Programmes: in-house and OPM open programmes

A workshop for senior managers, members, inspectors and researchers from community safety and criminal justice agencies

Workshop director: to be confirmed

How will technology change neighbourhood policing? If digital face recognition becomes more commonplace, how will that affect the political consensus around CCTV? Will home insurance policies be paying for burglary investigations? Will victims be able to choose which force investigates the crime against them? Just how should local authorities and the police work together over the next decade? How should courts reform how they operate so that they stay in touch with community concerns whilst delivering evidence-based justice?

Participants will learn what community safety (CS) and criminal justice (CJ) agencies around the country are doing to prepare for the future, how to extend existing strategies with new ideas, and ways to manage the future. We will examine:

• likely future scenarios
• environmental scanning
• whole system approaches
• present and future trends
• creating strategies that will have an impact.

Workshop director: to be confirmed

Coaching is now recognised as an important tool for helping people reach their full potential and creating a performance culture within organisations. Coaching has been incorporated into the Senior Civil Service Competencies and has been recommended as a key skill for the modern manager.

This workshop is designed to help managers understand how coaching can be used as a management and leadership style. The programme will:

• compare coaching with other styles of leadership
• help you appreciate the benefits of using coaching techniques alongside more traditional forms of learning
• recognise when coaching is the most effective intervention
• understand how to use a management model of coaching.

By the end of the workshop you will be able to review your own approach and understand how coaching can fit with this, and be better equipped to use a coaching style with your staff.

Local authorities are to be given responsibility for ensuring that all partner agencies and local communities deliver the seven adult social care Green Paper outcomes. Each local authority must appoint a lead member and a director of adult social services (DASS), who will be responsible for some local authority services, ensure corporate action on the seven outcomes and act in a community leadership role with other partners and local people.

The ideas presented in the Green Paper and the forthcoming Out of Hospital Care White Paper are about how all public services, universal and targeted, and the private and voluntary sectors, must work together to deliver the social care outcomes. A major lever to achieve this change is strategic planning and commissioning, which will require changes to existing partnership structures and work processes.

This workshop will explore the new forms of partnership required by the new agenda, and how partnerships will interact with the new roles of lead member and DASS. We will draw on OPM's own experience of partnership development and make practical use of the Good Governance Standard for Public Services.
The workshop will help you to:

• clarify the role of the DASS
• explore alternative forms of political accountability
• examine whether current partnerships in your locality are now ‘fit for purpose’
• apply the Good Governance Standard for Public Services (available to download here).

this workshop is for everyone who needs to understand integrated commissioning for children's services

Workshop director: Judith Smyth

This workshop will help you to understand integrated commissioning and how best to develop it within your local system in order to improve outcomes for children, young people and families.

It will explain different sorts of commissioning relationships, from grant making and contracting to service level agreements and line management. You will also explore the implications of integrated commissioning for governance arrangements within your children and young people's partnership and end up with an action plan to help you organise the commissioning function in your children's services authority or trust.

The workshop will help you to:

• understand fully the scope of, and processes involved in, integrated commissioning
• identify the implications for your local governance, partnership and management arrangements
• learn from leading-edge practice
• develop your commissioning framework and locally appropriate ways forward.

this workshop for strategic and operational ommissioners and managers who are developing child and family centred services

Workshop directors: Clive Miller and Hywel Lloyd

The focus of this workshop is the development of operational-level joint commissioning, in particular locality based commissioning for children with additional needs. It will cover the key functions of operational commissioning which comprise: developing and supporting effective lead professional practice; negotiating changes in local service delivery practice and contracts; and identifying other service changes that should be progressed through strategic-level commissioning.

The workshop will help you to:

• clarify the functions of operational-level commissioning
• understand how it can support effective individual-level commissioning
• develop ways in which operational commissioning can reshape local services
• make effective links between operational and strategic-level commissioning.

Workshop director: David Love

email David Love for more details.

How will free education for 19-25 year olds affect provision for younger learners? What kind of workforce will we have by the end of 2017? How likely is it that private sector employers will take over failing FE colleges? By 2010 will Learner Accounts be affecting the choices learners make? By 2012 will more graduates be choosing FE as a career? How will colleges respond to an increased focus on skills, employability and responsiveness to learners and employers?

Anticipating and responding to change has always been an important skill for FE colleges. By anticipating the long-term future, current policies and strategies can be adjusted appropriately. We cannot know the future, but we can certainly prepare for it, and indeed influence it.

This one-day workshop is for further education college principals, assistant principals, directors of strategy and directors of business development. It will provide an opportunity to pool ideas from around the country, outside the constraints of formal structures or ‘talking heads’. The emphasis will be on dialogue, information exchange and imagination.

A workshop for PCT directors and senior managers who are charged with advising on the best future for community health services

Workshop directors: Judith Smyth and Jane Carrier

email Judith Smyth for more details

PCTs are divesting themselves of community health services for adults and children. As a result, an array of new models of governance are being considered across the country. This workshop will help you understand the advantages and disadvantages of these various models and equip you to take decisions for your locality that will improve the health of the local population. The workshop will help you to:

• Understand the relative advantages and disadvantages of the different forms of governance for community health services
• Develop your skills as a project manager and leader of change
• Start to develop an action plan for your PCT.

for directors of children's services, education and social care, and senior managers of children's services in other partner sectors

Workshop director: Clive Miller, with guest contributors

Joint area reviews (JARs) consider all children’s services in the round. They are primarily focused on outcomes, but also look at service management. The results of these reviews affect the star ratings of partner agencies and contribute to the corporate and service assessment and the use of resources parts of local authority comprehensive performance assessments.

JARs will absorb a significant amount of partner agencies’ time with self-assessment preparation, supporting inspectors and answering their questions. Making this investment pay off locally is therefore extremely important. Partners will want to put their best foot forward and use the review as an opportunity to identify priority areas for development.

Much can also be done to capitalise on JAR methodology outside a review — to reduce the burden of an individual review, improve services to children and enhance JAR scores. For example, the self-assessment process can be used as a planning and development opportunity and the case-tracking and neighbourhood studies methodologies as improvement processes.

The workshop will help you to:

• understand the Joint Area Review methodology and working processes
• prepare for a JAR
• make effective links with the CPA, APA and the single plan
• use the JAR methodology for local improvement.

Email Clive Miller for more details of the content.

a workshop for senior managers and partnership managers involved in the design of children’s trust arrangements

Workshop director: Judith Smyth

email Judith Smyth for more information about this workshop.

Some children and young people’s strategic partnerships have been in place for a long time and are now reforming to embrace the wider children’s services agenda. Others are new and are being designed from scratch. All agree on the need for partnership arrangements that are focused on outcomes and delivering change while, at the same time, enhancing accountability.

Central to partnership redesign will be the new DfES requirements to demonstrate a structured approach to joint commissioning at four linked levels: regional, local, community and individual. Many directors of children’s services are therefore renewing their partnership’s terms of reference, membership and structures so that there is very clear accountability at all levels

After an introduction to the basic requirements for children’s services and of good governance, we will consider different partnership structures and how to ensure that they are fit for purpose and make things happen at all levels. There will be time for co-consulting to ensure that you leave with an action plan to meet your particular needs.

The workshop will help you to:

• clarify the requirements and design criteria for effective children’s trust arrangements
• understand good governance for children’s partnerships
• identify effective ways of restructuring partnership arrangements to support integrated commissioning, planning and delivery.

... for housing associations and ALMOs;
... for the police, prison and courts services;
... for universities;
... for acute trusts; or
... for whole health economies

Workshops for senior leaders and non-executive board members who want to assure top quality governance arrangements.

We offer workshops for board members in different sectors, in particular housing, universities, health and community justice organisations (as well as children's services – see above). In all these sectors, the demand for accountability – to individual citizens, to tenants, patients, students, to communities, to local authorities, to private partners and lending bodies, and so on – is growing and challenging traditional forms and ways of working. These workshops will help elected and appointed members of your board to appreciate the new demands and to develop aappropriate skills in governance, ensuring that your board is 'fit for purpose' and can rise to the challenges ahead.

By the end of the one-day workshop, you will have:

• examined the pressures facing governers in your sector
• used the principles in the Good Governance Standard to identify good practice and the ingredients for success
• developed a clear framework for action that you can use to improve governance practice and produce better outcomes for your stakeholders, whether these are residents, students, employers, or the local community
• decided what action you can take to improve the functioning of your governance body.

Please speak to our programmes unit. They will pass your enquiry on to a member of the OPM team working with your sector.

Discover your unique personal brand through visual imagery and interactive exercises

You will be introduced to tools and techniques to help you to conduct a personal inventory of your professional style. An individual consultation will help you to match your internal image of yourself with the one you want to project. We will provide information on increasing your personal impact through the appropriate use of colour, cut and texture, and advise you about your unique style and body type. You will leave this workshop with practical information, additional self-awareness and a plan for what to do next.

Please email Jasmine Miller or phone her on 020 7239 7825 if you might be interested in having us run this workshop for your organisation or team.

Workshop directors: Clive Miller and Stefan Cantore

email Clive Miller for more details

This workshop about the service delivery implications of individual budgets is for senior managers from all sectors who are focusing on independence and choice. Individual budgets extend the flexibility and user control of direct payments to all people with social care needs, without the burden of employing staff and taking on detailed budget management.
Following an assessment and the agreement of a budget, a care broker will help the service user to identify and secure the services he or she requires. These may well be services not ordinarily on offer. Indeed, the government sees individual budgets as a way of giving people who use services the lead in reshaping the service delivery market. Care brokerage is also seen as a service that 'self funders' would wish to access.
This workshop will draw on emerging practice from the 'In Control' pilots as well as OPM's experience of the impact of 'choice' on commissioning in the NHS.
The workshop will help you to:

• examine the organisational implications of the 'In control' pilots
• explore the likely impact of 'self funders' on care brokerage
• map the connections with 'choice' and primary care commissioning
• identify the consequences for strategic commissioning.

Workshop directors: Judith Smyth and Clive Miller

email Judith Smyth for more details

The ideas presented in the Green Paper aim to put people who use services in control, through more self assessment, a common assessment tool, individual budgets, care brokerage and integrative approaches such as connected care centres. Universal and targeted services will be supplied by a range of private, voluntary and statutory providers, and purchased by service users who are partly or wholly state funded, and by 'self funders'.

Resources need to be managed in an integrated way, to make the best use of them and bring them together around the needs of individual service users. This may involve some multi-disciplinary teams, but in many cases some type of integrated service network will be required.

The workshop will explore the integrated service networks that might be required in an area to meet the full range of needs. Using frameworks developed by OPM, participants will build their own local designs and explore the operational implications. We will also identify the developments in integrated commissioning and performance management required to support intergrated service networks.
The workshop will help you to:

• integrate the Green Paper’s practice change proposals
• learn from the experience of integrated network developments
• design networks to meet the needs of different service users
• identify the organisational implications.

a workshop for directors and assistant directors of children's services and others working to involve schools in Change for Children

Workshop director: Judith Smyth

This workshop will delve into the challenge of engaging schools for the benefit of children and young people in your local area.

During the workshop we will consider the duty to collaborate. We will also look at the best ways of involving schools in the new integrated processes, including lead professional work, and the role of schools and children’s centres in integrated locality teams and new governance structures. You will leave the workshop with a personal action plan.

The workshop will help you to:

• appreciate why schools need to be involved in order to improve outcomes for children
• understand school culture and leadership and identify the most effective ways of working with schools
• discover effective ways of involving schools in multi-agency work at operational and area levels
• develop a personal action plan to tackle local challenges.

For more information email Judith Smyth.

A workshop for senior officers who are responsible for policy, strategy or action to address the challenges of climate change

Workshop director: Hywel Lloyd

'Tackling climate change will alter our daily lives and bring changes to how our communities look and feel ... Local government's crucial role will be to find solutions that work for local communities.' [from a speech by Ruth Kelly MP at the ‘Towards Zero Carbon Development’ event hosted by WWF on 13 December 2006]

As a public service manager you will be aware that climate change has become a high priority and is driving legislation, including the Local Government White Paper and impending Climate Change Bill. It is beginning to affect policy and practice across local services – in planning, waste, housing and transport. As awareness of carbon emissions increases all service providers will need to be aware of their carbon impact as well as the quality of their service.

This workshop will take a systems view of the implications of climate change and consider responsiblities of local authorities concerning their staff and local residents, and their role as the leading partner within the local strategic partnership. We will also consider how to use the local area agreement (LAA) to address this challenge, and other tools and processes, such as community engagement.

By the end of the day, you will have a better understanding of:

• the forces and drivers of a low carbon world
• how to apply systems thinking to this issue
• the implications of the Local Government White Paper, for example, the power of well-being and the economy and environment LAA block
• how to engage with those for and against a low carbon future
• how to apply yourself effectively to this leadership challenge.

email Hywel Lloyd for more information about the content of this workshop.

a workshop for managers from the partner agencies involved in children's services who want to learn about and share ideas on developing integrated commissioning to meet local needs

Workshop directors: Clive Miller and David Love

Whilst the DfES guidance is clear that the role of the lead professional is a set of functions, there is a persistent myth in the field that it requires the creation of specific new posts. The development of the integrated working processes within which lead professionals and other staff will work is an essential step in clarifying the new role and in getting the best out of it.

At this workshop we will examine the major challenges that have to be faced. You will benefit from the knowledge we have gained through our work with several authorities to identify these challenges and put in place appropriate responses. These include: focusing on the coordinative function; not unduly raising staff anxieties; overcoming the cultural differences between the many different professions and sectors; and, where appropriate, enabling parents to take on a central role. You will find out how others are putting together integrated working processes that bring together developments such as common assessment and information sharing within a set of agreed practice protocols to cover screening and assessing needs, forming and coordinating ‘teams around the child or family’, and reviewing outcomes.

The workshop will help you to:

• understand the key functions of the lead professional and how they can be enacted
• learn from examples of the development of integrated service delivery practice
• tackle the cultural issues involved in implementing the new role.

email Clive Miller for more details of the content.

a workshop for senior and operational managers and partnership staff tasked with developing integrated services

Workshop directors: Clive Miller and Hywel Lloyd

for more information about this workshop, email Clive Miller

At this workshop, you will find out what some of the partnerships that OPM has been working with are doing to develop systems of integrated service networks that, when linked together, meet all levels of need.

We will introduce you to our newly developed toolkit for designing integrated preventive networks. This toolkit focuses on: outcomes and their consequences for reshaping universal and targeted services; how to develop integrated working processes to co-ordinate services around particular children and families; and the management of, and devolved commissioning within, networks. You can expect to leave the workshop with a clear action plan to help you take this work forward.

A one-day workshop for senior managers and members who want to improve their organisation's performance through effective business planning

Workshop director: to be confirmed

This workshop will help you to create business or service plans that direct resources effectively. We will examine the strengths and weaknesses of a number of planning models drawn from the public and private sectors, and identify the ingredients of successful planning. We will look at how plans can reflect strategic objectives (both local and national), integrate the concerns of other major stakeholders such as local communities, harness the commitment of staff, and have a direct effect on your organisation's day-to-day working practices.

You will:

• review your mission and critical success factors and how these relate to the overall organisational goals
• identify the work methods and processes needed to underpin a business plan
• investigate the effectiveness of existing plans
• develop action plans to improve the process of business or service planning
• strengthen strategic links between performance improvement and planning.

a workshop for managers from PCTs, local education authorities, social services and other services, to develop integrated commissioning to meet local needs

Workshop director: Clive Miller

The health service is being transformed and this will have a profound influence on what services are commissioned and provided, and by whom. So it is essential that commissioners and providers in other partner sectors understand the implications for children’s services.

At this workshop you will share in what OPM has learned from our extensive work with the variety of agencies involved in integrating health and social care for children, young people and families. We will look, for instance, at practice-based commissioning, and the collaboration between primary care practices and closer working with PCTs that this involves. You will have the chance to examine issues like how 'payment by results' will affect primary care, and the role of the regulatory and inspection system in ensuring attention is paid to prevention and self care as well as to financial balance and the quality of the patient experience. Changes like these, whilst not specific to children’s services, affect how health partners will react to local priorities and will change the role of PCTs and introduce a new set of commissioners. They are vitally important to everyone involved in today’s – and tomorrow’s – children’s services.

The workshop will help you to:

• understand the nature of the new health service reforms and their intended impact on services
• make links between children’s services priorities and the new regulated market
• identify who will be the key commissioners in health and how to best organise to work with them.

Email Clive Miller for more details of the content.

A workshop for officers and members - from local authorities, the police, and health - who are concerned with developing community cohesion strategies in their localities

Workshop directors: to be confirmed

The range of factors that are likely to affect levels of community cohesion is very wide indeed. Choosing and prioritising the right interventions to tackle these factors is always a challenge. In our view, the mechanisms that you use to create and manage your local strategy are usually the most critical ingredients of success. This workshop will explore the mechanisms or processes by which community cohesion strategies are developed, implemented, performance managed and evaluated, so that your local strategic partnership can have a lasting impact on community cohesion in your area.

By the end of the day you will have:

• examined the methods by which you are developing, implementing and evaluating your community cohesion strategy
• identified the design features of your overall approach that need to be present in order to achieve success
• investigated how the performance management and evaluation of your strategy can be used to create even more impact
• reviewed and developed your arrangements for making your strategy work.

a workshop for staff involved in meeting the development needs of managers of multi agency teams

Workshop directors: Judith Smyth and Stefan Cantore

Multi-disciplinary teams are one of the portfolio of arrangements that will be used to deliver integrated services. These teams vary considerably: they may be networks of staff who are managed through their own organisations but function as a virtual team; or they may be managed by a single manager. Either way, the skills required to manage multi-disciplinary teams are different and wider than those of normal line management.

At this workshop, we will take as our starting point the work OPM has done with DfES to develop its draft Championing Children framework: this identifies the extra skills and knowledge that managers will require. In the company of others who are tackling similar issues to you, you will examine what is involved in internal team development and external network development.

For instance, we will discuss: ways of creating a common culture whilst still valuing and maintaining professional diversity; working with staff who have applied to join a team and staff who have been seconded; dealing with the different systems of the agencies from which those staff have come; and developing agreed sets of protocols for coordinating action, information sharing and assessment. You will have the chance to share your own ideas and learning with others and come away with practical skills to take your own work forward.

The workshop will help you to:

• map the challenges faced by managers in multi-disciplinary teams
• identify the key skills and knowledge required
• develop on the job and other supports required to meet the managers’ development needs.

Email Judith Smyth for more details of the content.

a workshop for senior managers in children's services, health, partnerships, schools and other agencies with a responsibility for joint commissioning

Workshop directors: Clive Miller and Hilary Thompson

Joint commissioning is moving into a new phase of development. The local government White Paper and the Department of Health and Department for Education and Skills commissioning frameworks require a multi-level, bottom-up approach to commissioning. The commissioning of services for adults and children must be linked to meet the needs of families and children.

The new performance framework will be more outcome focused, with greater emphasis on ensuring that priorities are evidence-based. Processes are being simplified and streamlined to promote improvements in all five outcomes. Local area agreements, the use of contestability and the reshaping of the workforce have greater prominence. Budget holding by lead professionals, designed to produce a bottom-up drive for service change, is leading to the development of multi-level commissioning.

This workshop will explore these developments through presentations on leading-edge innovations and through participative exercises using new analytical tools.

a workshop for local authority and PCT commissioners, service providers, and senior and middle managers in government offices, national voluntary organisations and central government

Workshop director: Clive Miller with Nic Crosby

Personalisation means shifting from professionally determined practice to co-produced services and from contracted commissioning to active market management. To make choices, children and families will need a range of support options including support brokerage and ‘shop4support’, as well as information, advice and guidance. This workshop provides space to examine what it will be like to work in these new ways. After a briefing on the new developments we will work on a future scenario to explore the organisational implications of giving children, families, young people and and carers help to plan their support and manage the resources for that support.

This workshop will help you to:

• learn from the budget-holding lead professional pilots
• understand how individual budgets and self-directed support works in practice
• identify the implications for multi-level commissioning
• explore issues by working on a future scenario
• network with others who are interested in the large scale use of personalisation.

For more information about this workshop, email Clive Miller

Use the theory and practice of the Alexander Technique to help combat the stresses and challenges

We will start by creating a profile of your current strengths and identifying areas for development. You will be introduced to the elements of effective communication through frameworks and group exercises, with an emphasis on how thought and movement affect your ability to make a positive personal impact. You will then learn about the Alexander Technique and discover simple ways of becoming more aware of your balance and movement. The technique helps you to use your body to help reduce stress and tension and to develop poise, balance and co-ordination. The day will be practical with lots of opportunities to practise the technique. Please wear loose clothing.

‘It was such a treat to get away from the constant demands of work and just focus on me for a change. I found the day practical and relaxing and of great personal benefit.’ - participant, 2006

email Yee-Mai Wan or phone her on 020 7239 7874 if you might be interested in this workshop

A one-day workshop for local authority councillors, monitoring officers and committee support staff who want to implement effective scrutiny

Workshop directors: Catherine Staite and Gillian Fawcett

Get one step ahead of the Local Government White Paper. Effective scrutiny can influence the quality of service delivery and inform the strategic direction of a local authority. Although perhaps the least understood of a local authority's functions, it can - if implemented well - be an exciting and powerful tool for ensuring policies are implemented successfully.

Through a mixture of presentations and case studies we will consider:

• how council policies can be evaluated effectively on behalf of local people
• how to achieve a positive culture where councillors question decisions
• how to improve public involvement: lessons learned
• how to achieve effective scrutiny over council spending.

Email Catherine Staite for more details about this workshop

Learn techniques adapted from the theatre to help build your self-confidence and improve your communication 'performance'.

We will use theatrical methods related to status, voice projection and manner, to help you improve your 'performance' when presenting to senior managers, conference delegates and interview panels, and at meetings. You will learn the value of non-verbal communication including gesture and body language. Commonly asked questions such as: 'what do I do if I lose my train of thought, or if I can't stop talking, or I don't know the answer?' will be addressed. You will leave this workshop with techniques adapted to your individual needs.

' ... it is challenging, affirming and fun. I learned so much that has stayed with me.' - participant, 2006

a workshop for managers who want to handle poor performance amongst their staff fairly and effectively

Workshop director: to be confirmed

If you have a poor performer in your team, or if you want to be ready to deal appropriately with poor performance should the issue arise, this workshop is for you.

We will take a practical approach, offering advice and guidance on how best to address poor performance fairly, directly and effectively. You will learn how to set goals that your staff member will buy into, how to monitor performance and how to give feedback and use powerful questions to hold poor performers to account. We will also identify the system improvements that you can put into place to create the conditions where all staff can perform better.

At this workshop you will:

• understand best practice in dealing with poor performance
• clarify which differences in people’s approaches or personalities can be accommodated and which need to be tackled
• analyse the performance culture and systems of your organisation and team
• identify appropriate solutions to address difficult situations
• develop your own plan of action to use in managing your team and improving the performance culture of your organisation.

Workshop director: Clive Miller

email Clive Miller for more details

The ideas presented in the Green Paper are about how all public services, the private and voluntary sectors, service users and carers must work together to deliver the seven social care outcomes. Under this definition, the social care workforce is much broader than social care and some health staff; workforce planning will therefore present a huge challenge.

Workforce planning and development initiatives must focus on tackling the continuing staffing shortages through 'whole systems' approaches. Training and leadership development will be needed at all levels, not only to meet the needs of large numbers of staff who have no relevant qualification, but also to support the new forms of service delivery and changes such as individual budgets.

This workshop will examine how the national workforce reform programmes in the different partner sectors can be brought together coherently at local level. We will look at the creation of new cross-boundary roles and multi-disciplinary team management, and the follow-on requirements for workforce planning, training and development. We will also look at the implications for existing teams working with others in new integrated service networks.
The workshop will help you to:

• understand the workforce implications of the Green Paper
• map the existing workforce development processes in your locality
• identify key areas for further development
• develop effective ways forward.

a workshop for senior and partnership managers involved in developing local area agreements

Workshop directors: Clive Miller and Sophie Ahmad

Local area agreements provide freedoms and flexibilities, rewards for meeting stretch targets and pooled funding as a means of meeting the joined-up working requirements of the children’s services and other policy agendas. LAAs provide a major lever for change and will be the basis on which a range of central government funding will be allocated in the future. Hence they are both a necessity and an opportunity.

At this workshop you will find out how other people are managing to keep the LAA process focused on the children and young people’s plan priorities and not allowing it to be taken over by technocrats. We will look at why many of the children’s services priorities may best be pursued through LAA blocks other than that for children and young people, and at the importance of involving the government offices for the regions, and the voluntary and community sector, at all stages of the development and delivery of LAAs. You will benefit from what others in the field have been learning and from OPM’s own evaluation research into LAAs and the modernisation agenda.

for more information about this workshop, email Clive Miller

Network facilitator: Clive Miller

email Clive Miller for more details

This network will deal with the full range of management and organisational issues raised by the implementation of the fast evolving green paper agenda. Focused on live issues raised by individual network members it will develop practical ways forward and enable all participants to gain from the learning.

The ideas presented in the adult social care Green Paper are not just about social care. They are about how all public services, and those in the private and voluntary sectors, providing both universal and targeted services, must work together to deliver the seven social care outcomes. This will involve sectors as diverse as community safety, education, housing, leisure, primary care and transport, and cover the needs of both those service users who will receive state aid and 'self payers' who will purchase some services directly from the private sector.

These developments, the green paper's wider view of social care and the creation of the new post of director of adult services will have implications for the governance and partnership structures used to coordinate strategic commissioning. This will be further reinforced by the contribution that this wider definition of adult social care will be expected to make to the cross-cutting service assessment and use of resources parts of local authority Comprehensive Performance Assessments. The six one-day meetings will allow you to:

• keep abreast of a fast evolving agenda
• learn from new practice and management developments
• access the new management frameworks OPM is developing
• test out ideas with a group of 'critical friends'
• develop an ongoing support network.

a learning network for assistant directors of children's services, commissioners and heads of service

Network director: Judith Smyth

Senior managers across all of the partner agencies are finding themselves more and more focused on the inter-agency management of services and outcomes. Working in partnership, they have to operate mostly by leadership and influence, in situations where relationships are often underdeveloped.

The challenges of APA, JAR and developing the first Children and Young People’s Plans are dwarfed by the change agendas ahead locally. Some of the challenges will come from making the transition to new partnership and organisational structures, others from developing new ways of working. All of them will involve cultural change.

Directors of children’s services have a number of forums for sharing their common concerns but, generally speaking, senior managers and partnership staff do not. This learning network will provide such a forum.

The network will create a space for in-depth work on issues of concern where senior managers can meet, setting their own rules of engagement and typically tackling two substantive issues at each of the six one-day sessions.

Focusing on live issues facing individual members, it will develop practical ways forward and help all participants to gain knowledge, understanding and skills.

The network will offer you:

• the space to work in-depth on your own key issues
• an opportunity to exchange ideas and challenge one another’s practice, and learn from experience
• the chance to develop a continuing support network.

this action learning network is for chief and senior police service officers who are co-ordinating, supporting and leading their forces through to new joint arrangements for protecting the public, delivering back-room functions with greater efficiency and effectiveness and tackling level-2.

Network facilitator: to be confirmed

The network will offer you:

• the time to work in-depth on the key change management issues that matter locally and nationally
• an opportunity to exchange ideas and critical learning
• fresh skills and insights into improving organisational performance
• the chance to challenge and be challenged, and build an continuing network of colleagues

This learning network will complement the ongoing work of the Home Office, the APA and ACPO in support of new joint arrangements for police service delivery. The group will create its own developmental context and agenda based on action learning principles. At least two high-profile speakers will be invited to present their experience in the context of police service change and organisational development.

a development programme for women in middle management positions in local government

BreakThrough has been designed to provide the knowledge and support women managers need to achieve excellence in their existing roles and to equip them to 'break through' into senior management positions.

Taking part in BreakThrough will help you to:

• understand the forces and drivers affecting local government
• explore the application of management theory to real life in the public services
• clarify your contribution to the changing environment in which you operate
• achieve your potential as a manager and leader
• develop a wider network of women managers in local government
• identify your preferred role in an uncertain future.
  

Download the brochure and registration form for the 2008/09 Breakthrough programme.

email Jasmine Miller or phone her on 020 7239 7825 for more details

A programme of supervision for those with coaching experience who wish to enhance their skills

Programme director: David Love

The programme offers coaches supervision and skills development and includes:

• four one-to-one supervision sessions
• four masterclass programmes
• membership of a coaching action learning set
• unlimited online and telephone supervision during the year.

for managers in public services who wish to build on their personal presentation and communication skills

Communication Matters is for you if you would like to build on and refine your existing communication and personal presentation skills. It will include:

• Practical communication tools and techniques introduced in an interactive and 'safe' environment that will both challenge you and support your development
• A clear understanding of your current strengths as a communicator, and where you could improve
• The expertise of a personal style consultant, a posture and movement coach and a professional actor
• A personal communication development plan
• An opportunity to meet and work with other managers from across the public services, and to develop new networks.

contact Sheba Cheung on 020 7239 7873 or email Sheba for more details.

for managers and human resources professionals who want to design and manage a centre in their own organisation

OPM is an ILM-accredited centre

Programme director: to be confirmed

Assessment and development centres are frequently used as part of the process of making senior appointments, and to help staff to identify their own development needs.

This three-day programme will give managers and human resources professionals the skills and confidence they need to design and manage a centre in their own organisation. The programme leads to a development award in assessment and development centre management, in partnership with the Institute for Leadership and Management.

You will learn to:

• understand the difference between assessment and development and the variety of tools available
• design a centre
• give ratings using behaviour-ranked scales
• undertake competency-based interviews
• use in-tray and written tests and information from psychometric instruments to inform decisions and development planning
• observe and gather evidence from group exercises and presentations
• provide effective career counselling or feedback to those participating in your centre to help them plan their own future development.

The programme is accredited by ILM and recognised by the Association for Coaching

"Having the opportunity to test out tools and techniques with colleagues on the programme was a great way of developing my coaching practice" - Helen Chauhan, Director of Human Resources and Organisation Development, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

This programme is for managers and human resources professionals who already have some experience of coaching or mentoring and who want to develop their knowledge and practice.

By the end of the programme you will:

• understand theories of coaching
• have practised your coaching skills extensively in a supportive environment
• have been challenged and supported to improve your performance
• be able to share your skills with colleagues
• be confident that your own coaching practice is both safe and relevant
• be equipped to apply for ILM membership.

The programme has been designed to be of relevance to participants from the voluntary or independent sectors as well as the NHS.

The current programme is full. But you can download a copy of the brochure or email Sheba Cheung for more details

Leaders for Health offers you the opportunity to develop your self-awareness and confidence as a leader, enhance your ability to think and act strategically and creatively, and develop and extend your own leadership style. Building on the success of our previous programme, NHS Leaders, Leaders for Health has been thoroughly redesigned to meet your current and future needs as a leader within the evolving context of health care planning and delivery.

On the programme you will:

• gain new insights into your leadership style and its application to challenging situations
• develop new facets to your leadership approach
• learn better ways to manage yourself, your life and your personal resilience
• improve your self-awareness, impact and emotional intelligence
• establish greater insights into the ways that politicians operate and hone your own political awareness and skill
• develop an enhanced ability to lead complex change across multiple organisations and partnerships
• sharpen your commercial skills to improve your organisation’s responsiveness and image
• enjoy access to a network of other senior leaders from the public and private sector, nationally and internationally, for future development and support.

a leadership development programme for directors and senior managers working in or with local government

Leaders in Local Governance will help you to develop the confidence and self-awareness you need to be an effective leader. You will become better able to focus on what matters most, think and act creatively and strategically, and develop your own leadership style.

The programme will help you develop in the following areas, and others:

• Personal mastery: self-awareness, self-management and greater personal impact; thinking about your own career path; the ability to balance competing demands and lead change effectively
• Impact: the focus on outcomes and services that improve people's lives; strategies for change that meet the needs of your organisation and respond to the external environment; effective partnerships that add social value; real and realistic user choice.
• Context: what drives public sector reform and the leadership agenda for delivering local services and achieving outcomes; building legitimacy for decisions and actions; working with politicians and others in governance to balance competing accountabilities.
• Leadership thinking and skills: theory into practice; development of organisational, political, partnership and community working; a sense of common purpose in your organisation; challenge and support for your ideas.

Contact us if you might be interested in attending this programme in the future.

a development programme for managers working in health care

“I have moved up since joining the programme, to a wonderful post that is a significant promotion. What I have learned has been extremely helpful - even in the interview!”

This programme offers leading-edge management learning in the areas of service delivery, modernising the way we work, managing people and performance, and becoming a leader. It will help you to gain and use the knowledge and skills needed in today's health economy.

The current programme is full. But contact us if you are interested in attending a future programme

Previous participants have said:

'A good mix of listening, participation and theory.' [Locality manager, partnership trust]
'Lots to think about and apply in practice.' [Senior manager, acute hospital]
'Great programme - the presenters are well informed and knowledgeable and the content relevant.' [Directorate manager, acute hospital]
'A very appropriate, timely programme that has given me a range of skills to put to good use.' [Scheme manager, mental health trust]

Moving Up in the NHS is a flexible, challenging and practical programme that builds the vital skills and knowledge needed to manage a complex organisation in a rapidly changing environment. It will help you to:

• increase your ability to operate effectively in a demanding health care environment
• clarify your career goals and how you might achieve them
• gain confidence in your abilility to face new career challenges
• achieve your full potential as a manager and leader.

Contact us if you might be interested in attending this programme in the future.

A programme for managers who wish to develop in house consulting skills or make the transition into consultancy

Programme director: to be confirmed

OPM is an ILM-accredited centre
The programme is recognised by the Association for Coaching

The Organisation Development and Consulting Skills Programme is for managers who wish to develop in house consulting skills or make the transition into consultancy. You probably already have substantial management experience and have enjoyed working in a consultative way when leading a change management process or service reconfiguration.

You will learn to:

• understand the needs of the different sectors
• establish and build your business
• win and price work
• design training
• work with clients on organisation development.

Contact us if you might be interested in attending this programme in the future.

a management development programme for black and minority ethnic managers working at a senior level who are preparing for the move to their next strategic leadership role

Routes is specifically designed to further the unique contribution of black and minority ethnic managers in a diverse workplace and examine how you can make a difference for yourself, other staff and the wider community. All managers can benefit from management development programmes that equip them to perform better in their current jobs and to plan their future careers. This programme is for black and minority ethnic managers and aspiring leaders who are enthusiastic about building on their strengths and making organisations work more effectively for social outcomes.

Many organisations are still struggling to turn their commitment to equality and diversity into reality and may place an additional burden on you to come up with the solutions. The Routes programme will provide you with up-to-date knowledge so that you can be at the forefront of management thinking in your own organisation. It will also give you the opportunity to speak honestly and openly about the issues you face, and your personal development needs, by providing a learning environment where you do not have to present yourselves as being ‘twice as good’ as white colleagues.

Contact us if you might be interested in attending this programme in the future.