7th November 2008
The Wisdom of Crowds: The Many are Smarter than the Few
This month has been all about staff engagement and communication with our unit, organising a series of Resource Directorate Away Days and Management Conferences.
The Away Days were first, which were a half day affair with Q&A sessions with the Leader and Chief Exec, talks on Personnel issues and workshops on Council Priorities and how the varying Services can contribute in their achievement. Feedback from staff was that it was a really positive event especially the Q&A session with the Senior Management Team who sometimes seem a distant group based up in an Ivory Tower! The workshop was great as we heard the views and ideas from staff in multiple services at varying levels-frontline to management. And you know what they say- wisdom of crowds…many brains are better than one! The requirement to innovate is becoming an ever present demand in Local Government as we’re expected to deliver more with less and the staff are the Councils most valuable asset. I really believe we have the ideas and expertise there in our staff and these events I think are one way to tease them out.
Then I had two Manager Conferences to organise which followed along the same lines as the Away Days. However, these were for managers across the Council so mixed together managers not only from different services but from the different Directorates too. Managers always say that these events are a really useful networking tool, where information and best practice can be shared and potential collaborative working between services highlighted. The only negative feedback about the event was that we tried to cover too much in half a day so we’re going to look into making it a whole day event next year.
I also went on a Project Management two day course this month. It was run by our Senior Project Management Officer and taught me all about our Corporate Project Management Methodology which is based on ‘Prince 2’- the standard methodology being widely deployed by UK Government. Synopsis in one sentence: Identify benefits of the project clearly at the start, plan plan and plan some more, be realistic with time scales and costs, evaluate progress throughout as well as at the end to ensure benefits will be realised. So I’ve got the knowledge now, just gotta make sure I put it into practice!
Citizens’ Panel update: We’ve had 170 people applying for the Panel. Not on target so I’ve been increasing the PR for the Panel- newspapers, radio, posters, word of mouth, letters to clubs, societies and community groups. Also the lead member for Communities (Sharon Frobisher) and I are keen to increase the representation from the younger age groups. So I’ve been ringing around all the youth organisations in the County this week to try and partner up to publicise the Panel among their contacts and look to work together to achieve better engagement with young people. Watch this space but I fear consultation fatigue bears heavy on our residents!
Arghh, 3 weeks till next essay deadline for my Post Grad Diploma in Local Government Management! This one is on Public Sector Financial Management- sounds dry but actually really interesting especially in the current financial climate. Better get on and do some reading…wish me luck!
13th October 2008
Consultation NOT for Consultation Sake
So apparently my first blog wasn’t completely useless(!) and I’ve been asked to update you monthly on my goings on in the world of Local Government, so here’s October’s entry….
So this month I’ve been plugging away at setting up a Citizens’ Panel in Denbighshire. Working with my ‘tech-ie’ colleague Stephen, we have produced a survey using ‘SNAP’ software which residents, who want to become members, can fill in on-line. On-line surveys are excellent as not only are they a bit ‘flash’ but they save loads of work compared to paper surveys as you’re not left manually inputting the responses. However, whenever IT forms a solution you have to make sure you’re not excluding people who may not have access to computers or the internet. So I made sure paper copies of the survey were available across the county in libraries and one stop shops, or sent to those interested via the old reliable snail mail, for people to fill in by hand.
As you can see our Citizens’ Panel has a logo - lovely stuff! If you’re wondering what the devil the top two sentences say on the logo, that’s ‘Denbighshire Citizens’ Panel’ in Welsh. In Wales everything that goes out to the public from the Council has to be bi-lingual. Fun and games I can tell you, especially as I am not a Welsh speaker!
Residents can apply for the panel up till December and I’ve been working with local press to publicise the panel in their papers and on-line. There’s always a worry that only certain sectors of society will get involved with things like this so I’ve been keen to work with our Children and Young People Partnership to advertise the panel in their Youth Forums. So fingers crossed we’ll get a good mix of applicants from all ages…watch this space!
I think the most important thing to remember when doing anything involving consultation with the public is to make sure you have a proper reason for doing it, i.e. you’re not consulting just for consultation sake! If you’re asking the opinions of your local residents then they deserve the right to know the results from the consultation and what the Council aims to do in response to their comments. Okay okay, soap box moment over! So what I’m planning to do is produce a newsletter after each consultation exercise we do, including an analysis of survey responses, a short sharp summary and a ‘what we’re going to do about it’ section. I’m thinking I’ll be getting to know the ins and outs of Microsoft Publisher come newsletter time…best get myself on a training course!
See you next month!
Hey!
Well I never though I’d ever be a ‘blogger’ but here I am! I hope that what I write won’t be all chat and no substance and will actually be a helpful insight to what the ngdp scheme is all about.
Well let’s start with chat and get onto substance later! My name is Helen Burkhalter. I studied Geography (BA) at Durham and graduated in 2007. I started the scheme in October 2007 and so you find me one year on….and don’t worry I’m still loving it! I remain enthusiastic about the purpose of Local Government and yes it’s bureaucratic, and sometimes frustratingly so, but seeing positive action directly from your work keeps you enjoying your job…plus the flexi time helps! Ooh I’ve been asked to keep jargon free so ‘flexi-time’= all the time you work over your normal working hours is totalled up and you can take this as holiday, which is BRILLIANT! Joking aside Local Government is an employer who put its employees first, and the flexi scheme is just one way in which they show you’re being valued.
So let’s get to the substance. People reading this now are probably considering whether to apply for the scheme so let me give you an insight on my experience of the recruitment process. It’s pretty long, starting in January and ending in May. I applied when I was in my final year at uni and the fact that it was quite spread out meant that it didn’t impact on my studies that much which was great. If your having a gap year and on your travels, the recruitment team are really good at accommodating any special/unusual circumstances. For example one girl from my cohort was travelling over the year recruitment process and she had her telephone interview in an internet café on the opposite side of the world! The recruitment process is set up to try to give you the best possible chance to shine so best piece of advice is to prepare the best you can for each stage, don’t panic and be yourself.
So after submitting my application in November 2006, I successfully came out of the final local authority interviews with an offer from Denbighshire County Council, North Wales, to start in October 2007. I’m originally from Plymouth in Devon so for me it meant not only starting full time work for the first time but also a big move to the North too. Daunting but as you can see I survived and my local authority were brilliant in offering support and guidance when I was sorting out relocating to the area. Plus I was given a relocation allowance to help which came in very handy having just been in uni for 3 years!
My first placement was in Corporate Personnel (HR) where I worked on implementing Workforce Planning into the Council over a 5 months period. Workforce Planning is basically a way of making sure you have the right staff, with the right skills now and for the future. It involved meeting with all the Heads of Service and talking though their specific workforce requirements and then producing a Workforce Plan for their Service. I then collated all the info from these plans (26 of them!) and then produced a Corporate Workforce Plan for the whole council. I really enjoyed this placement as I was lucky enough to see the project from start to end. I was given quite a lot of responsibility early on which was scary but brilliant all the same as you felt that you were a valued member of the team.
My second placement was just for 4 months and I was based in the Finance and Performance Service. I was a member of the WorkSMART project team trying to implement new more efficient ways of working into the Environment Directorate. This placement meant I changed office locations so it was a different commute to work, a new town to explore and new people to get to know. Luckily the people in my office were lovely and it wasn’t difficult settling in. That’s one thing I was worried about in the scheme that because you move around every 4 to 6 months you don’t really settle anywhere. However, the support mechanisms around you both within your council, via your placement coordinator, and outside, via the other NMT’s on the scheme in other councils, means you always have someone to turn to if your feeling a bit bewildered! Plus it’s great as you build up a huge contact list of people in your council so you get to know who to ask for information on a certain thing, and can rally in favours if you need to. Plus I’ve been able to build up friendships in each of my placements and I keep in touch with old work colleagues so that’s fab.
Goodness this blog is HUGE, I apologise! I’ll just quickly tell you about the placement I’m in now and then I can keep you up to date (briefly I promise!) with any exciting developments in future blogs. Right, I am now based in the Strategic Policy Unit for 6 months basically acting as a Corporate Policy Officer. Day to day this involves researching various areas, writing reports on this research which can then support various policy initiatives that the council wants to pursue. I’m also the lead officer for setting up a Citizens Panel in Denbighshire which will be a forum to hear the views of the local population and gain feedback on council services. But more about that in later blogs! For now I will sign off and allow you to rest your eyes after reading this mammoth entry.
Good luck to all who are considering applying for the next ngdp intake!