INLOGOV (The Institute of Local Government Studies) reposted this
Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor for Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion at University of Birmingham
🚂 We went to Test Valley in September for the first (rail)road trip with our refreshed 21st Century Public Servant research. It was a fun and enjoyable experience, and we took away some really helpful insights. We spent a half day with about 40 of the Councils’ extended leadership group as part of one of their regular get-togethers. I shared a summary of the research and @Dave Mckenna invited everyone to do some group work around the theme: “What does it mean to be a 21st Century Public Servant in Test Valley?” A couple of things really stood out for me. The first is that Test Valley weren’t looking for a new way to do things but for additional challenge to help them develop. They have a very clear approach that builds on communities and bottom-up conversations, but they are also conscious that the work is never finished. We hope that by inviting leaders in Test Valley to engage with the 10 characteristics of the 21st Century Public Servant, we have contributed to what has clearly been a very thoughtful journey so far, with other ‘externals’ having been involved previously. As Andy Ferrier, Chief Executive says, the revised research gave them ‘a timely opportunity to reflect on how public services and public servants need to constantly evolve.’ As every council is different, so it’s good to see the research is flexible enough to work with that difference. We want to see the research as a tool for reflection rather than saying ‘this is how you do it’. The second takeaway for me is that bringing in external challenge is one thing but doing something with it is another. We were really impressed with Test Valley’s approach - they use action learning sets to take external challenge, like our research, and process it in a way that turns it into service changes and differences that residents will notice. They also plan to use our coaching cards so we we’ll keen to see how well they work. 🙏 So thank you so much to Andy Ferrier, Salena Mulhere and everyone else at Test Valley for making us so welcome and thanks also to Andy for sharing the Innovation Zone stage with us at the recent LGA Conference 👏. By the way, if you are interested in the 21st Century Public Servant research, the website is here 👇 https://lnkd.in/emDzCMzT