Advice and support from Government’s internal learning and change organisation
Speak to us first
With headlines screaming of budget cuts, outsourcing, shared services and job losses, we all in the Civil Service need to keep cool heads and steady hands. As managers and leaders we are all going to be faced with difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible choices. Before you make the tough decisions that impact on people and services, you can contact us for advice and support.As a government organisation in the business of learning and change we’ve worked as special advisers and confidantes to the public sector over forty years. You can safely view us as an extension of your internal L&D resource that can be called upon to help you deal with the colossal change sweeping through every government organisation.
Contact Customer Services 01344 634 628, gtn 3803 4628
customer.services@nationalschool.gsi.gov.uk
How We Can Help
We are a trustworthy, steadfast friend that can help you make the best decisions when the terrain is uncertain and it is all too easy to become overwhelmed. Some of the areas in which we can help are as follows:
Working with the coalition government
The new political landscape means that the rules of engagement have completely changed. As the organisation to which Ministers turn for their own professional development, we can help you get to grips with how it affects you and what you need to do differently.Speak to us about how we can help you with:
- Supporting staff involved in implementing government priorities
- Policy development
- Turning policy into legislation
Commercial Acumen
Many government reports show this to be a traditional area of weakness for the public sector. Having commercial acumen is not the same as having people with private sector experience; it’s more about having people with commercial capability, insight and know-how. The Civil Service has to develop in its own people the abilities found in the best commercial companies.Speak to us about how we can help you with:
- Strategic partnerships
- Intelligent commissioning
- Contract management
- Programme and project management
- Negotiation and influencing skills
- Partnership working
- More from your budget
- Measuring results
Prioritisation and strategy to reduce the deficit
The deficit is the continuous backdrop against which the Civil Service must operate. How do you make decisions when all the choices are painful? How do you see clearly and prioritise when you’re in the thick of it? How do you stop the urgent crowding out the important?Speak to us about how we can help you with:
- Deciding what to do and how
- Strategy practice work
- Policy work, complex systems
- Strategic approach to budgets
- Preparing business cases the way insisted upon by HM Treasury (Treasury Green Book)
- Measuring results
Organisational development and driving change
There isn’t a single government organisation that is exempt from the mammoth change racing through the Civil Service. We have to embrace change, foster innovation, focus on key outcomes rather than transactions and abandon our risk-averse, permission led culture.Speak to us about how we can help you with:
- Innovation
- LEAN and continuous improvement
- Contract renegotiation
- Centralised procurement
Downsizing, outsourcing and shared services
This is one of the areas that will hurt the most. The possibility of redundancy is one of the most feared and stressful events in life. It can be handled in a respectful Civil Service way so staff are supported and get the confidence and impetus to move on. Everyone is affected by redundancy – even remaining staff. If not handled properly it can lead to sharp declines in productivity at the very time workloads are increasing.Speak to us about how we can help you with:
- Outsourcing and shared services
- Employment law, TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) Regulations, contract law
- Preparing for out placement.
Civil Service basic disciplines
We need to get back to the skills that are the strength and backbone of civil servants that perhaps have been neglected in recent years. Sir Gus O’Donnell describes it as a need to polish traditional Civil Service skills such as providing briefings and advice that are properly formulated and accurately expressed and ensuring that meetings are properly recorded.Speak to us about how we can help you with:
- Bills
- Briefing, drafting
- Understanding parliament
- Protecting information
- Finance and governance
- Customer focus, understanding the citizen
Strengthening the role of the professions
Strong professional development and the building of professional communities can help share learning and best practice within, and between, professions. Coalition government priorities demand greater collaboration across public service and cross-departmental teams can identify and exploit opportunities for increased efficiency and cost-reduction.Speak to us about how we can help you with:
- Induction
- Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
- Professional fast streams
- Finance, legal, HR, IT, economists, procurement, PPM, statisticians, other specialists
Leadership, engagement and managing change
No-one has greater power and opportunity to transform a good organisation into a great one than its leaders. A job that is tough enough when times are good can become excruciatingly difficult when times are turbulent. We can help leaders raise their game, set clear strategic direction, quicken the pace and lead delivery. We can advise on how to keep communication lines to staff clear, to prevent small problems turning into disasters when confusion and uncertainty can quickly lead to disarray. And we can help leaders improve not just their own organisation but also spread the benefits across the public sector.Speak to us about how we can help you with:
- Core Learning Programme – development for leaders in the Civil Service
- Fast stream
- Support and leadership through downsizing
- Managing performance
- Dispute / conflict resolution
- Practicalities of engagement and supporting people through change