Title

A county local strategic partnership recently set up an informal forum of local leaders across all sectors to brainstorm pressing issues, from budgets to frontline services. Roger Britton and John Tizard report on its success Almost every conference, article or meeting about the future of public service starts or ends with a clarion call for innovative and creative thinking. Unfortunately, the usual forums for debate tend to stultify such conversations. The right interests are not at the table, too may of the seats are filled with well-intentioned but emasculated substitutes, exploratory comments will be read as policy predictions, and the drive to reach a decision takes away the headroom needed to explore novel ideas. Working in partnership magnifies this malaise, and the old definition of a partnership being ‘the temporary suspension of mutual loathing for financial advantage' can too easily hold sway. The Worcestershire Partnership – the county local strategic partnership (LSP) recognised these problems, and determined to build a place in which dangerous thoughts could be shared, interpersonal trust would grow, and real collaborative leadership would emerge. The driver was to deliver outcomes for place – the people and businesses of Worcestershire. To achieve this, 12 months ago, it set up the Shenstone Group, so named after the place in which it met, in order to avoid any connection with more formal and traditional decision-making. The group was made up of 25 key leaders and thinkers from across civil society – leading politicians, chief executives from the public, private and third sectors, non-executive chairs and the church, all attending by personal invitation, not as representatives of their organisation but bringing their world-view and intelligence to the debate. The sessions ran for a full day each month, providing a ‘thinking laboratory' where the collision of ideas, honest and frank debate, and the safety to make heretical suggestions generated new perspectives on a range of the most wicked issues. Attendance over the year has averaged 80% – a sign of commitment and the value that members placed on the group. Not that the events were just esoteric talking shops. Perhaps the most powerful days were spent in small groups out in the communities with challenging needs, where there were authentic conversations with local community leaders, citizens and frontline staff from all the agencies and the community sector, or working alongside unemployed young people getting to see what the world looked like through their eyes. Sessions led by leaders of multinational businesses on what they had to argue to win international board decisions for investment into their Worcestershire plants was a revelation to local political and agency leaders. This has led to a change in local public policy and organisational practice. Members of the group acted as ‘critical friends' to the county's Total Place pilot last year, with those from the private sector providing especially-valuable perspectives which had a powerful impact on perhaps more orthodox public sector thinking. In another example, reacting to conversations with young people, one major multinational employer is now leading a new initiative promoting relationships with local schools, and providing training experiences for pupils. One of the early wins from the group emerged from a debate about spending pressures which resulted in an agreement between all the spending organisations to consult and share information in their budget-setting process in order to avoid unintended consequences, particularly where budgets were reduced in one area on the assumption that other agencies would maintain their spending. It is perhaps worth remarking that such an agreement runs the danger of simply being a noble platitude without the interpersonal trust and understanding emerging from the group. This also led to the creation of a public service executive which brings together the key local public sector budget managers. Less tangible, but perhaps more significant has been the growth of trust, founded on common experiences, sharing opinions, and starting to see under the skin of each other's organisation. What may have, in the past been a tentative and cautious exchange set up by PAs is now a direct phone call between trusting colleagues which can cut to the chase. The value of such a shift cannot be overstated. For the sessions to work, they had to be well constructed and expertly facilitated, so a good deal of effort went in to getting the tone and input right, and managing the tightness of maintaining pace with the looseness of the group setting and morphing its programme. To achieve this, the group called on the support of external expertise to advise and facilitate. As well as improving the quality of the experience this provided a dynamic and independent link into the national debate at a level difficult to achieve with local resources alone. Participants made a 12-month commitment to the venture. At the last of the sessions, the members made it clear that the forum was so valued it must continue. So, it is now in its second year, and pursuing a programme around public service delivery, the local economy and Big Society, with an enlarged membership drawn from right across civil society. Roger Britton is programme manager for the Shenstone Group and head of OD at Worcestershire CC, and John Tizard is director of CPSP@LGIU, and programme director for Shenstone

Title

WHITEHALL

Taking time out to brainstorm

SUBSCRIBE TO CONTINUE READING