Leadership Development in South Riding Council
Leadership Development in South Riding Council
Leadership skills development is often a neglected area in local councils across the UK. South Riding Council has sought to address this issue through establishing its own local leadership institute.
The council, like all other local authorities, is facing the challenge of developing the leaders of tomorrow within a turbulent operating environment. The recruitment and retention of key staff is not easy in an area hit by a long-term decline in the local economy, following the decline in traditional and manufacturing industries like coal mining, ship building and steel making.
The quality and performance of leadership within the council was highlighted in the findings of several external audits covering education provision and overall council performance against key indicators. These audits, conducted within a three year period in the mid 2000s, concluded that the council was lacking in strategic direction. At the end of the decade a similar message was being repeated by Audit Commission inspectors during the first statutory comprehensive performance assessment (CPA). The resultant impact on the organisation cannot be overstated - staff morale plummeted and turnover increased with the loss of organisational knowledge being a major outcome. Internal staff surveys indicated that the lack of strategic leadership was felt acutely by council staff as well as being identified by external bodies. Human Resource Development in general was considered weak with staff reporting a lack of direction in career management and poor professional development provision.
Deputy Chief Executive Kevin Harper commented that: `Our changing environment caught us out – we were reacting to uncontrollable circumstances. This highlighted a weakness generally in strategic leadership across the council. We need to retain key staff and improve our talent management programmes. We can`t just rely on staff replacement to keep the council running so
Leadership skills development is often a neglected area in local councils across the UK. South Riding Council has sought to address this issue through establishing its own local leadership institute.
The council, like all other local authorities, is facing the challenge of developing the leaders of tomorrow within a turbulent operating environment. The recruitment and retention of key staff is not easy in an area hit by a long-term decline in the local economy, following the decline in traditional and manufacturing industries like coal mining, ship building and steel making.
The quality and performance of leadership within the council was highlighted in the findings of several external audits covering education provision and overall council performance against key indicators. These audits, conducted within a three year period in the mid 2000s, concluded that the council was lacking in strategic direction. At the end of the decade a similar message was being repeated by Audit Commission inspectors during the first statutory comprehensive performance assessment (CPA). The resultant impact on the organisation cannot be overstated - staff morale plummeted and turnover increased with the loss of organisational knowledge being a major outcome. Internal staff surveys indicated that the lack of strategic leadership was felt acutely by council staff as well as being identified by external bodies. Human Resource Development in general was considered weak with staff reporting a lack of direction in career management and poor professional development provision.
Deputy Chief Executive Kevin Harper commented that: `Our changing environment caught us out – we were reacting to uncontrollable circumstances. This highlighted a weakness generally in strategic leadership across the council. We need to retain key staff and improve our talent management programmes. We can`t just rely on staff replacement to keep the council running so