London Borough of Havering

Learning and Development Strategy

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Introduction

This strategy recognises the need for the Council, its managers and its employees to take personal responsibility for improving performance through continuous development, to promote learning and development as a strategic tool to achieve organisational results and realise individual potential.

CMT is committed to Havering becoming a Learning Organisation in which learning and development will drive and support continuous improvements in our service performance and customer service to our community. The Council will:

Equip our workforce with the skills and competence to meet current and future challenges

Continually improve performance

Facilitate ongoing learning opportunities

Facilitate collaborative and partnership working in learning and development

Support equality and diversity in learning and development

Enable our employees to maximise their personal potential in the achievement of organisational objectives

Vision

To adopt a learner-focused culture which drives continuous improvement, encouraging individuals to take responsibility for their own learning and development in an environment where they are coached, motivated and supported to realise their own potential.

Aim

In achieving this vision, The London Borough of Havering will create a learning and development framework that supports the Council to embed performance improvement through ongoing development and provide best value learning opportunities for our staff.

Purpose

This strategy provides a framework to ensure learning and development is effectively identified, planned, delivered and evaluated providing a return on investment which leads to real performance improvement.

It will be iterative, and will adapt to internal and external drivers as they emerge.

This strategy will focus on five key principles.

These are:

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1. To develop Leadership and Management capacity that meets future organisational needs.

2. To embed our values and competency behaviours to enable cultural change.

3. To achieve a culture of continuous improvement through the management of organisational, team and individual performance.

4. To develop the skills required to deliver effective customer service in a changing environment.

5. To build a diverse workforce that is representative of the communities it serves and that promotes equality, fairness and dignity in the treatment of all employees and our customers.

Learning and Development Framework Principles

Development is an integral part of the strategic planning process in that it is aligned with organisational objectives via our performance management framework.

Value is placed on workplace learning and all staff will have regular personal development discussions with their line manager via dialogue during their Performance and Development Review (PDR).

We will align our learning interventions to our Core Competency Framework (CCF) and the behavioural competencies will provide a framework to determine an individual’s potential for progression within the organisation.

The CCF will be used to review existing training programmes and to develop new ones, to ensure that development is appropriately designed and in line with the organisational, service and individual role requirements.

Development will be delivered on a flexible, modular basis and may not necessarily be classroom based or result in certification but will have clear outcomes that are measured and evaluated.

We will embed coaching, feedback and challenge as mechanisms to help people realise their full potential, making maximum contribution to their team, the organisation and its customers and stakeholders.

There is a commitment to e-learning and learning and development interventions will make maximum use of Information Technology.

Where appropriate and where there is a clear business driver, specialist learning programmes will be accredited and aligned with the relevant professional framework.

All learning interventions will be subject to impact assessment (risk management, health and safety, equality and diversity).

All programmes will be subject to appropriate systems of evaluation and quality assurance.

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Succession planning will be supported by appropriate targeted development for staff who have been identified as “high potential” performers.

We will work collaboratively with other LGAs, local HEIs, local colleges and partners in relation to provision of learning and development interventions.

The Oracle system will hold individual records of development, performance management and career progression information.

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Commitments

There is corporate commitment to leadership development to ensure strong leadership and improved strategic capacity

Managers accept responsibility for learning and development activities within their departments and teams.

People management policies and supporting toolkits for managers are developed and embedded to improve organisational efficiency, capability and capacity.

The Performance Development Review (PDR) process is owned, managed and driven by managers; feeding into Team, Service and Directorate Development Plans which in turn feed into an overall Workforce Plan.

Workforce Plans are embedded within the business planning and strategy setting process to feed into future training needs analysis arrangements.

Core competencies will be launched across the Council and used in recruitment, development and succession planning.

Outcomes

There will be evidence of progression in development areas such as core, job specific, professional and managerial skills.

Employees feel valued and know that their opinions, through their personal involvement in the planning of their learning, matter in the development of the Council.

Employees understand what learning activities are available to them and understand the individual responsibility and ownership they have in managing their own performance, learning and development.

Evaluation of learning opportunities are in line with Investors in People standards.

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Learning and Development Roles and Responsibilities

People and Change

It is the responsibility of People and Change to:

• Ensure the development, dissemination and monitoring of the Learningand Development Strategy.

• Provide appropriate leadership, advice and direction to support life longlearning and professional development, and ensure that learning anddevelopment programmes are linked to Council objectives and our competency framework.

• Provide strategic advice and guidance on learning and development issues.

• Identify priorities for learning and development, in line with Council objectives.

• Develop and review relevant policies to support learning and development.

• Promote a variety of methods of learning and development, including theuse of e-learning, mentoring and coaching.

• Ensure fairness and equity of learning and development opportunities.

• Adopt a horizon-scanning role to identify any learning and developmentissues which need to be addressed, and to enable a proactive response.

• Commission ISS groups to undertake specific learning and development projects.

Internal Shared Services

It is the responsibility of the ISS to :

• Support managers to ensure that induction, mandatory and statutory training is provided for all Council employed staff.

• Continue to develop and provide in-house learning and development insupport of the organisational, departmental and individual requirementsidentified during the appraisal/PDR process, advertise these via theOracle system and manage bookings accordingly.

• Provide support, advice and guidance for staff and managers to enhancethe development of learning in the workplace. Ensure compliance with the national and local statutory and mandatory training requirements.

• Continue to develop joint training programmes with partner organisationsas appropriate.

• Support managers to commission external facilitators and learning activities to meet identified training needs, ensuring providers are qualified and competent in the subject area.

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• Actively seek and access external sources of funding for corporate learning anddevelopment.

• Continue to evaluate the effectiveness of learning and developmentactivities.

• Manage work experience placements and the coaching and mentoring programme within the organisation.

Managers

It is the responsibility of managers to:

Identify the priority learning and development needs of their staff to enablethem to deliver a safe and effective service and meet relevant organisational objectives and targets.

Identify funding to meet all learning and development needs. Actively seek and access external sources of funding for service specific learning and development.

Collate the learning and development needs of their departments/services,and update Oracle accordingly.

Ensure staff attend the relevant required statutory, mandatory and inductiontraining.

Support employees develop the necessary knowledge and skills for their job role, including any continuing professional development (CPD) associated with their profession.

Ensure any learning and development activity is relevant to the job role, identified during appraisal/PDR, and is in line with organisational, departmental and personal objectives.

Align competencies to job profiles, which define and describe the knowledge and skills required for the job. Use the job profile to identify learning needs during the appraisal/PDR. Record the outcome of the PDR on Oracle.

Ensure staff have opportunity to prepare for their appraisal/PDR.

Employees

It is the responsibility of individuals to:

• Attend and participate in mandatory, statutory and induction training, applying their learning in the workplace.

• Prepare for and participate in the appraisal/PDR process.

•Maintain and develop the necessary knowledge and skills for their job role, including any statutory continuing professional development (CPD) associated with their profession.

• Identify own learning and development needs, discussing them with their

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manager at appraisal or other meetings. Record their learning plan on the Oracle system.

• Maintain a record to evidence their learning and development.

Identifying learning needs

For staff, the annual cycle of appraisal/PDR is the core process for identifying individual learning needs. The PDR will take into account personal development needs based on the competency framework, as well as team or service, and organisational requirements. This will be a two-way process which ensures that staff receive regular feedback on their performance and are able to plan and agree learning activities that enable each individual to improve areas of knowledge or skill for the benefit of the service and for their own personal career development. This will be recorded through the Oracle Performance Management (OPM) and supported by Oracle Learning Management (OLM).

To support this process, it will be essential that all staff have up to date job profiles, linked to the competency framework, and that all managers and supervisory staff responsible for conducting appraisals have received appropriate training. The role of line managers is crucial to the success of this process and they need to have effective appraisal skills to enable them to release, support and harness the potential of their team.

Learning needs will also continue to be identified in other ways, such aschanges in legislation and working practices, updates to technology, systems and process, organisation direction, adverse incident reporting and other management trends, complaints management, and risk management.

Recording and monitoring learning and development

It is the responsibility of each staff member to record their learning anddevelopment through the Oracle system on Oracle Learning Management (OLM) and to ensure their PDR is kept up to date through Oracle Performance Management (OPM).

It is essential that we are able to record and monitor centrally, the learningand development which takes place in the organisation, especially in relationto statutory and mandatory training.

The Oracle system will be the only way learning needs are captured, recorded and met. Individuals and line managers must take personal responsibility for ensuring this system is kept up to date.

Learning approaches & delivery methods

A variety of flexible, blended approaches to learning is needed to suit different learning styles and work patterns. These include: workplace and work-based learning, internally and externally taught courses, shadowing, e-learning, secondment, coaching and mentoring.

We will use a variety of development methods - coaching on the job, mentoring, learning sets, job rotation, secondments, project work, as well as formal education and training - aimed at enabling staff to progress their careers and build on their skills and expertise.

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Development Schemes/Programmes – National Management Trainee (NMT)/Graduate/Apprentice Schemes

Havering is committed to ensuring that we have a workforce that is fit to deliver our challenges for the future.  The Council has an aging workforce and will engage in and promote schemes such as the National Graduate Development Programme, internships and apprenticeships to ensure skills transfer and continuity of business.

Coaching and mentoring

Multi-professional and team learning should be encouraged, including peer support frameworks. The promotion of mentoring and coaching skills for all staff in positions of leadership or aspiring to do so, will help to support the development of others.

The coaching framework

Coaching is a tool that supports individual learning (i.e. change). It can also support skills, knowledge development and behavioural changes which, subsequently, can impact on improved personal and/or job performance.

We have designed a structured approach to the provision of Coaching in LBH called Performance Coaching Scheme to promote the continuous improvement of LBH Managers. Further work will be required to develop a framework for non managerial staff.

The Performance Coaching Scheme consists of a structured approach to provide an adaptable programme of coaching that can be made available to any individual where the need has been identified. It includes evaluation framework to ensure that the value added is clearly demonstrated.

The mentoring programme

Mentoring in LBH is a formal process where a more knowledgeable, experienced manager or professional supports a less experienced colleague in reflection in order to make a significant transition in thinking, so as to facilitate that person’s career, personal/professional development.

As part of the support and development initiatives the Council will provide Mentoring Scheme and will facilitate Mentoring Relationships throughout the organisation. In addition to internal resources, the Council will work in partnership with London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Redbridge, Waltham Forest.

The mentoring programme aims to:

- Provide structured support for first line supervisors, middle and senior managers or those aspiring to enter the management profession

- Support career development and succession planning- Link with Equality initiatives- Promote the development of a learning culture in the council

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Evaluation

It is critical that the Council is able to demonstrate how well the investment in Learning and Development is working to achieve desired results. This can include return on investment in both a financial and non financial sense, as appropriate.

Our goals for evaluation are to:

1. Demonstrate that learning is having a positive impact on performance;

2. Develop a flexible and effective approaches to measuring return on investment;

3. Design an evaluation framework for learning and development which explores:

Relevance – do learning and development investments address business capability and individual needs?

Appropriateness – Are learning and Development initiatives appropriate in terms of time, cost, quality and integration with other strategies and practices?

Reaction – Are participants and stakeholders satisfied with the accessibility and quality of the learning and development?

Capability – Has the individual or team obtained the required capability?

Performance – Has the acquired capability been transferred to the workplace?

Outcome – Are outcomes (impact on the business) assessed at individual, group and/or organisational level?

Equity of access

All staff should be able to access appropriate learning and development regardless of their job role, hours of work, previous education, age, race, religion etc. Access to training resources must be fair and equitable, and should balance the needs of the individual, the team and the organisation.

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Delivery Themes

To support the successful delivery of the Havering 2014 vision and beyond, the focus of our Learning and Development plan is categorised in four key delivery themes.

These are:

1. Statutory2. Competency and Core Skill Development3. Leadership and Management Development4. Professional

This strategy will be supported by a focused annual training plan which will identify specific interventions that support the development of these key themes and achieve the objectives outlined below:

1. Statutory

It is essential that relevant mandatory, statutory, corporate and inductiontraining is provided for all Council employees.

Learning & Development Plan Objectives

1. Mandatory, statutory and corporate induction training is provided for all Council employees

2. Competency and Core Skill Development

Continuing to update and extend knowledge and skills is essential for maintaining a competent and professional service to our customers. As the Council changes and evolves we want to make sure that our workforce is prepared and equipped with the right skills, competence and capabilities required for our future organisational needs.

Every member of staff requires a set of core skills and competencies to enable them to carry out their job. Up to date job profiles and the introduction of the Core Competency Framework (CCF) will be used to ensure our staff gain, develop and apply the right skills and behaviour as required by the Council in the course of their duties.

The introduction of the competency framework in 2012 will require specific learning interventions to be in place to support the development of these core behaviours.

The competency framework identifies 7 behavioural areas which will require appropriate learning interventions to be aligned too:

• Communicating openly and effectively• Delivering excellent customer service• Managing personal and organizational change• Empowering leadership• Achieving results and success• Planning and implementing• Respecting others

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The CCF will be used as a reference check, to ensure we are providing access to learning activities that enable every member of staff to gain and develop the required set of core skills and competencies so that staff can respond to the changing needs of our customers and the way services need to be delivered.

Basic skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT are essential and we will work with all of our employees to support them in both a personal and professional capacity to improve and develop these core skills.

We will also develop our internal business critical skills, including programme and project management. This will ensure that we develop for the future, in-house provision to support large change initiatives and minimise the reliance on external support to enable us to become self sufficient.

As the Council consider different delivery models for future provision of services, we need to ensure that our staff are equipped with the skills and knowledge required to understand and deliver within different operating models. This will need to be developed over time but may include management development, budget and financial awareness, account and contract management and commissioning and other technical business skills.

Learning & Development Plan Objectives

1. Provide learning and development interventions to support basic skills development including literacy, numeracy and ICT skills.

2. Provide the right tools to help staff plan and action personal/professional growth and development.

3. Provide learning interventions and opportunities that clearly link to the CCF and support an individuals development in these core competency behaviours.

4. Provide learning and development opportunities that prepare our organisation and its workforce for future challenges and equip us with the right skills, capability and confidence to support organisational performance improvement.

3. Leadership & Management Development

Leadership

The OD diagnosis undertaken in the Spring of 2011 identified the need for a clear leadership style and approach to be developed and a coherent, high quality leadership strategy with supporting development interventions to be provided.

There is still a need to develop a facilitative, empowering and participative leadership style that would enable leaders to adopt advanced facilitation skills and tools to fully engage people in the organisations development, design and delivery of its services.

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Learning & Development Plan Objectives

1. Adopt a Leadership framework that clearly outlines the roles and responsibilities of Havering leaders. We will develop a systemic leadership approach, with performance, development and customer service at the heart of everything we do.

2. Support our leaders to develop the skills, competence and self confidence to broaden, embed and adopt a strong leadership brand throughout the Council which will enable us to achieve higher levels of performance

3. Continue to work with our leaders to engage them in development activities, continuing to support leadership development through OD interventions including 360 degree feedback and team and individual development sessions.

Management Development

We must ensure that managers are developed in sufficient numbers to required standards to meet the specialist and general management responsibilities of the Council in the short and the long term.

LBH accepts its responsibility to:

a) Define and clarify the role and expectations of a manager in LBH and provide a development framework to support those managers to engage with the new ways of working and understand their role and what is required of them under the new operating model.

b) Provide managers with the timely and relevant opportunity to develop his/her ability and potential so that she/he does his/her existing job effectively;

c) Ensure that there is an adequate supply of trained staff who are competent and ready for promotion, if appropriate, to meet the future managerial needs of LBH.

Learning & Development Plan Objectives

1. Create a management framework that clearly outlines the roles and responsibilities of the Havering manager and embed across the organisation

2. Design a management development programme to support managers operate within this newly defined context

3. We will coach and mentor managers to support them realise their true potential.

4. Consider a long term approach to talent management and succession planning

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4. Professional

The Council employs a wide variety of different professions, including social workers, lawyers, accountants, planners, inspection and enforcement officers. Moving forward we will be working more closely with our public health colleagues and we will need to respond to new learning needs appropriately. It is not possible in this broad strategy to consider each of the many professional groups individually however we must acknowledge that these specific and professional needs must be met.

Service managers and relevant professional leads will work together, withthe support of Internal Shared Services, to produce learning and development plans specific to their area and staff groups.

Whilst we continue to operate in a very challenging financial environment, we must consider how we approach professional development for those staff wishing to develop themselves personally, within roles where professional qualification or accreditation is required. A policy for accessing higher education courses leading to certificate, diploma, foundation, first or higher degrees, and professional qualifications, will be developed and implemented.

Learning & Development Plan Objectives

1. We will provide learning opportunities to support and enhance individuals professional development

2. We will provide learning and development opportunities to enhance an individuals continuing professional development (in the production of their CPD)

3. We will produce an organisational policy to govern and manage future applications for professional development.

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