Paper reference – 29 07

Management and Leadership Development Proposal

Purpose of Document:

Management and Leadership capability is recognised as one of the critical

enablers to achieving Public Health Wales’ strategy. This paper
summarises the results of a management and leadership development
needs analysis and sets out a three year action plan including proposed
definitions, a draft management and leadership framework and a draft
outline development programme.

Board/Committee to- (Please indicate)

To decide- Paper will outline recommendations or issues to
be approved by the Board or Committee.
To discuss- Board or Committee will be asked to discuss
and scrutinise the paper and provide feedback and
comments.
To inform- Board or Committee will be asked to note the √
paper for information only
Other relevant information

The decision to commit sufficient funds for the next three years was taken
in December 2013, ahead of the main budget reviews so that procurement
of suppliers could start immediately and development programmes could
be in place summer 2014. The prompt decision should send a positive and
powerful message to staff about the intention to address issues raised in
the staff survey.

Next Steps

Board Members are asked to:

a. Note the content of the needs analysis and the proposed action plan
which will support the achievement of the Public Health Wales Strategy,
the Corporate Health Standard and improved employee engagement.

b. Note that the action plan is aimed at developing technical and

professional leadership as well as people management capability.

c. Note the progress made to date.

Public Health Wales Management and Leadership Development
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Link to Public Health Wales commitment and priorities for action:

(please tick which commitment(s) is/are relevant)
X

Priorities for action Develop and equip staff to work

effectively and in new ways

Author: Barbara Busby, OD Consultant

Date of paper: 14 January 2014 Version:2
Sponsoring Executive Director: Ruth Davies, Director of Workforce
and Organisational Development
Who will present: (If appropriate) Barbara Busby
Documents attached: 1. Management and Leadership
(If appropriate) Development Proposal
2. Annex A – Full findings, Actions
and Proposal
Date of meeting: 30 January 2014
Committee/Groups that have Executive Team
received or considered this
paper:

Link to standards 26. Workforce Training and Organisational

for health services Development
Link to risk N/A
register

Equality impact N/A

assessment
Financial There are financial implications as there is currently
implications no provision in the Workforce and OD budget for
this type and level of investment. Indicative costs
are given in section 9 of annex A but they equate to
½ a percent of the annual budget of Public Health
Wales and will be spread over three years.
Service user
engagement N/A

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Management and
Leadership
Development Proposal
Author: Barbara Busby OD Consultant
Date: 14 January 2014 Version: V2
Purpose and Summary of Document:
This paper summarises the results of a management and leadership
development needs analysis and sets out a three year action plan that will
support the achievement of the Public Health Wales Strategy

Documents Attached
Annex A Management and Leadership Development – full findings, actions
and proposal
Distribution:
 Public Health Wales Board
 Public Health Wales Intranet

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1 Timing
The decision to commit sufficient funds for the next three years was taken
in December ahead of the main budget reviews so that procurement of
suppliers could start immediately and development programmes could be
in place summer 2014. The prompt decision should send a positive and
powerful message to staff about the intention to address issues raised in
the staff survey.

2 Introduction
Public Health Wales’ strategy and three year delivery plans signal a
leadership challenge that is not only changing but increasing in complexity
and impacts technical and professional leaders as well as line managers.
The recent staff surveys and subsequent needs analysis have highlighted
some concerns over the effectiveness of and support for managers and
leaders at all levels of the organisation. These combined with findings
from the Francis report and the requirements of the Corporate Health
Standard means the issue of management and leadership competency
needs to be addressed with some urgency. The full proposal including all
the findings, detailed actions and proposed development programme is
attached in Annex A.

3 Background
Public Health Wales is only four years old and has come together from a
number of organisations, with plans to subsume further units and services
over the next 12 months. A number of change programmes are already
underway and the organisation has a new strategy which signals the need
for ongoing improvement, new ways of working and new skills and
behaviours. The strategy sets out a number of forthcoming challenges that
face Public Health Wales such as:

 delivering a challenging three year work plan

 stepping up to its role in leading and mobilising the system on public
health issues
 working in new ways to increase political understanding and influence
through advocacy
 building effective relationships and greater collaboration with service
providers
 integrating new work units and service into PHW

There is a significant body of evidence that points to the importance of

management and leadership in leading successful change, creating
engagement, improving organisation performance and patients care, as
well as improved resilience and wellbeing of the workforce (further details

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are given in section 3 annex A). However the recent staff survey showed a
level of dissatisfaction with senior leadership in the organisation in terms
of visibility, communication of direction, involvement of staff, clarity of
decision making and the management of change.

In responding to the staff feedback from the survey, a needs analysis was
undertaken using information from a range of internal sources including:
 1:1 discussions with Executive Directors and 3rd Tier Leaders
 239 contributions from staff through web based consultation
 Feedback from the “great place to work” discussions
 The staff survey
 The Public Health Development Directorate transition workshops
 The Francis review workshops.

4 Summary of Findings

What has emerged is that the issues are broad and the solutions must go
beyond just a training and development programme. A number of
managers said they were unclear about what was expected of them and
were struggling with some of the fundamental aspects of the role such as
budgeting, work planning and dealing with difficult people situations.

However the data also raises significant issues around culture, structure,
role clarification, accountability, recognition, executive leadership, and
systems and processes as well as skills and support. Therefore the actions
have been presented against the headings of an OD model to illustrate
that this is a systems issue, with all aspects needing to be addressed if
Public Health Wales is to create a sustainable shift in management and
leadership effectiveness and organisation performance.

Public Health Wales OD Framework

Public Health System

Leadership
Mission & Strategy Culture,
Priorities Integrity, Values & Voice
Management Skills and
Practice
Structure and Role Systems, Processes and
Design Policies
Team Climate
Ways of Working
Task design and Individual needs and
individuals’ skills values
Engagement
&Motivation
Transformational factors
Individual and
Organisation Engage for Success factors
performance
Transitional factors

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5 Progress to date

5.1 Strategy
The Executive have launched the new strategy which makes explicit
mention of Public Health Wales’ role in leading the public health system.
This has also been described in the narrative that runs alongside the
documentation and has been communicated at key fora including the staff
conference. It is intended to that 3rd Tier Directors will play a key role in
engaging their teams in the strategy. Development of leadership and
management skills has also been identified as a key enabler although to
date there is no formal leadership and management development
strategy.
5.2 Culture

The Executive Directors are accountable for defining and creating the
desired culture and they and their managers and leaders are responsible
for delivering the employment ‘Deal’, and role modelling values. Work is
underway to refresh the Public Health Wales ‘Deal’ and values or principles
that will describe the new ways of working and expected behaviours.

The Executive have already acknowledged the need to invest time in their
own development as a leadership team in order to address the feedback
from the staff survey and to ensure they are best placed to lead the
organisation as well as directorates. This programme is now in place.

5.3 Leadership
There is a need for the organisation to provide some clarity on definitions,
responsibilities and competencies. Proposed definitions of management
and leadership are provided in the full report including the fact that people
at all levels (not just managers) are expected to take responsibility for
leadership.

5.4 Structure and Role Design

A proposed management and leadership framework is set out in the full
report and once finalised it will be used along with the definitions of
management to help design roles, underpin selection, inform objectives
and hold people to account.

5.5 Management Skills and Practice

The analysis produced a comprehensive and rich description of what good
management and leadership looked like in action, covering both the

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activities undertaken and the behaviours and styles demonstrated as well

as thoughts on what should be included in any development programmes.
This has been used to produce the draft development modules. Public
Health Wales does not have the internal capability or capacity to deliver a
modular programme to the whole management and leadership population
over a two to three year time frame. The proposal is to use external
suppliers to design and delivery the programme and where appropriate
bring in internal managers and subject matter experts.

Three pilot master classes and a trial of an on line management toolkit are
planned for this financial year.

5.6 Systems, processes and policies

Many managers believe that better systems and processes would help
them in their role. They cite the length of policy and process documents,
the lack of flexibility. The Workforce and OD work plan includes the need
to prioritise policies to refresh and to do so with greater line management
involvement. We have also introduced new assessment techniques to help
improve the effectiveness and consistency of the selection process for
managers.

6 Organisation Performance
The three year action plan aims to deliver and sustain a confident, capable
and effective management and leadership population. There are also a
number of ongoing initiatives such as Improving Quality Together and the
Corporate Health Standard which require all staff to play their part but rely
on managers to take the lead. It is anticipated that the development
programme will equip managers with the necessary skills to do this.

The benefits of addressing management and leadership capability will be

both qualitative and quantitative, with the most obvious measures of
improvement likely to be seen in an increased engagement and improved
scores from the staff survey results - particularly in the nine lowest ratings
around senior management effectiveness and change management.

Other measures will include better succession planning, lower attrition

rates, absences and time and costs associated with employee cases. A
fuller list is given in Annex A with the caveat that our current people
systems and data may not be as robust as we would like.

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7 Next Steps
Following acceptance of the management and leadership proposal by the
Executive, the next steps are to:

 Start the tender process using the draft framework and

development outlines as the basis

 Draw up a project plan for the management and leadership

development. Put a governance framework in place with a steering
group representing a cross section of managers and leaders and
reporting to the strategic development group.

 Develop and implement a communications plan to inform staff of

the outcomes of the needs analysis and keep them briefed on the
project

 Once a supplier is in place and the design work starts it will include
finalising the framework through the steering group and focus
groups as required.

 Build the actions into a Workforce and OD three year delivery plan
as part of the overall business planning process.

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Management and
Leadership
Development

Annex A

Full Findings, Actions

and Proposal

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Contents
Management and Leadership Development .......................................... 9

Full Findings, Actions and Proposal...................................................... 9

1 Purpose .................................................................................... 11

2 Introduction .............................................................................. 11

3 The Case for Management Development ....................................... 11

4 Background............................................................................... 13

5 Findings and Proposed Actions..................................................... 14

5.1 Strategy .............................................................................. 14

5.2 Culture ................................................................................ 15

5.3 Leadership ........................................................................... 16

5.4 Structure and Role Design ..................................................... 18

5.5 Management Skills and Practice.............................................. 21

5.6 Systems, processes and policies ............................................. 25

5.7 Team Climate and Ways of Working ........................................ 27

5.8 Task Design and Individual Needs........................................... 28

5.9 Organisation Performance and Engagement ............................. 29

6 Definitions (draft) ...................................................................... 32

6.1 Managers............................................................................. 32

6.2 Leaders ............................................................................... 32

7 Management and Leadership Framework ...................................... 34

8 Draft Development Programme ................................................... 37

9 Indicative Costs ......................................................................... 42

10 Next Steps ............................................................................. 43

11 Meetingsphere Questions ......................................................... 44

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1 Purpose
This paper summarises the results of a management and leadership
development needs analysis and sets out a three year action plan as well
as proposed definitions, a draft management and leadership framework
and a draft outline development programme. Implementation will have
financial and headcount implications as there is currently little or no
provision in the Workforce and OD budget for this type and level of
investment. This paper includes indicative costs and seeks a commitment
from the Executive to commence the tender process, design, pilot and run
three modules; and for longer term investment to roll the programme out
to all the management and leadership population.

2 Introduction
Public Health Wales’ strategy and three year delivery plans signal a
leadership challenge that is not only changing but increasing in complexity
and impacts technical and professional leaders as well as line managers.
The recent staff surveys and subsequent needs analysis have highlighted
some concerns over the effectiveness of and support for managers and
leaders at all levels of the organisation. These combined with findings
from the Francis report and the requirements of the Corporate Health
Standard means the issue of management and leadership competency
needs to be addressed with some urgency. This proposal sets out a
detailed action plan and proposed development programme.

3 The Case for Management Development

Public Health Wales is an organisation that values evidence–based
decision making so it is worth reflecting on recent research that shows the
link between good management practice and organisation performance.

 Best-practice management development can result in a 23% increase

in organisational performance.

 Effective management can significantly improve levels of employee

engagement

 Better qualified managers are associated with a better qualified

workforce.

Leadership & Management in the UK - The Key to Sustainable

Growth. Department for Business Innovation & Skills July 2012

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 Hospital-specific management practices are strongly related to a

hospital’s quality of patient care and productivity outcomes. For
example, this research shows that improved management practices
in hospitals are associated with significantly lower mortality rates and
better financial performance.

 Healthcare commission ratings rise with better management

Management in Healthcare: Why good practice really matters.

McKinsey and London School of Economics and Political Science 2013

It is also well documented that an improvement in employee engagement

matters because it correlates with improvement in organisation
performance and that leadership and management are key enablers to
creating and improving engagement.

Enablers commonly agreed to lie behind successful engagement

approaches are:

 Leadership which ensures a strong, transparent and explicit

organisational culture which gives employees a line of sight between
their job and the vision and aims of the organisation.

 Engaging managers who offer clarity, appreciation of employees’

effort and contribution, who treat their people as individuals and
who ensure that work is organised efficiently and effectively so that
employees feel they are valued, and equipped and supported to do
their job.

 Employees feeling they are able to voice their ideas and be

listened to, both about how they do their job and in decision-
making in their own department, with joint sharing of problems
and challenges and a commitment to arrive at joint solutions.

 A belief among employees that the organisation lives its values,

and that espoused behavioural norms are adhered to, resulting in
trust and a sense of integrity.
Engaging for success – enhancing performance through employee
engagement. A report to Government by David MacCleod and Nita
Clarke 2009

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4 Background
Public Health Wales is only four years old and has come together from a
number of organisations, with plans to subsume further units and services
over the next 12 months. A number of change programmes are already
underway and the organisation has a new strategy which signals the need
for ongoing improvement, new ways of working and new skills and
behaviours. The strategy sets out a number of forthcoming challenges that
face Public Health Wales such as:

 delivering a challenging three year work plan

 stepping up to its role in leading and mobilising the system on public
health issues
 working in new ways to increase political understanding and
influence through advocacy
 building effective relationships and greater collaboration with
service providers
 integrating new work units and service into PHW

Evidence points to the importance of management and leadership in

leading change, creating engagement, improving organisation
performance (and care of patients) as well as improved resilience and
wellbeing of the workforce. However the recent staff survey showed a
level of dissatisfaction with senior leadership in the organisation in terms
of visibility, communication of direction, involvement of staff, clarity of
decision making and the management of change.

In responding to the staff feedback from the survey, a needs analysis was
undertaken using information from a range of internal sources. At this
stage, views of wider stakeholders have not been sought but may be
helpful when finalising proposed intervention on systems leadership. The
sources included:

 1:1 discussions with Executive Directors and 3rd Tier Leaders

 239 contributions from staff through web based consultation
 Feedback from the “great place to work” discussions
 The staff survey
 The Public Health Development Directorate transition workshops
 The Francis review workshops.

What has emerged is that the issues are broad and the solution must go
beyond just a training and development programme. A number of
managers said they were unclear about what was expected of them and
were struggling with some of the fundamental aspects of the role such as
budgeting, work planning and dealing with difficult people situations.

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However the data also raises significant issues around culture, structure,
role clarification, accountability, recognition, executive leadership, and
systems and processes as well as skills and support. Therefore the actions
have been presented against the headings of the OD model to illustrate
that this is a systems issue, with all aspects needing to be addressed if we
want to create a sustainable shift in management and leadership
effectiveness and organisation performance.

Public Health Wales OD Framework

Public Health System

Leadership
Mission & Strategy Culture,
Priorities Integrity, Values & Voice
Management Skills and
Practice
Structure and Role Systems, Processes and
Design Policies
Team Climate
Ways of Working
Task design and Individual needs and
individuals’ skills values
Engagement
&Motivation
Transformational factors
Individual and
Organisation Engage for Success factors
performance
Transitional factors

5 Findings and Proposed Actions

5.1 Strategy
The new strategy is ambitious, requiring transformational change in order
to deliver it. It makes explicit mention of Public Health Wales’ role in
leading the public health system and this has been described in the
narrative that runs alongside the documentation. Development of
leadership and management skills has also been identified as a key
enabler although to date there is no formal leadership and management
development strategy.

It is important that all staff understand the strategy, the approach of

mobilise, lead and deliver and how their contribution fits into the wider
context.

Action 1 - Give all senior managers support in communicating and

engaging their staff in the strategy (ensure conversation not briefing)

Action 2 – Develop and publish a management and leadership strategy

that covers both leading the organisation and leading the system

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5.2 Culture

5.2.1 Role of the Board and Executive

The Board has responsibility for the strategic direction, governance

framework and organisational culture and development as well as the
development of strong relationships with key stakeholders and partners
and delivery of Public Health Wales’ aims and objectives

The Board and the Executive working together are accountable for setting
and championing the desired culture and expectations of leaders and
managers. In turn their managers and leaders are responsible for
delivering the employment ‘Deal’, and role modelling values.

Executive have already acknowledged the need to invest time in their own
development as a leadership team in order to address the feedback from
the staff survey and to ensure they are best placed to lead the
organisation as well as directorates.

It is important for the Executive to consider the messages that they wish
to send to the organisation and their part in creating an environment that
sets the expectations of and supports good management and leadership
practice. The power of the prevailing culture and role modelling cannot be
underestimate as comments from MeetingSphere show:

 “strong role models and a strong organisation culture that values

and promotes good management practices are a really important
part of the overall picture. You can train people in all the theory you
like, but if they go back into an environment that does not value or
model or allow for good practice for whatever reason then it’s going
to be more difficult to put into practice”
 “we need to define a culture that supports management
development”
 “A good or bad manager can affect the whole team functioning and
morale as well as individuals wellbeing”.
 “perhaps we don’t ask our staff and other managers often enough
about how they see us .... this may be asking a lot as we may have
to face up to stuff we don’t want to hear”
 “people shy away from tough decisions because they may not have
the skills nor do they have role models and there is little
consequence for not doing it”
 “As a new line manager I have had to draw on my previous
experience of being managed ... luckily I’ve had an excellent role
model”

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5.2.2 The importance of all managers in setting culture

For organisations to successfully drive change and achieve standards such

as the Corporate Health Standard and Improving Quality Together, these
must be led by managers (a point strongly made in the Francis report).

5.2.3 Employee Deal and Principles

Work is underway to refresh the Public Health Wales ‘Deal’ and values or
principles that will describe the new ways of working and expected
behaviours. These will form an important input into the design and content
of development modules so that managers and leaders not only know
what is expected of them but have the skills to role model, communicate
and embed the principles in their teams.

Action 3 – Progress the Executive Directors team development (include

addressing staff survey feedback, defining culture and role modelling)

Action 4 - Agree the plan to complete the development and

communication of the Deal and Principles including how policies and
process will align to the Principles

Action 5 – Ensure management and leadership development includes

360 feedback and experiential exercises

Action 6 – Consider where and how to recognise and reinforce the

contribution and value of good leadership and management to
organisation success

5.3 Leadership

5.3.1 Definitions

There is no one agreed definition of management and leadership in the

literature although all agree there are distinctions. The needs analysis
shows that most people see managers as having a leadership rather than
just and administrative role. There is a need for the organisation to
provide some clarity on definitions, responsibilities and competencies.
Proposed definitions are provided in section 6 but in summary leadership
is more future focused and about establishing the vision and inspiration
whilst management tends to be about implementation and getting things
done by managing resources, measuring delivery.

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Needless to say, leadership is an important component of management

however Public Health Wales also espouses distributed leadership where
people at all levels (not just managers) are expected to take responsibility
for leadership.

5.3.2 Personal Responsibility – a leadership competency

Personal responsibility or personal leadership is equally relevant to

managers as well specialist and professional leaders (people leading the
thinking and influencing the system but without direct line authority) and
those delivering outcomes through collaboration and partner
organisations. A proposed management and leadership framework is
included in section 7 and includes personal responsibility as an attribute.

Discussions with staff on values and principles suggest personal

responsibility is seen as important for all regardless of grade or role. The
description and indicators will need to be co-produced (Action 4)

5.3.3 Leadership Teams

The challenges of strategic leadership demand a number of qualities from

setting vision, role modelling, developing people, effective communication,
acting as change agents and taking action in times of ambiguity and crisis.
Not all of these qualities can always be found in one person so most
organisations focus on building leadership teams. This will have
implications for the development programme which needs to address both
individual needs as well as building effective teams regardless of whether
this is at Executive, 3rd Tier, divisional or unit team level.

The organisation now has a complete 3rd Tier (Senior Leadership Team) in
place, however the positions are very varied and the team possesses a
wide range of skills and experience and job challenge. The Executive
should consider describing the leadership attributes and role of this group
and reviewing the purpose of the Senior Team meetings. This forum has
the potential to be used for both developing leadership skills as well as
creating a true senior leadership team that works together on relevant
organisation issues.

Action 7 – The Executive to agree the leadership attributes and role of

the Senior Leadership Team. Consider using the Senior Team Meetings
to run development sessions and progress real business issues.

Action 8 – Executive to identify key leaders (outside of 3rd Tier) that

should be included on organisation leadership discussion and relevant
development modules.

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Action 9 -The Executive consider what role they wish to play in

supporting the management and leadership development programme
and what role they feel the 3rd Tier should play.

5.4 Structure and Role Design

5.4.1 Management and leadership framework

There are a number of fundamental issues that need to be addressed

around exactly who is a manager, how many managers there are, what is
actually expected of them and how are they held to account. There is
limited and inconsistent information in job profiles, no management
competency framework and often no management objectives in the
appraisal. One person commented that medics were held to account by
their professional body but management accountability was unclear.

 “we need a clearer description of what is expected of a manager “

 “I second this – really important!”
 “There needs to be a clear profile of the managers responsibility,
staff responsibility and Directors responsibility and an agreement of
conduct between them”
 “We cannot hope to encourage others to follow or stay in a
management pathway if the work we do is repeatedly criticise, or we
complain (the role) is awful. We do need to more clearly articulate
what managers do and why we need them”

5.4.2 Recruitment and appraisal

A good job profile with accountabilities is essential for both recruitment

and objective setting. It is clear that the quality of current job descriptions
may not be adequate to support these processes effectively. This means
there is no consistent selection process for managers and leaders and
often technical skills and experience (which are better defined) take
precedent.

Most managers said they did not have clear objectives set with respect to
their management and leadership responsibilities and therefore were not
being held to account for aspects of their job.

Action 10 – Clarify and publish definitions of management and

leadership. Develop a framework that sets out the generic
responsibilities and the competencies (proposed framework section 7)

Action 11 - Ensure the responsibilities and competencies are embedded

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in all management and leadership job profiles and that these are
assessed at the recruitment and selection stage.

Action 12- Develop a set of generic management and leadership

objectives to include in the appraisal process.

5.4.3 Management and Leadership population

Management information shows there are around 260 people who have
some form of supervisory responsibilities and about 210 people who
manage a budget. It is not possible to refine this by looking at job titles as
there is little consistency, nor are some titles self explanatory. In a
number of cases the person may only line manage one person and/or
have a delegation limit of £1000. There is a perception that certain roles
have to have ‘management responsibility’ so are designed to manage just
one person or that adding management responsibilities was a way to get
the job re-graded.

Several people said you had to take on management responsibilities if you

wanted career progression but would like to see a dual career path in the
future.

 “why doesn’t PHW trial removing some managers/reorganise the

management structure?”
 “It could look much lighter than the current structure if adequate
systems were in place to monitor achievement against expectations.
This would feel more ethical ...as it could target resources at
increased productivity via direct delivery staff as opposed to less
productive top heavy hierarchical management structures.
 “Not sure if there is a choice about management if you want to get
on”
 “agree with having a different route for staff for whom management
isn’t their forte”

It is hard to be prescriptive as to the right number of managers for an

organisation that has a wide range of services and roles but the current
one in every six people being a manager may appear a little top heavy.
However a recent publication on New Evidence on Management and
Leadership by the National Institute for Health Research (December
2013) suggests that around a third of hospital staff have substantial
management roles.

A number of senior managers themselves also questioned the fact that

everyone now seems to be a called manager (although some are not
necessarily doing a line management role). The proliferation of
‘managers’ is a concern for some staff (see quotes) and at worst it

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impacts on engagement if people are managed by those with little

interest or skill in the role. It may cause grade drift and thus have
financial implications for the wage bill. The size of the management
population will also impact on the budget required if all are to attend
management development courses.

Action 13– Executive and 3rd Tier to identify the management

population. Review the overall structure and assess the added value of
management roles. Consider whether there is any merit or opportunity to
developing alternate structures and/or dual career pathways

5.4.4 Role design

A number of managers stated that there was insufficient time to do all the
people management aspects of their job and that as management
deliverables were undefined they were less valued than other objectives.

The role of business managers had strong support although it was felt
there were too few posts and that more needed to be done to grow a
strong talent pool of these skills. It was felt that there could be some
tension between the general manager role and the professional manager
role and there was a need for greater role clarity to avoid contested space.

 “management takes time and it should be built into your day”

 “often there is reluctance to undertake the role based on the
allocation of time ... I often wish I was doing it full time – just wish I
had more time to do it”
 “Often managers are appointed with little relevant experience (and
sometimes interest) in the role. The implications of this need to be
understood by those making the appointment as the staff working
under these managers are the ones that suffer”

Action 14 – Simplify and improve consistency and meaning of job titles

Action 15 - Ensure management and leadership jobs are correctly

designed with clear accountabilities, the right balance of objectives and
that sufficient time is allocated to the management responsibilities

Action 16 – Improve the way in which job descriptions are written and
review how the job grading process is implemented in PHW to ensure
that technical and non line leadership is being sufficient well described
and rewarded. Challenge incorrect use of one on one structures.

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5.4.5 Role of Consultants

This piece of work did not set out to look at the role of consultants
however a number of people raised issues over the expectation that
consultants should line manage and that they often did not have adequate
training or support.

Action 17 – Recognising that the consultant training scheme does not

cater for management skills, consider how best to support consultants to
develop people management skills and prepare them for leadership roles.

Action 18 – Ensure Consultants have appropriate management and

leadership objectives built into the job planning and review process.

5.5 Management Skills and Practice

5.5.1 What does good look like?

The face to face conversations and MeetingSphere produced a

comprehensive and rich description of what good management and
leadership looked like in action, covering both the activities undertaken
and the behaviours and styles demonstrated as well as thoughts on what
should be included in any development programmes. This, along with
other sources such as the staff survey and Francis review has been used
to produce the draft framework and development modules set out in
sections 7 and 8. The MeetingShere questions are in section 11

People were invited to describe what good management ‘looked like and
felt like’ and were asked to use real examples that they had experienced
rather than state theory so it was encouraging to see a number of
examples of really good practice. Some managers commented that they
felt proud of what they did and that it was demotivating to see less
effective managers giving the role and the cadre a poor reputation.

A number of comments drew out the importance of the manager in

creating ‘a great place to work’ describing how good managers were open,
honest, supportive, challenging, empowering, treated people with respect,
cared about their team, communicated and listened, invited ideas and
were excellent role models. This was balanced by others saying that they
had experience of less effective managers and the opposite was true. One
person added to some positive comments by saying “reading this is
depressing as I don’t think I can identify a good manager where I work”

What is clear is that there are some good managers in the organisation
but there is no consistency. The lack of training, systems or processes
does not help good management become the norm. Some managers felt

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the organisation did not sufficiently recognising the role and contribution
of managers.

5.5.2 What support is required?

There was a strong theme regarding the need for development and
ongoing support in particular for first line managers and for aspiring
managers. People also want more than just training such as access to
mentors, networks of peers, simpler processes and management guides.

 “we can’t automatically assume that staff with professional

qualifications can by default manage not only staff but everything
that goes with it. There needs to be a programme of training”
 “I asked far and wide for line management training when I became a
manager 20 months ago – there was nothing on offer”
 “Training, training, training – please! I am tired of being managed
by staff who have little understand of the role nor the skill set to
manage effectively”
 It would be useful if staff heading towards management could
access training or information sessions but often you can only attend
these if you are a manager”
 “I’d really like some coaching or role modelling on handling difficult
conversations”
 “a network of managers to call upon...”
 “A secondment opportunity to a management role.”
 “shadowing current manager....”
 “ A start up company can access a wealth of on-line materials that
can guide them on what to do” “If I want to know about
management issues I just Google to find out what to do”

Some first line staff have attended training courses through a variety of
sources such as in the NHS (before joining Public Health Wales), with
their local health board and through short open programmes supported
by their local team. There is no consistency of approach, nor of access,
e.g. the screening service has an endowment fund that can provide
management training whereas other teams have no budget. It will be
important to fund a core management and leadership development
programme centrally from the Workforce and OD budget to ensure the
investment can be controlled, monitored, used to leverage best value
and to ensure all managers have access to the development they need
regardless of where they are in the organisation.

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At more senior levels people cited the Academi summer school, Kings
Fund and Ashridge programmes as being helpful. Open programmes
may have value for experienced managers especially those seeking to
grow their network; however these courses are not designed for in
house needs. To build a confident and capable management and
leadership cadre that has the core skills to take PHW forward, an in-
house programme that reaches all managers over a relatively short
time frame will be the most effective way forward. Similarly if people
are turning to on-line guidance, then providing easy access to a best
practice site to save time, ensure consistency and quality of support
and that links to the content of any development modules would be a
sensible option.

Action 19 – Develop and implement management and leadership

development programme based on the competency framework and real
organisation challenges (use proposed drafts to start tender process)

Action 20 – Provide a central budget for management and leadership

development as part of the Workforce and OD Directorate budget

Action 21 – Develop a management handbook with quick ‘how to’

guides on the main policies and processes

Action 22 – Offer all managers access a comprehensive on-line source

of best practice

Action 23 – Set up a management network to discuss hot topics and

provide peer support (initially quarterly, held regionally and facilitated
by senior HR).

Action 24 – Schedule regular HR drop in surgeries and policy sessions

Action 25 – the Executive takes collective ownership for prioritising and

agreeing which senior leaders attend which external development
programmes

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5.5.3 Voluntary or Mandated programmes

There are pros and cons of mandating management and leadership

development. Mandating sends a strong message of commitment, it
ensures all have access to the development and creates a sound baseline
of competence. Experienced attendees often value a refresh of their skills
and can contribute by sharing their ideas with less experienced colleagues.
However mandating courses it can cause some resentment from those
who do not feel they need to attend and will increase cost if the whole
population is required to attend every module.

Self nomination feels more in line with values of trust and personal
responsibility and creates greater ownership, enabling people to prioritise
depending on need. However if managers lack self awareness they may
opt out from events they would benefit from attending. If attendance is to
be agreed with their line manager it will require good feedback skills and
occasionally a difficult conversation to ensure needs are honestly
discussed. One option would be to use staff survey data or data generated
from pulse surveys as a way of prioritising target audiences to attend.

Hywel Dda Health Board has recently introduced a 6 day management

development programme which they have mandated for all new and
existing managers. All new managers must attend and get a ‘passport’
within 6 months of taking up the role.

The Executive and 3rd Tier should be actively encouraged to participate in

any proposed training modules and networks fora. It is likely that the
programme will include handling difficult conversations, performance
management new methods of selection all of which are applicable to
managers at all levels of the organisation.

Action 26 – Consider mandating the leadership module and take a

voluntary approach to the management essentials. This position will be
refined once the final design of the programme is agreed.

Action 27- If a manager is underperforming/unhappy in their role then

this must be still be addressed through performance management rather
than relying on the development programme to be the solution

5.5.4 Internal or external delivery?

Public Health Wales does not have the internal capability or capacity to
deliver a modular programme to the whole management and leadership
population over a two to three year time frame. The proposal is to use
external suppliers to design and delivery the programme and where
appropriate bring in internal managers and subject matter experts.

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The Executive and 3rd Tier were keen to identify ways in which they could
best support the development of staff and it is anticipated that as
management and leadership capability increases in time then there will be
a greater use of internal managers as coaches and facilitators. Some
senior managers commented that based on the staff survey feedback they
and their colleagues had to reflect on whether they had (or were seen to
have) the skills to support their staff in their development.

As the development programme rolls out it is hoped that good middle

managers and subject matter experts increasingly will play a role in
developing first line managers. Supporting in house programmes provides
good development opportunities for staff, builds networks and helps
knowledge transfer.

Action 28– The Executive need to agree the capability, capacity and role of
3rd Tier leaders in developing staff and set an appropriate objective.

5.6 Systems, processes and policies

5.6.1 Involvement and support

Many managers believe that better systems and processes would help
them in their role. They cite the length of policy and process documents,
the lack of flexibility and the time taken to follow each step of a policy as
off-putting and unhelpful and often the reason why they don’t act as
quickly as they should particularly in dealing with poor performance.

There was little comment over the role of the manager versus the role of
HR, but there was a desire for timely HR support and advice to help
managers ‘deal with tricky people situations’. HR has a key role to play in
the ongoing development of managers so that they have the skills,
confidence to act quickly, resolve issues informally and thus reduce the
number of cases developing into difficult and time consuming scenarios.

Managers are hopeful that HR computer system improvements will provide

easier access to robust management information on their teams; however
managers will need to play their part in improving the consistency and
timeliness of the source data.

Several managers asked whether or how they could be involved in work to

simplify policies, believing that as users they had a valuable contribution
to make.

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5.6.2 Recruitment

One of the most frequently mentioned processes that exercised managers

was recruitment with a number of comments about the complexity,
bureaucracy and lack of responsiveness.

There is no consistent selection process for management and leadership

positions. A number of recruiting managers said they were unsure how to
‘test out’ the leadership attributes or management skills of a role. Most
selection events rely solely on a panel interview rather than best practice
assessment centre techniques.

Action 29 – Develop a consistent approach to selecting for management

and leadership attributes (using assessment centre techniques)

5.6.3 Planning

The recent delivery plan workshop has highlighted development needs in

the whole issue of workforce planning, describing requirements and
matching resources against delivery work plans. There are limited
processes, tools or systems in place to help with this at the moment.

5.6.4 Succession

Succession planning is seen as patchy and whilst there is some evidence

of local activity for specific roles, many thought there should be a better
process and greater focus at the Executive level on leadership talent. The
fact that recent Director and 3rd Tier appointments had been made from
outside of both PHW and NHS Wales was raised by some as evidence that
succession and development processes had failed.

However the view was that when recruiting to first line manager roles,
Public Health Wales should increase the talent pipeline by not being
constrained to looking within the organisation or within NHS Wales.

5.6.5 Appraisal

The staff survey results showed that only 53% of staff had had an
appraisal and of those that had, a number had not found it a particularly
helpful experience. There is now a Welsh Government target to achieve
85% participation and an interim workshop has been put in place to help
both managers and staff get more benefit from the process.

An appraisal policy is currently being drafted which will reinforce that

effective appraisal (or performance management ) is at the heart of the
helping staff understand the strategy, know what is expected of them and
how they fit in, getting feedback on how they are doing and agreeing
learning and development opportunities.

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As discussed in section 5.4.2 and action 12, a generic set of objectives for
managers is proposed and the development programme will continue to
offer practical help in conducting effective appraisals

5.6.6 Performance and pay progression

There appears to be no link between the appraisal review, level of

performance and the ‘gateway’ for incremental progression despite the
fact the pay process makes it clear that progression should not be
automatic. If managers are to be encouraged to address performance then
it may be time to refresh and strengthen the link allowing for progression
to be withheld if performance does not meet standards. This may not be
universally popular and will give rise to some difficult conversations but it
will signal organisation intent to take performance seriously.

Action 30 – As part of the Workforce and OD work plan, prioritise policies

to refresh. Invite line managers to help in the work.

Action 31 - Include practical workshops on key policies such as

discipline, appraisal and recruitment in the development programme

Action 32 – Develop a pragmatic succession planning process that

increases the likelihood of producing credible successors for key public
health positions with the NHS Wales system.

Action 33 – Complete the policy on Appraisal and introduce upward

feedback to measure effectiveness. Consider linking the appraisal review
to the pay ‘gateway’ process for incremental progression.

5.7 Team Climate and Ways of Working

Staff highlighted the need for a manager to build an effective team as well
as being able to have good individual relationships. There were many
comments about providing clear direction, treating each member of staff
according to their needs and indeed dealing with underperformance.
Earlier quotes in the culture section show the impact of a manager on
team morale and engagement and further comments included:

 “A good manager is someone who supports, thinks of the whole

team before making a decision that only helps one”
 “I disagree that all the team should be treated the same – they
should be treated fairly according to their individual needs”

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There is currently considerable debate amongst staff over the meanings of

fairness, equity and treating everyone the same, with some thinking
fairness means treating everyone the same regardless of the situation
with others seeing fairness as taking individual needs and situations into
account. There are plans to continue this organisation dialogue as part of
the staff survey action plan.

Team building skills will be covered as part of the development

programme. The Aston teambuilding framework and workbook have been
used by a number of health boards and provides a straightforward
approach and guidance to building a team along with measures of team
climate.

Action 34 – As part of the staff survey action plan, create a dialogue in

the organisation over the meaning of fairness and whether all people
should be treated the same regardless of circumstance

Action 35 - integrate the Aston Team workbook into the managing and
developing people module to help managers build effective team working

5.8 Task Design and Individual Needs

Some of the biggest frustrations raised by staff with regard to their
manager are around their perceptions of unrealistic workload, insufficient
time and resources to do the work to the standards they want and a
feeling the work is not always valued.

Public Health staff tend to be driven by strong personal values, are

passionate about what they do and are motivated by a value set to want
to make a difference.

Research on wellbeing also shows that relationships with line managers

and workload are two areas that can impact on resilience.

Action 36 – Ensure the management development programme covers the

managers role in creating resilience as well as planning work, designing
tasks that are doable, matching resources to priorities and having open
and honest conversations with their teams to communicate and agree
aspirations and expectations

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5.9 Organisation Performance and Engagement

Taken together, these actions form the basis of a 3 year organisation
development (OD) plan which should deliver and sustain a confident,
capable and effective management and leadership population. It is more
than a plan to just deliver training and development but it is important to
point out that it is does not include the specialist technical and
professional skills required by the workforce nor does it take into the
account additional workforce requirements that are emerging from the Our
Space project, and the other delivery plans.

5.9.1 Aligning initiatives

There are a number of ongoing initiatives such as Improving Quality

Together and the Corporate Health Standard which require all staff to play
their part but rely on managers to take the lead. It is anticipated that the
development programme will equip managers with the necessary skills to
do this.

Many of the actions will fall into years two and three of the delivery plan
although those that are around the principles and management framework
and outline development programme need to be progressed this financial
year in order to let a contract and get provision in place for 2014/2015.

Action 37 – Where possible requirements emerging from delivery plans

and change projects should be integrated into the planned management
and leadership development programme rather than create parallel work
strands

5.9.2 Measuring benefits

The benefits of this proposed OD plan will be both qualitative and

quantitative; however there may be some challenges in getting robust
baseline data for certain measures.

The most obvious measures of improvement should be seen in an

increased engagement and improved scores from the staff survey results
particularly in the nine lowest ratings around senior management
effectiveness and change management. Rather than rely on an annual
measure we can develop short ‘pulse’ surveys to monitor progress on the
aspects we hope to improve.

There is a view (in the literature) that people leave their managers rather
than leave an organisation so attrition rates should be measured by team,
division and for the organisation overall. Leaver interviews are valuable
sources of information.

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Good management practice is essential to addressing resilience and

wellbeing so investment in management development should see absence
levels (particularly those related to mental health and stress) decrease
both in overall incidents and length of time of work (the trend is upwards
in both public and private sector in terms of days lost). Public Health
Wales will have a problem with base line data as the reasons for absence
are currently poorly and inconsistently categorised and recorded.

Improved appraisal and performance management, clear objective setting

and prompt action should reduce the number of costly and time
consuming cases and the associated angst to all involved. It should be
possible to calculate the number of management and HR hours spent in
the last year on such activity as well as legal advice and cost in tribunals.
However there is a caveat in that if managers are more confident in
tackling situations there may be a short term rise in cases with people
who perceive strong performance management as bullying. This will need
careful metrics and monitoring and will clearly be part of the management
development programme to help managers be firm but fair when handling
difficult cases.

Improving the attraction and selection of managers as well as helping

managers make better selection decisions can have significant cost
benefits. The wrong decision can equate to the cost of 6 month’s salary
without taking into account the impact on morale and engagement of
team members/colleagues as well as the potentially difficult conversation
if parting company or stepping out of the role becomes the way forward.

The commitment to developing managers and leaders should form part of

an attraction and recruitment strategy and should result in an ability to
recruit high calibre managers.

Improved objective setting development planning should lead to better

targeted and prioritised development. Investment in development should
also see a greater number of credible successors to key role thus reducing
the need for expensive external recruitment as well as increasing
engagement as people see there are opportunities to progress. It is usual
for an organisation to set an aim e.g. 80% internal recruitment against
20% external appointment for certain roles or levels.

It is best practice to build evaluation into the contract with any external
provider of management and leadership development so that elements
can be validated and evaluated over a period of time with more specific
measures. 360 degree feedback can provide the individual and the
organisation with progress measures on key skills and behaviours if it is
done both before and after the programme.

Management and leadership development is known to increase business

performance although this can be harder to quantify and baseline in a

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public sector organisation. It will be important to work with the Directors

to identify their existing business performance measures (including
delivery to time, cost and quality) that can be tracked and correlated to
managerial capability. The programme is likely to include business skills
such as finance, planning and communication skills so it is important that
the relevant Directors agree the content and set standards that they
would expect to be achieved.

External recognition can also be valuable and longer term PHW may wish
to consider entering successful development initiatives for awards such as
the HPMA awards or HR excellence awards.

Action 38 – develop and agree a set of organisation improvement

measures to evaluate the OD plan as well as specific success criteria to
evaluate modules of the development programme. The Executive should
agree baseline and target metrics. Areas for improvement will include:
 Increased engagement and improved scores from the staff survey
results particularly in the nine lowest ratings around senior
management effectiveness and change management.

 Achievement of the Corporate Health Standard (a number of the

gold requirements could be met by delivering the OD plan
particularly on values, appraisal, developing managers to develop
resilience and wellbeing of staff and staff involvement in policy
review)

 Reduced absence (both number of incidents and length of absence)

due to stress
 Reduced attrition rates
 Poor management not cited as a reason for leaving
 Reduced costs and time spent on dealing with difficult cases (more
will be resolved informally)
 Increased number of internal credible candidates for key posts
 Increased quality of external candidates attracted to PHW roles
 Reducing the costs created by wrong selection decisions
 Recognition for excellence in developing managers through
external awards

Action 39 – Build the requirement for evaluation into the contract of the
external provider

Action 40 – Develop a robust leavers survey to monitor and act on

attrition

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6 Definitions (draft)
“Not all leaders are managers but all managers must be leaders”

6.1 Managers
Managers translate the organisation’s aims into actions and deliver
outcomes through planning and organising the work of others. The main
management functions are therefore:
 Planning – defining objectives and what needs to be done to achieve
those objectives over a given timeframe
 Organising – determining what tasks are to be done, organising
them into manageable activities and assigning resources
 Controlling - measuring performance and taking corrective action if
necessary. Ensures delivery and that progress is in line with
organisation objectives
 Leading – motivating and developing staff, contributing to
organisation direction. An effective communicator both to staff,
customers and senior managers.

Management tends to be more here and now and usually has line
responsibility for a team although project managers have many of the
same responsibilities including task management of staff but without line
management responsibility.

There are a number of staff who have been delegated some supervisory
responsibilities by their line manager however they are not fulfilling the
full range of functions and should not be included in the management
population (their line managers retains the accountability for the activity
they have delegated). Often managers are delegating administrative tasks
which would be better given to the business managers rather than
technical staff. If this distinction is accepted it will reduce the number of
people currently being identified on ESR as managers and supervisors.

6.2 Leaders
Leaders are harder to quantify as Public Health Wales is keen to embrace
a distributed leadership model with all staff taking personal responsibility.
Leadership is component of management so all managers from first line
through to Executive Directors are leaders. There are also key technical
roles and professional staff who have leadership roles (thought leaders,
influencers, policy shapers, system leaders) and for the purposes of
development should be considered as part of the leadership population.

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Leadership tends to be more future focused functions and concerned with

establishing the vision, deciding what needs to be done and developing
the strategic plan. It involves aligning people, motivating and inspiring
them, role modelling values and principles, acting as organisation
ambassadors and tends to focus more on personal qualities than a generic
skill set.

When it comes to development, managers will need to develop their

leadership ability as well as having management and business skills
whereas leaders may be in individual contributor roles and may not need
to posses management skills but will have to have very sophisticated
leadership and abilities as well as their specialist/professional knowledge
and expertise and deep understanding of the public health system.
Leaders often make a significant contribution to the wider organisation
agenda such as people development through coaching and mentoring
without the need to line manage. This should be encouraged and valued.

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7 Management and Leadership Framework

Personal Responsibility (leadership)
 A positive role model, demonstrates commitment to PHW principles and
leads by example
 Is visible and accessible
 Integrity – honesty, trustworthy and dependable – does what they say
they will
 A proactive and positive advocate for PHW and public health both
internally and externally
 Taking ownership for situations and will have the difficult conversations
 Courage, prepared to challenge those who compromise standards
 Will not compromise health and safety of self or others

Personal Effectiveness
 Self aware, understand and manages the impact they have on others
 Flexes their style to create better interactions
 Manages personal resilience, create resilience and wellbeing for others
 Respectful and treats people with dignity
 Has self confidence – offers, invites and accepts and acts on feedback
 Shows resilience in overcoming complications and setbacks

Delivering Impact
 Sets out the anticipated benefits of work plans
 Balances ambition and stretch with reality
 Describes how benefits will be realised, puts measures in place and
actively monitors progress
 Sets and agrees clear priorities in line with organisation strategy
 Creates ‘doable’ work packages and matches resources to priorities
 Focuses on outcomes and not activity

Leading the Organisation

 Contributes to creating a shared vision, owns and communicates the
vision
 Sets clear direction, priorities and expectations
 Inspires and motivates people to feel positive about the way forward –
highlights the benefits and addresses their concerns
 Gains commitment and overcomes resistance by involving people in the
change process
 Encourages others to suggest improvements and helps them implement
their ideas
 Influences thinking and change not just on PHW but across the public
health system.

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Managing and Developing People

 Helps people understand their priorities and how they contribution to
wider goals
 Sets clear objectives and expectations and holds people to account
 Encourages self development and seeks to liberate people to do best
job they can
 Gives honest and timely feedback, recognises success and addresses
poor performance
 Identifies development needs and ensures people gain the skills and
experience they need
 Supports development of staff across the organisation through
coaching and mentoring and supporting corporate programmes

Working Collaboratively
 Creates an effective team through having a clear sense of purpose and
shared goals
 Proactively seeks to share ideas, resources and expertise with other
teams - values the contribution that others can make in achieving the
goals of the team
 Builds and uses networks to help co produce and develop solutions
 Shares networks for with colleagues for the benefit of the wider
organisation
 Sees the benefit in working collaboratively – considers how we can
helps others achieve their agenda as well as how they can help us
achieve ours
 Knows who the stakeholders are and how best to engage them

Influence
 Sees the situation from others perspectives and adapts what they say
and how they say it
 Owns their points of view and is confident in stating their position
 Invites others contributions, listens and amends their position
 Uses passion and compelling language to help people engage and
understand
 Uses powerful conversations to create a two way dialogue
 Confident in being an advocate of Public Health Wales and public health
 Uses credibility and expertise in their specialist field to gain influence
for Public Health Wales

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Judgement
 Sifts out the key themes and focuses on the important issues
 Balances the need for information with the need to make a decision
 Knows how to access relevant information
 Is comfortably managing with ambiguity and has the confidence to
make well reasoned decisions that they can defend when challenged
 Uses judgement to focus on the purpose and essence of policy –
confident in using management discretion
 Thinks longer term and looks for ways to help Public Health Wales
achieve its vision

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8 Draft Development Programme

Management and Leadership Essentials (priority for year one
2014/15)

NB this design is a draft the format and content may be reorganised

following discussions with the supplier(s) and the proposed
project/steering group.

Audience – primarily first line and middle managers for all modules but
personal leadership and leading the organisation are also aimed at leaders
who are not line mangers. 3rd Tier and Directors are encouraged to
consolidate/refresh skills by attending. Aim is for all line mangers and
leaders to be confident and competent in all the attributes listed below

Option - Could start with 360 feedback or self/manager diagnostic to

determine which modules to attend or could mandate leadership module
and use the module to prioritise further modules

Module 1 - Personal Leadership 3 days (externally delivered)

 Will cover the key aspects or personal responsibility and personal
effectiveness
 Overview of strategy and why management and leadership is
important
 Includes an introduction to management and leadership framework
 Builds on 360 feedback collected in advance
 Self awareness and managing impact and style
 Living and role modelling the principles
 Developing personal resilience and supporting wellbeing and
resilience in staff
 Authentic leadership
 Compelling communication
 Giving and receiving and acting on feedback
 Difficult conversations

Module 2 – Managing the Business 2 days (should include some

internal delivery depending on availability of resources)
 Includes introduction to finance, budgets and planning
 Planning cycle, processes tools and techniques
 Delivering outcomes and impact
 Organising work and determining resources
 Measurement and benefits realisation
 Business cases for investment and disinvestment

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Module 3 – Managing people 3 days (external delivery with longer

term aim for HR to support)
 Includes essential of recruitment – overview of process, selection
techniques and interviewing skills
 Appraisal (helping people see how they contribute, setting
objectives, constructive feedback conversations, developing PDPs,
end of year review and improving performance
 Handling absence and discipline
 Managing a flexible and/or workforce
 Building on staff survey results, creating an environment for other to
succeed, inviting ideas and acting on them
 Building an effective team (Aston Model)

Module 4 – Leading the organisation 2 days (external delivery

supported by PHW leaders) OR may deliver as master classes
rather a module
 Collaboration - intra PHW team working and intra organisation
working
 Building effective relationships
 Customer management and stakeholder engagement
 Understanding the system, systems leadership and systems thinking
 Advocacy and consultancy skills
 Introduction to transformational change and improvement

These modules should provide a solid grounding in management and

leadership development. Whilst they will include practical sessions, the
design is equip people with the essentials and rather than develop deep
expertise in each area.

Where appropriate they may take a blended approach using e-learning

(usually as pre-work).

Master classes and online resources and networks should support, help
embed and further develop areas as required. For more experienced and
senior managers, specialists and those who may be taking on change
leadership/project roles, a range of master classes should be offered.
Some of these may be available through Academi Wales (ongoing
discussions)

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Ongoing Support

 The management of and administration of the management and

leadership development portfolio will require additional/ongoing OD
expertise (tbc depending on the agreed scope of the programme)
Additional administrative support required is likely to be in the region of
0.5 wte. This could be a fixed term contract to be reviewed once the
bulk of managers have been through the programme.

 Management handbook (internal resource – mainly HR but with line

management engagement. Will require headcount from within HR and
may be met through existing headcount)

 Management network – facilitated by senior HR and leaders with initial

support from external supplier to set up learning communities

 Drop in surgeries and policy sessions – HR to plan and run sessions to

support manager.

 On-line resource – Alchemy for Managers provides an excellent one

stop shop for practical and well researched guides that are written by
experts in the field and constantly updated with latest thinking and
reference materials. Alchemy work with over 100 authors from both the
academic and practitioner communities and they also provide weekly
prompts, hints and nudges to keep management at the forefront of
managers’ minds.

 Aston Workbook

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Aspiring Managers Programme

2-3 days externally delivered with potential to move to some internal

delivery over time. Priority to design and pilot year one and deliver year
two.

There was a strong feeling that developing people before they take on the
role was important. The programme can be designed to not only give
people some awareness and basic skills and support but may also help
people make a better informed choice about their desire and readiness to
take on the role. Organisationally we should gain better
workforce/succession information about the size and readiness of the
talent pool as well as being able to plan and prioritise the numbers and
types of future management development modules based on the need.

Master classes

Priority for year one – some may be extensions of elements of the

‘essential’ programme so should have limited additional design costs

 Collaboration and working in partnership – co production.

 Influencing policy and decision makers
 Transformational Change
 Handling Difficult Conversations
 Coaching and mentoring skills
 Interview skills for non line managers
 Resilience and wellbeing – the managers role in creating the right
climate

In addition as delivery plans are firmed up it may be necessary to design

additional support for managers such as supporting managers to deliver
Our Space which may require skills and decision, ensuring engagement,
wellbeing communication and managing delivery through remote
teams/home workers. Communicating and owning corporate messages.

3rd Tier

External specialists as required – 6 events per year. Priority for year one.

This needs further work with the Executive but the master class approach
is the suggested way forward – where possible running sessions for the
intact team so they learn together, share and support each other. This
way the skills can be developed in the context of real business issues
prioritised by the Executive.
 Planning – already held
 Communicating the strategy, living the principles – urgent priority
for year 0

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Aspiring 3rd Tier/Senior staff

Delivered with some external facilitation, some OD support and potentially

by existing 3rd Tier and Executive Directors

Year two delivery 2015/16 with design and training of facilitators in year
one 2014/15

This is about developing the next generation of organisation leaders and

could take the form of a development centre designed to give people
experience and feedback of ‘a day in the life of’. The design would be to
use typical PHW challenges and to observe delegates giving feedback on
strengths and development needs using the management and leadership
framework. It would culminate in a targeted development plan to help the
delegate address needs and become a credible successor in 2-3 year time
frame. This approach not only benefits the delegates but is also
developmental for the observers and provides a good ‘needs analysis’ of
emerging area of organisation strengths and development and helps
prioritise future master classes.

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9 Indicative Costs
For the purposes of budgeting and being able to start a tender process,
some indicative costs have been calculated based on a number of
assumptions:

 Average market day rates for design and delivery of management

and leadership development
 3 days design for each day of a module
 12 people per event
 A population of 250
 All attend all 4 modules (thus each module runs 20 times)
 Personal leadership and Managing people have extra facilitators
and possibly actors

This does not include residential costs – both personal leadership and
managing people would benefit from one night residential between day
two and day three to prepare for practical elements and indeed to build a
management network and community. We would propose residential costs
are picked up by departments.

Including all design and delivery, some on line toolkits and a number of
master classes, the total investment will be in the region of £470k. To put
this in perspective this is the equivalent of ½% of the total annual Public
Health Budget and we would intend this to be spread across three years.

Realistically it will take 24 months for the whole population to attend the
relevant modules and given that year one (2014/2015) will include the
procurement of suppliers, design and piloting so courses, we envisage the
programme starting in summer of 2014 with the bulk of the programme
completed by December 2016. After this we will need to run a small
number of modules for newly appointed managers.

 The programme will therefore require a recurring increase in the

Workforce and OD budget of £130k starting in 2014/2015.
 An additional one off amount cost of £70k will be required in year two
(2015/16)
 A reduced one off amount of £40k will be required in year three for
phase two i.e. maintenance of the programme for new managers
(2016/17)

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Clearly we will look to ways to minimise cost without compromising quality

or impact. Options for reducing costs include:

 Negotiate day rates down by offering contracts that commit to a

number of courses and work with suppliers who offer public sector
discounts (this can only happen post the tender process) - use some
savings to cover venue costs such as Bute Park Education Centre at
£100 per day
 Identifying what is in held in other budgets which could be corralled
and centralised i.e. align resources to priorities
 Agree who exactly should attend (Directors and 3rd Tier and HR to
identify the target manager and leader population)
 Agree which modules if any are mandatory
 Use internal delivery where possible
 Explore the availability, appropriateness and cost of e-learning modules
(most applicable to managing the business)
 Access free/low cost elements from Academi Wales
 Reduce practical elements and focus on information giving (strongly not
recommended as this will do little to address the confidence and
practical skill of managers)
 Phase over a longer period – may be more realistic for a large
management population but can we afford for managers to be without
skills?

A further option would be to consider a novel approach to procurement

and go to the market with a fixed budget and a list of requirements to find
an organisation prepared to be innovative and creative in meeting our
needs.

10 Next Steps
Following acceptance by the Executive, the next steps are:

 Start the tender process using the draft framework and

development outlines as the basis

 Draw up a project plan for the management and leadership

development. Put a governance framework in place with a steering
group representing a cross section of managers and leaders and
reporting to the strategic development group.

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 Develop and implement a communications plan to inform staff of

the outcomes of the needs analysis and keep them briefed on the
project

 Once a supplier is in place and the design work starts it will include
finalising the framework through the steering group and focus
groups as required.

 Build the actions from this proposal into a Workforce and OD three
year delivery plan as part of the overall business planning process.

11 Meetingsphere Questions
A structured online discussion through Meeting Sphere generated 239
contributions from staff and managers against a number of questions
 What does good management look like and feel like?
 What would help you decide if management is for you?
 What knowledge and skills would you value you in preparation for
the role?
 For those who manage staff, what should the development
programme include?
 For those who manage managers what should the development
programme include?
 What are the things you wish you’d known or had a chance to
practice before taking up a management role?

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