Learning and development strategy

We will enable professional development, clear career pathways, a performance culture and succession planning to support the potential, performance and diversity of our workforce.

Develop the individual

We support all aspects of learning, including on-the-job, learning from others and formal learning to ensure learning is meaningful and results in practice improvement, effectiveness in role and high performance:

• deliver high quality blended and accessible learning interventions through a combination of professional facilitators and subject-matter experts
• quality assure learning and development activity and evaluate the impact of learning interventions; aligned to specified learning outcomes
• design innovative, inspiring and flexible learning interventions in partnership with subject-matter experts, aligned to our values, behaviours and competencies
• produce strategic learning and development plans and learning pathways to meet the current and future learning needs of the organisation
• store learning resources that are accessible for all and easy to navigate
• record all learning interventions, including continued professional development (CPD) and provide management information (MI)

Develop the organisation

We develop engaging leaders who lead and manage high performing teams:

• identify behaviours which the council value and develop a competency framework so that individuals understand what behaviours are expected
• introduce a performance management cycle enabling leaders to monitor, maintain and improve individual's performance; agree goals aligned to council and service plans, so individuals know what they are expected to achieve and what behaviour will help them achieve it, through regular conversations and gathering feedback
• leadership development programmes and robust management inductions to equip leaders with the skills to engage and motivate their teams and develop aspiring leaders
• provide an employee engagement framework where we engage, listen, shape and respond to employees both at a local, departmental and organisational level

Develop the talent pipeline

We enable leaders to identify, attract, develop and retain talent to deliver a high-performance culture:

• attract talent into our organisation, showcasing careers and our talent development offer, building partnerships with local education providers
• design corporate and occupational talent schemes and pathways to build pipelines of external talent
• new starters and individuals changing roles have a comprehensive induction to ensure effective integration into the organisation and their team so they quickly settle into their role
• identify and develop internal talent through succession planning and talent reviews
• create career pathways and tools to enable career planning
• provide frameworks to support professional development and young people's strategy, utilising apprenticeships where possible