Local authorities and the wider public sector are facing unprecedented challenges with rapidly diminishing resources. At the same time, devolution is on offer to those local authorities who can develop positive, creative relationships with their neighbours and partners. Those who miss these opportunities may wait a long time for them to come again.

Now is the time to move away from competition to collaboration and from reliance on positional power to a more distributed model of leadership. At a time when local authorities are becoming smaller and leaner organisations it is critically important that your staff have enough of the right capacity and are able to develop the right skills and behaviours to take advantage of new opportunities, whether they involve co-production of better outcomes with communities or strategic collaboration through Combined Authorities.

Our research into the different skills and attributes required to be a successful public servant in the changing landscape of the 21st century has led us to develop an entirely new, interactive Masters programme in Public Management.

The programme combines traditional academic rigour with action research and responsive consultancy support which provides additional thinking capacity and challenge when you need it most – now.

Local authorities now need their staff to demonstrate new and different skills and attributes than those which have been valued in the past. Technical knowledge, hierarchical position and professional status are now much less important than the ability to work across boundaries, lever in resources, engage effectively and be creative. The research characterised those attributes as broker, municipal entrepreneur, networker, navigator, storyteller, commissioner.

This programme is designed to give participants and their Chief Executives opportunities to work collectively and creatively on shared issues, both within the local authority and across local partnerships. The programme will enable your staff to develop the skills your organisation needs for a very challenging 21st century.

Your staff and our students will study three core modules, each over two blocks of two days: Public Management, Strategic Management and Performance Management. Students will then be able to choose three of the following modules: Leadership, Managing People, Finance, Commissioning, Democracy and Participation, Making Policy and Local and Community Governance.

We will agree with you the topics for the module assignments and dissertations, to ensure they are of immediate relevance and benefit for your local authority.

You will be part of the design process to ensure the best possible impact for your council. The programme includes action learning and masterclasses, designed by you. You will be working together and with our academic staff and leading local and central government practitioners, in real time, on your most pressing issues. This will give you and your staff access to the latest creative thinking and an opportunity to make an immediate impact within your own authority and partnerships.

There are only twelve places available on this programme, to ensure that all participating local authorities are able to both to contribute to the design and to benefit from the action learning sets and masterclasses.

For further information please contact Catherine Staite:

Telephone: 0121 414 4999
Mobile: 07775 801042
Email: c.staite@bham.ac.uk