The government is no stranger to criticism when it comes to how it keeps its own house in order but following a damning review exposing the lack of leadership training for civil service staff, has it finally redressed the balance? Verity Gough investigates.






 

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Heavy criticism over the Baby P case has forced the government to look at many of its internal processes, including the way it delivers training and collaboration between its departments. But the onus on delivering more effective leadership is certainly nothing new, as witnessed in a damning report.

In 2007, the Cabinet Office's Capability Review revealed that internal government training targets were still not being met. The coordinator, cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, remarked there was "clearly a widespread problem with leadership" and a number of leading senior civil service members claimed they saw themselves as 'people being led instead of doing the leading'.

In direct response, O'Donnell pledged to build a culture of excellence and in doing so, promised to drag the government's arcane approach to training into the 21st century. So one year on, how has O'Donnell's vision fared?

Issue-driven training

The most significant change is the way in which topical issues affecting government are brought into the training mix. A prime example is the creation of a new government programme called Leaders UK, a collaboration between The Ashridge Business School and the National School of Government.

Driven by the cross-department failings following the Victoria Climbié child abuse case and, more recently, the Baby P furore, the programme addresses issues surrounding how the responsible departments, such as the police, social services, education and hospitals, collaborate with each other. "It was inspired by weaknesses in government but also other issues like terrorism and counter terrorism," says the director of Ashridge Business School's dedicated Public Leadership Centre, Mark Pegg.

"If you put issues like 'the child' at the heart of government, it doesn't work. This is because the government is organised differently and thinks of the development of the child as social services, education, health and, later on, the criminal justice system. There are so many different agencies that work with the child and as we have seen with these tragic cases, the interest of the child can be lost in the cracks between departments."

Through a blended, modular training programme that enables the departments to work together on projects, the government appears to be serious about addressing these and other pertinent issues surrounding departmental collaboration.

Design and delivery

But the National School of Government, a non-ministerial department offering learning and development solutions to government organisations and individuals providing public services, has already noted a shift in the way the training programmes are designed and delivered. "The capability review threw up a lot of criticisms about leadership and the ability to work together," says David Sweeney, head of the Centre of Strategic Leadership at the School.

"What it told us is that people don't want lots of time away from the office, they want a series of professional one-day programmes concentrating on things like motivation, change and leadership in the modern world."

While much of the work undertaken at the school is created in line with agreed government competencies and standards, Sweeney says the demand for more personalised learning and development activity has increased tenfold. "Over the last few years, we have had a lot of requests for help around developing or redesigning organisations, with leadership development itself being seen as having a key role to play in helping that to happen," he explains.

This new flexible approach is also being exercised through the quality monitoring of the courses, which are evaluated following attendee feedback. The longer term impacts of the training are gauged by asking attendees back after a six month period to see how they have changed and what the impact of the training has been on their organisation.

Government boot camp

However, when it comes to leadership development, what type of training are our prospective leaders, managers and senior civil servants actually getting? Sweeney says the school's approach is a combination of skills development and behavioural work. "A lot of leadership work is about how people look and reflect at their own behaviour, how they could choose to behave differently or how they could achieve their outcomes better," he explains.

Perhaps the feather in the cap of this new approach to training is its flagship 'rites of passage' scheme for high potentials heading in to the senior civil service. Known as the SCS Boot Camp, it takes around 400 interns from across the country each year. "It is as close as you can get to a mandatory programme in the civil service and everyone who joins externally or is promoted internally is expected to participate," says Sweeney.

At the top end of the school is a programme aimed at director level or permanent secretary level staff, which has seen many a famous face pass through its doors. One of the goals is to bring the civil service into contact with people from other sectors, which include the wider public sector, the third sector and the private sector, to help create a shared learning experience.

Cream of the crop

The Ashridge Business School's Public Leadership Centre also has some pretty impressive credentials and was awarded first place in the 'Financial Times' rankings for being the best for tailored executive education. Currently, around 30% of its courses are operated for the government and it counts former cabinet secretary Sir Richard Mottram as one of its governors.

Like the National School of Government, Ashridge is driven first and foremost by the Professional Skills for Government Agenda. Pegg, too, has noted a shift in the way government is tackling its training requirements. "It's about getting away from that mandarin, policy-driven, strategy-driven type of leadership culture and heading towards a more professional way of leadership," he says. "This allows people to focus on how good they are as leaders, how they manage resources, how they can think more strategically and how can they work across the organisation."

For example, if the Ministry of Defence's world expert on nuclear propulsion systems has a PhD and a great knowledge base but the MOD wants a better leader, the focus is more on the soft skills, such as budget management, leadership, motivation and business skills. "For the tax payer, these are what are important," Pegg explains.

So with evidence of a shake-up in the way the government tackles its training, can we hope to see a new generation of leaders equipped to deal with the issues of the day? According to the government, there have been definite signs of improvement: "Much has changed in terms of the focus on leadership since the first round of the Capability Reviews was published two years ago," says a spokesperson from the Cabinet Office. "Individual Departments have increased their focus on leadership development and the first indications are encouraging."

Sweeny agrees that change is certainly afoot: "We are at the beginning of a process here and what the current economic situation is telling us is that the public sector needs to be agile, flexible and able to deal with very complex situations very quickly," he concludes. One thing is certain, the challenge is now on.

Our feature writer Verity Gough has been recognised for the quality of her work after winning the specialist media prize at the recent Avanta Press Awards.