Action Learning Day: Developing officer and member soft skills - 22 January 2008

The aim of the Action Learning Day was to explore the soft skills and attributes that elected members and officers are likely to need to work effectively at a local level as neighbourhood working becomes more widespread, and central government’s proposals to strengthen community governance are put into practice by many local authorities.

The day provided an opportunity for NAN partners to share their current issues and concerns about the role of elected members in neighbourhood working and consider the new skills, approaches and tools that members and officers will need to adapt to the changing role. The Young Foundation shared findings from its practical work on building relationships between councillors and officers. This included NAN work on organisational culture and embedding engagement as well as recent research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that explores how the role of elected members in England is likely to change over the next five years.

The Young Foundation has produced a summary report from the session, capturing the essence of the presentations, and the questions and concerns from the discussion sessions that followed.

Speakers included:

• Milly Camley, Head of Mayor’s Office, and Debbie Forde, Head of Member Services, LB Newham, who talked about developing and supporting councillors’ roles in the London Borough of Newham. Download their pdf presentation.

• Richard Masters, Programme Manager – Managerial Leadership, from the IDeA, who talked about political and managerial leadership: officer and member relationships – developing officers’ political awareness and competencies for officers/managers working with councillors. Download his pdf presentation.

• Download the pdf presentation by Vicki Savage, Associate, Young Foundation

Download the full agenda here