
The learning and development needs were identified during the first phase of the programme, in this preparatory phase elected Members in Nottinghamshire identified their learning and development priorities and modified the political skills framework to reflect the needs of Members within Nottinghamshire.
East Midlands Councils worked closely with the Nottinghamshire authorities to understand the learning and development needs of the elected Members. In identifying and understanding the needs of the elected Members East Midlands Councils sought to understand the context of each need, to ensure that the development options identified met the needs of the Members concerned.
Preparing the scope and design of the member development programme
Working closely with the 8 partnership authorities East Midlands Councils developed the programme of development opportunities open to the 400 elected Members in the Nottinghamshire authorities.
Having identified the learning and development needs East Midlands Councils scoped the aims and objectives for each session, to ensure that each session was tailored to the identified needs of the elected Members.
High quality facilitators were identified for each session. The facilitators were selected for their knowledge of the subject and their delivery expertise and experience, as well as the excellent feedback received previously.
Coordination of the programme
East Midlands Councils worked closely with the partnership authorities to schedule the programme that met the specific requirements of Members in Nottinghamshire, considering the geographic challenges, timing preferences and equality of access.
A centralised process was developed and administered by East Midlands Councils to facilitate the effective coordination of the programme, reducing duplication across the authorities, while maximising attendance.
This central process included the development of flyers and newsletters for Members to communicate the opportunities available through the programme, sending of joining instructions, and the collation and analysis of evaluation feedback information.
Feedback and information to steering group
To ensure the success of the programme East Midlands Councils met regularly with the partnership authorities to review the programme and to consider the information gained though the ongoing evaluation.
The close working relationships developed during the programme facilitated the success of the programme and has provided a sustainable way of working together in the future.
Contact Details for further information
For more information about this programme, or support from East Midlands Councils to deliver similar programmes please contact Lisa Butterfill or Kirsty Lowe - lisa.butterfill@emcouncils.gov.uk , kirsty.lowe@emcouncils.gov.uk or call 01664 502 643.
Political Skills audit toolkit
For more information on the political skills audit toolkit visit - http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=6386809