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A complex area such as Norfolk needs public sector leaders with leading edge skills and approaches, and the ability to act together with the community to deliver significant improvements that impact directly on the quality of life for local people. Norfolk set out to develop a community of leadership practice of 200 senior managerial leaders and named it Leapp – Lead, Engage, Aspire, Perform in Partnership. It was a programme which has successfully supported our ‘whole place' approach to public services. It has been new and innovative and is hoped that in the longer term it will lead to a step change in both service delivery and efficiency at the local level. The overarching aim of the programme was to bring about a shift in the way that the public sector in Norfolk worked with itself and its communities to ensure improved outcomes for local people. The programme built on existing but more traditional local leadership development work, making ‘learning by doing' a collective endeavour across many of our key public services. Better leadership was not the sole objective but a means towards broader objectives of improved services, reduced cost, and stronger communities. The population of Norfolk leaders worked together, and with the wider community, to identify and tackle the issues that mattered: improving performance in key services, seeking out opportunities to deliver real efficiencies, finding new solutions to complex and problem issues, and shaping the places of Norfolk. The initiative looked at how we can make real progress on real issues such as community cohesion, climate change and pubic sector efficiency. The programme itself brought together leading edge concepts and thinking, with expert process design and facilitation from the Leadership Centre for Local Government. The introduction of new ways of looking at challenges faced through ‘systems thinking' and practical tools was really well received by participants. This fresh thinking and perspectives has led to a new lens and set of language across the sector of leaders. It has strengthened relationships and trust, accelerating culture change across the sector. A community of internal faciltators was also brought together and was highly successful in supporting the process; this community will be an ongoing resource to draw from. Leapp has provided an invaluable foundation for our challenges around leadership of place. All participants from the county council, district councils, police and health had an opportunity to raise their profile in the public sector in Norfolk. It met all the objectives - put simply, around developing our leaders, enhancing networks and relationships and delivering improvement on real issues for our communities. There is a real appetite for harnessing what Leapp created to address ongoing significant challenges we face in Norfolk. As one participant said: ‘The old ways don't work – we need completely new ways of working and thinking. Some will find this a challenge and probably all of us will at some stage. That is why we need to realise we are in this together and only by working together and facing any difficulties can we make this new way of working common across the whole of Norfolk and beyond.' Kerry Furness is corporate OD manager writing on behalf of the Norfolk Leapp team

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WHITEHALL

A Leapp of faith in Norfolk

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