project: leadership & management development•we are therefore investing in leadership and...

Project: Leadership & Management

Development

Children’s Improvement Plan

Date updated: 26/02/16

Contents

1. Why we are doing this project

2. The plan

3. What we have done so far

4. What we are doing next

5. How we will know if this benefits

children and families

6. Where to find out more

7. Project overview document

1. Why we are doing this project

• Leaders and managers in Surrey Children's Services are

the keystone to an effective, competent and quality driven

service to children and young people.

• They make a significant difference to the performance of

the organisation and require a range of behaviours, skills

and competencies to enable them to lead and manage

effectively within a social work environment.

• We are therefore investing in leadership and management

development programmes to support our leaders and

managers to develop those behaviours, skills and

competencies required so that we can improve outcomes

and impacts for children and young people.

2. The plan

• To carry out an assessment of current leadership strengths and

areas of development for all senior leaders in Children’s

Services, which can inform overall capacity building and

individual development (note – this “Shaping Leaders” exercise

is also being completed across the leadership of the wider

Children, Schools and Families team) (Complete).

• To clearly articulate and communicate the expectations we

have of our leaders and managers so that we all know what

good leadership and management practice looks like (30 April

2016).

• Put in place Personal Development Plans for all senior Leaders

based on the assessment of their current strengths and areas

of development (May 2016).

• Create a leadership team configuration with roles and

responsibilities tailored to deliver the strategic changes and

improvements required.

continued.../

The plan (continued.../)

• Establish a coaching programme for the Directorate Leadership

Team i.e. our Director and Assistant Directors (30 Sept 2016)

• Establish a leadership development programme for the Children’s

Services Management Team (30 Sept 2016).

• Run a leadership programme for new Children’s Services Assistant

Team Managers (30 Sept 2016).

• Pilot a new leadership and management training for new managers

to ensure supportive and effective leadership underpins all areas of

social work practice, evaluating and refining before then extending

to all service front line managers (Complete).

• Managers from Children’s Services to complete a series of visits to

learn from other local authorities. Learning will be recorded and

shared across Children’s Services and the Directorate as

appropriate (30 Sept 2016).

3. What we have done so far

• We have carried out a ‘Shaping Leaders’ exercise – an

assessment of current leadership strengths and areas of

development for all senior leaders in Children’s Services, which will

inform overall capacity building and individual development

(Complete).

• We have in place a coaching programme for the Directorate

Leadership Team and a leadership development programme for the

Children’s Services Management Team. The focus of this work will

now be reviewed following further diagnostic work.

• We have in place a leadership and management training offer for

aspiring ATMs, new and experienced ATMS and TMs. Further work

is continuing on this.

• Managers from Children’s Services have carried out a series of

visits to learn from other local authorities. Further visits will be

planned to further develop our learning from our peers and any

learning is being recorded and shared across Children’s Services

and the Directorate as appropriate.

4. What we are doing next

• Complete the analysis of diagnostic work to identify where the key

issues/challenges are as well as areas of good practice.

• Clearly articulate and communicate expectations of all of our leaders

and our managers.

• Ensure all leaders and managers undertake the Coaching for Higher

Performance Programme and the Higher Performance Development

Programme.

• Ensure all leaders have a personal leadership development plan in

place as part of their annual appraisal.

• Expand our practice guide to include sections on good leadership and

management practice.

• Develop a leadership, management and OD strategy based on

diagnostic work and then design and deliver an appropriate programme

to address the needs identified. The impact of the programme will be

evaluated to inform ongoing leadership and management develop

activity.

5. How we will know if this benefits

children and families

• Leaders and managers will role model the values and behaviours of the

organisation and ensure that the teams and individuals they manage are

clear about what is expected of them.

• Leaders will ensure managers oversee children's cases effectively and

children will be safer, decisions will be made in the child’s timeframe and

drift in care planning will be avoided.

• Decision making will be timely to ensure that children are safeguarded

effectively and interventions for children and young people will be focused

and clear.

• Our leadership will allow outstanding practice to flourish which means a

more creative and impactful service which improves the experience of

children and families.

• Users of the service feel SCC is renowned for good practice and feel

positive about the intervention they are receiving.

• Leadership will work in a strategic way to ensure our services will provide

services that are robust and future-proofed for the children and young

people of Surrey.

6. Where to find out more

For more information or to get involved, please contact :

Gill Rogers, Strategic Organisational Development Manager

(Children’s Improvement Plan) at [email protected]

or

James Deller, Training & Development Service Partner (Children

Schools and Families) at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

7. Project Overview Document

Document updated: 24/02/16 CSF Projects

1 Project: Leadership & Management Development [CIP05]

PROJECT OVERVIEW DOCUMENT Programme

Safeguarding (Children’s Improvement Plan)

Programme manager

Liz Ball (Head of Performance & Support) / Dan Shurlock (Programme Manager – Children’s Improvement Plan)

Programme authority

Children’s Safeguarding Programme Board

Project name Leadership & management development

ID CIP05

Project purpose Leaders and managers in Surrey Children's Services are the keystone to an effective, competent and quality

driven service to children and young people. They make a significant difference to the performance of the organisation and require a range of behaviours, skills and competencies to enable them to lead and manage effectively within a social work environment

A range of leadership and management development activities are either underway or being developed in order that we can support the development of our leaders and managers skills which will help us to improve outcomes and impacts for children and young people.

Project sponsor Julie Fisher, Director of Children’s Services (DCS)

Project manager Gill Rogers, Strategic Organisational Development Manager

Project authority Children School’s and Families (CSF) Leadership Team chaired by DCS

Timeframe Start date: 01 September 2015 End date: 30 September 2016



1. Scope CSF Directorate Leadership Team (DLT), the Children’s Services Management Team (CSMT) and all managers within Children’s Services.

2. Products description(s)

1. Clearly articulate the expectations we have of our leaders and managers so that we all know what good

leadership and management practice looks like. This work will be a development of our practice guide, supporting and complimenting our corporate values and behaviours and positively impact on the quality of our practice;

2. An assessment of current leadership strengths and areas of development for all senior leaders in Children’s Services, which can inform overall capacity building and individual development – Improvement Plan action 1.1 (note – this “Shaping Leaders” exercise is also being completed across the leadership of the wider Children, Schools and Families team) (Complete)

3. Personal Development Plans for all senior Leaders based on the assessment of their current strengths and areas of development.

4. A leadership team configuration with roles and responsibilities tailored to deliver the strategic changes and

improvements required.

5. Establish a coaching programme for the Directorate Leadership Team i.e. our Director and Assistant Directors (30 Sept 2016) - Improvement Plan action 1.3

6. Establish a leadership development programme for the Children’s Services Management Team (30 Sept 2016) - Improvement plan action 1.4

7. Managers from Children’s Services to complete a series of visits to learn from other local authorities (30 Sept 2016) - Improvement plan action 1.5. Visits will be planned to further develop our learning from our peers and all learning will be recorded and shared across Children’s Services and the Directorate as appropriate.

8. Run a leadership programme for new Children’s Services Assistant Team Managers (30 Sept 2016) – Improvement Plan action 1.6 & 4.9

9. Pilot a new leadership and management training for new managers to ensure supportive and effective leadership underpins all areas of social work practice, evaluating and refining before then extending to all service front line managers (Complete)



3. Acceptance criteria

All products signed off by the Project Group based on meeting the criteria of (i) enabling evidence based leadership development (ii) ensuring a more consistent set of leadership expectations that clearly support the leadership of improved practice (ref: research such as “Joining the Dots”) (iii) enabling ongoing measurement and understand of leadership impact and effectiveness

Consultation with the Social Work Reform Board and sign off by Children’s Services Management Team for management development work

Consultation and sign off by CSF Leadership Team for leadership development work

4. Work breakdown structure

Leadership, management & OD programme:

Deliver: Coaching for Higher Performance and the Higher Performance Development Programme have been put in place corporately to help all of our leaders and managers. Work is currently underway to ensure all leaders and managers take part in these programmes (May 2017);

Design, Develop & Deliver: A realignment of senior roles to ensure our service priorities are best supported (in progress)

Deliver: Individual external coaches have been commissioned and are in place to support Assistant Directors (completed);

Deliver: An external provider has been commissioned to provide 6 initial leadership development sessions

to CSMT (3 / 6 sessions have been completed, with further work until summer 2016)

Discover: Diagnostic work carried out to identify where the key issues/ challenges are as well as areas of good practice (in progress - 29 Feb 2016)

Discover: Each Assistant Director and member of Children’s Services Management Team has participated in the Shaping Leaders diagnostic exercise (completed);

Design & Develop: A clear set of expectations of our leaders and managers

Decide & Deliver: These expectations will be clearly communicated to all of our leaders and managers and will form part of our future development of our Practice Guide (date tbc);

Design & develop: Design our leadership, management & OD programme of activity ensuring that it complements our Directorate-wide culture change work (May 2016). Consider the content for our different audiences;

Decide: Consider who will deliver which elements of our leadership, management and OD programme and procure external suppliers where appropriate;



Decide & Deliver: Each of our leaders will have in place appropriate personal leadership development plans as part of their annual appraisal (May 2016);

Deliver: Commence the delivery of the leadership, management & OD programme and keep learning needs under review.

Deliver: Evaluate the programme to determine whether the required outcomes and impacts have been achieved.

Visits to Local Authorities: A number of visits to other Local Authority’s have already taken place with learning recorded and shared with colleagues. Further visits will be planned according to learning areas identified (April 2016)

Run a leadership programme for new Children’s Services Assistant Team Managers (30 Sept 2016):

Learning journal: So you want to be an ATM? Programme in place to help Senior Social Workers

decide if the ATM role is right for their personal career development;

Step up to Management: Programme in place for Senior Social Workers and new ATMs to help them understand the ATM role and insight into the knowledge, skills and behaviours of an effective manager;

Management and Practice Development Programme: our first line managers’ programme is currently being developed (see First Line Management Training 100 day action plan).

Leading and managing people in social work – this programme was piloted by a small number of ATMs whilst a bespoke course was designed to better meet our needs. Learning has been fed into the design of the future programme (see below).

Virtual Staff College Leadership Programme – is being designed to replace the above programme for experienced ATMs and newly appointed Team Managers. Specific learning objectives are in development with the first programme due to be run in April 2016 to January 2017.



5. Team and roles Gill Rogers, Strategic Organisational Development Manager (Project Lead)

Lavern Dinah, Senior Organisational Development Consultant, Human Resources &Organisation Development Team - SME and leadership & OD design work

Training Team – led by James Deller, Training & Development Service Partner

Abid Dar, Senior Equality, Inclusion and Wellbeing Manager – diagnostic work to shape content of coaching programmes

Francesca Dennis, New Models of Delivery Manager - Project Management

Elizabeth Colliety, Project Officer - Project Support

6. Budget Funding required:

DLT coaches

CSMT coach/training provider if future sessions are required

Venues if internal venues cannot be obtained

Travel costs to visit other local authorities (to come from employing team’s budget)

7. Benefits / impact Impact: The role of our leaders and our managers and their behaviours influences social work practice which directly impacts on the lives of children, young people and their families in Surrey. It is vital that our leaders and managers are clear about their role and expectations of them in that role and that their behaviours role model the values and behaviours expected by Surrey County Council. Our leadership, management & OD programme of activity will run alongside the First Line Managers Programme and is also part of a wider culture change programme across Children Schools and Families Directorate.

Leaders and managers will role model the values and behaviours of the organisation and ensure that the teams and individuals they manage are clear about what is expected of them;

Leaders will ensure managers oversee children's cases effectively and children will be safer, decisions will be made in the child’s timeframe and drift in care planning will be avoided. Decision making will be timely to ensure that children are safeguarded effectively and interventions for children and young people will be focused and clear.



Our leadership will allow outstanding practice to flourish which means a more creative and impactful service which improves the experience of children and families.

Users of the service feel SCC is renowned for good practice and feel positive about the intervention they are receiving.

Leadership will work in a strategic way to ensure our services will provide services that are robust and future-proofed for the children and young people of Surrey.

8. Risks and Assumptions

Professional coaches and training partner support will be required to ensure the quality of the leadership coaching and leadership and management development programme are provided to a high standard and that the learning opportunities and impacts are maximised.

Key risks:

1. Lack of direction 2. Lack of capacity 3. Lack of pace 4. Lack of buy-in / attendance 5. Poor quality of coach / trainer 6. Lack of available coach / training partner expertise

9. Dependencies

First line managers 100 day plan;

Workforce work-stream;

Culture & Practice work-stream;

Availability of behaviours from corporate pay & reward work

Diagnostic work – including shaping leaders and staff survey

Appraisals and competency framework

Critical path being developed as part of OD & Leadership cross-directorate work-stream

Coaches / external training partners being identified and available;



10. Stakeholders Directorate Leadership Team

CSF extended leadership team

Children’s Services Management Team (CSMT)

Project Team

Other local authorities

Partner organisations

11. Key decisions Review of diagnostic report outlining findings (March 2016)

Leadership, management & OD Programme requirements outlined from diagnostic work (to DLT to agree next steps, timeframes and funding – April 2016)

12. Project documentation

More detailed project documentation maintained includes:

Action plans for specific products

Register of visits to other organisations and learning

Update reports



Actions (summary)

What Who Start End Progress

Status Comments

1 Establish a coaching programme for the directorate leadership team (assistant directors).

Julie Fisher

01/10/15 30/09/16 In progress Coaches in place. Once diagnostic work has been completed DLT requirements will be revisited.

2 Establish a leadership development programme for the Children’s Services management team.

Julie Fisher

01/10/15 30/09/16 In progress In place. Once the diagnostic work has been completed CSMT development requirements will be revisited.

3 Managers from Children’s Services to complete a series of visits to learn from other local authorities.

Julie Fisher

01/10/15 30/09/16 In progress Visits have included Greenwich, Kingston & Richmond, and Oxfordshire

4 Ensure all leaders and managers undertake the Coaching for Higher Performance Programme and the Higher Performance Development Programme.

Assistant Directors

01/02/15 31/05/17 In progress

5 A leadership team configuration with roles and responsibilities tailored to deliver the strategic changes and improvements required.

Julie Fisher

01/11/15 Tbc In progress Consultation with Directorate Leadership Team completed.

6 Diagnostic work carried out to identify where the key issues/challenges are as well as areas of good practice.

Abid Dar 01/01/16 29/02/16 In progress

7 Each Assistant Director and member of Children’s Services Management Team has participated in the Shaping Leaders diagnostic exercise.

Karen Archer-Burton

01/10/15 29/02/16 Completed



8 Clearly articulate and communicate expectations of all of our leaders and our managers.

Julie Fisher

01/02/16 30/04/16 In progress Awaiting review of corporate behaviours as part of Pay & Reward Strategy

9 Develop the practice guide to include sections on good leadership and management practice.

Lavern Dinah

01/05/16 30/06/16

10 Develop a leadership, management and OD strategy based on diagnostic work.

Gill Rogers

01/03/16 31/03/16

11 Design a leadership, management and OD programme of activity to implement the leadership, management & OD strategy.

Gill Rogers

01/03/16 30/05/16 Must complement our Directorate wide culture change work

12 Commission internal, external or partner organisations to deliver the leadership, management and OD programme.

Gill Rogers

01/04/16 30/04/16

13 Deliver the leadership, management and OD programme.

Gill Rogers

Tbc Tbc

14 Review and evaluation of the leadership, management and OD programme.

Gill Rogers

Tbc Tbc

15 All leaders to have in place appropriate personal leadership development plans as part of their annual appraisal.

Julie Fisher

01/03/16 30/05/16

16 Design, pilot, develop and run a leadership programme for Children’s Services managers, ensuring supportive and effective leadership underpins all areas of social work practice.

James Deller

N/a 30/09/17 In progress 3 programmes in place. Virtual Staff Council Leadership Programme being developed for April 2016 start. See First Line Managers Programme 100 day action plan.

project: leadership & management development•we are therefore investing in leadership and...

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