The NGDP means the opportunity to get involved in a wide range of meaningful projects, whilst learning about local government and continuing my personal development.
My first placement involved working in economic development and planning on the neighbourhood planning agenda. There was a government drive for local authorities to support those wishing to pursue neighbourhood planning and there was a need which needed to be responded to. In doing this, I organised a series of workshops for town and parish councils on various aspects of the neighbourhood planning agenda, bringing in a range of different speakers and workshop activities. I also developed a series of guidance notes and developed a new website portal to provide a resource for town and parish councils.
My second placement I have carried out a review of why older people enter residential care with a view to identifying what are the trigger factors which lead to residential placement - we want to support people to live in their own homes for as long as possible. After identifying the key factors I have developed some gaps in the services we provide and solutions to how we can improve this. I am now beginning to commission a new service and I am very excited about the impact it could have.
What has it taught me?
The NGDP has taught me how to be adaptable to change and how to approach everything with a can do attitude. What I love about Wiltshire Council is the drive to improve the lives of those who live in the county and being given the opportunity to do this in an innovative and creative manor.
Learning and development
The learning and development has taken place not only nationally through the scheme and the leadership and management diploma, but also I have had access to a lot of training courses here. I am now a Prince2 practitioner and I have carried out a lot training courses run through Wiltshire Council.
I have had a high level of support from Wiltshire Council during my past year, including mentoring from a Director, coaching, and support from previous National Management Trainees.
In terms of preparing myself for the future, my time on the scheme so far has taught me how to be resilient and how to adapt to change in a vast and diverse organisation. I believe many of the skills I have developed are transferrable into a number of different public and private sector organisations and therefore I am excited about how the scheme is setting me up well for a potentially diverse and exciting career.