The LGA’s aim is to agree and promote a set of shared priorities and actions to support councils as they continue their work.
Every local council and combined authority values what makes their place different; their special circumstances and their unique approaches. These unique qualities are reflected in their workforce and the challenges they face. But all councils and combined authorities have one thing in common – they are continuing to develop a workforce that is:
- productive – affordable, efficient, motivated, technologically literate and flexible
- joined up – properly integrated across all the different organisations providing services, especially in health and social care
- involved in co-designing and co-creating services – so that the ideas and experience of the people most involved in services day to day can be fully utilised
- truly valued and respected – supported throughout the stages of life and career and able to enjoy good quality benefits as well as fair pay
- diverse – reflecting the communities it serves and making use of all the talent in those communities.
To achieve that vision we believe that the sector needs to focus on:
- great leadership that is visionary, ambitious and effective and the development of leadership skills at all levels
- organisational change and development that is focused on people, their wellbeing and resilience
- skills development that is truly innovative and focused on combining organisational and individual needs
- improved recruitment and retention outcomes based on proper planning and use of best practice techniques
- pay and reward systems that attracts and retains talent, motivating and helping people throughout their careers
Most councils will already be looking at these priorities in different ways. Our main focus at this stage is on the directly employed workforce but we believe that the ideas set out here can be used when working in partnership with other organisations.
There is a range of local responses to the challenges the public sector workforce faces, along with common themes and ideas that we can build and share. The LGA recognises that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to a workforce strategy won’t work but what we can do at a national level is help to refine strategic thinking and work with others to ensure that ideas, thinking, approaches and tools are shared helping to enhance approaches to workforce planning. The LGA’s aim is to agree and promote a set of shared priorities and actions to support councils as they continue their work.
Many individuals including representatives of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE), the Public Services People Manager’s Association (PPMA) and the LGA’s Chief Executives’ Sounding Board have contributed informal comments during the development of our thinking and we are grateful for their assistance.