This report brings together the highlights of detailed studies into the value of leadership and management in the UK’s healthcare, education system, and local government.
By championing the voices of transformational leaders and effective managers in different parts of the public sector, we hope to inspire stronger and more consistent action from policymakers towards fostering more excellence in leadership and management across the public realm.
Although leadership and management skills are not – and cannot be – the sole salvation of the UK’s struggling, and underfunded public services, they are key to better navigating challenges that range from organisational disconnect, to slow innovation and technology adoption, to organisational churn and disjointedness, low morale, recruitment problems, and the management of poor performance.
Systematically investing in leader and managers both current and future, will ensure they have the basic set of skills required to navigate the immediate budget constraints and pressures, but also the tools needed to manage the change that is coming via new technologies, changing demographics and evolving demands of the workforce.
There is no question that the role [of the unitary local authority] is difficult, and the Social Market Foundation’s proposals for increasing leadership capacity -particularly by easing the funding pressures, take the challenge seriously.
~ Testimonial from Dr Jonathan Carr-West, Chief Executive, Local Government Information Unit (LGiU)
As this piece of work sets out very effectively, to do [make a profound difference to people’s lives] effectively, [educators] need high quality support and training so they can build their skills.
~ Testimonial from Oli de Botton, Chief Executive, The Careers Enterprise Company
And what is clear is that without mature leadership and management capacity, the health service will struggle to make a significant dent on any of them.
~ Testimonial from Bryan Jones, Senior Improvement Fellow, The Health Foundation
This compendium of case studies is the culmination of our project, undertaken in partnership with the Chartered Management Institute. Through it, we explored the state of leadership and management across different parts of the public sector, and set out recommendations to make best-practices more widespread, to drive organisational success and improved delivery of services.
