Local government reorganisation (LGR) could come with a warning sign for leaders: it has proved too hot to handle for many a former secretary of state, and who knows, perhaps for this one too.
It can create a ‘high stakes' environment as council leaders vie for survival and chief executives risk being dragged out of their professional position, entering the fray for a time and then having to pick up the pieces to work together again.
As the process continues, the challenge changes. Many are now post-decision and as they gear up for implementation, there is a big debate upon which so much depends. That is, to misquote Buzz Lightyear: ‘To safe and legal… or beyond?'
The programme is aimed at middle managers in the councils forming the new unitary, bringing them together to build relationships and work collaboratively. During the period from now to vesting day, board-level leaders occupy tense spaces and are overwhelmed and exposed.
From the perspective of the Leadership Centre, over the years we have witnessed the weather vane shifting between the ‘orthodox' position – that all you can do is get to vesting day with the lights on, be grateful for that and then, once settled, take it from there – and the ‘radical' position that sees this as an unmissable opportunity to build something new and better. Even the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) advisers have talked about ‘safe and legal plus'. History shows that leaders are cautious beforehand, but often regretful afterwards.
As is often the case in leadership debates, binary positions are not helpful and wise leadership is situational. The extent to which ‘going beyond' is necessary or possible will vary from place to place, but in general, the context of this round of LGR is that many new unitary councils will begin life facing huge financial challenges, public service reform imperatives, housing crises and urgent growth pressures.
While legal and systemic constraints remain, they have less time to settle down and get going than ever before. That is the challenge for leaders.
Drawing on our experience and listening to the sector, the Leadership Centre has developed and is now actively engaging with transitioning councils in the creation of the New Unitary and Strategic Authority Leader (NUSAL) programme.
The focus is on creating readiness to deliver benefits as soon as possible by thinking about possibilities, building relationships and culture and developing skills and proactivity among leaders.
One city council chief executive recently told us: ‘We're all just heads down in the MHCLG directive, no one is lifting their heads, there's no excitement.'
The programme is aimed at middle managers in the councils forming the new unitary, bringing them together to build relationships and work collaboratively. During the period from now to vesting day, board-level leaders occupy tense spaces and are overwhelmed and exposed.
Middle managers – particularly in district councils – can, in contrast, feel undervalued, uncertain and fearful. The programme aims to tap into their expertise, value their achievements, get them thinking about the unitary canvas and give them a stake in creating options for the future, so that when new councils are in place, they can move quickly. The new councils will be safe, legal and change-ready.
The programme has three overlapping strands:
1) Leadership development. A number of leadership summits spaced over several months, where large-scale events focus on the known challenges for the new organisation and cover the building blocks of systems leadership, adaptive change and transformation. As organisations progress through the journey, learning from experience is brought in alongside people who have done this before.
2) Organisational development. Between summits, teams of leaders will coalesce around practical, manageable projects and experiments supporting LGR and strategic authority development. Co-designed with participating organisations, the encouragement is to build what in the mergers and acquisitions world are known as ‘value stacks' – new capabilities created by merging the assets, capabilities and relationships of predecessor organisations. Housing, community development and social care, for example, can form a prevention stack. Others might be a growth stack, a net zero stack and so on – each honouring in equal measure the contribution every organisation makes.
3) Personal development. Based on a one-to-one coaching relationship, this strand uses assessment tools to build each participant's self-awareness of their inclinations and preferences in change and their leadership of it in teams. It helps them to think ahead about the role they want in the new council and build a sense of agency as an active contributor to its creation.
We have consulted with many people in developing the programme but would particularly like to acknowledge the contribution of Gill Kneller and Dawn Adey, respectively the outgoing and incoming chief executive of East Hampshire.
Dawn, now theme sponsor for strategy, policy and partnerships for LGR across Hampshire, said: ‘Developing the skills and relationships will make the safe and legal task easier and will give us the basis for delivering the real benefits we want to see that much quicker.'
Max Wide is interim chief executive of the Leadership Centre for Local Government
To explore the NUSAL programme or discuss how to build leadership development into your programme, contact max.wide@leadershipcentre.org.uk
