Case Studies

New case studies will be added at regular intervals. Please keep checking back to see examples of recent successes.

Paul Woodcock - Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Secondment from Regeneration Service to Chief Executive's (Oct 2006 - Oct 2007)

I had recently been through RMBC's internal Management Development Centre, which runs for two days and assesses a Manager’s ability against RMBC’s core competencies. It became clear from this centre that the main areas for development were around corporate working, working closer with elected members and strategic partnership working (e.g. through the LSP). This was not surprising, as I'd spent the previous 3 years at RMBC (and previous 6 years elsewhere) at the 'coal-face' in service delivery.

An opportunity arose for a secondment to cover 6 months’ maternity leave in the Chief Exec’s department, managing the External Funding, External Policy/Partnerships and International work. I took the opportunity (after a successful application) and it really helped develop the areas I required as well as testing my all round abilities. It was also a challenge to be out of one’s comfort zone. After 6 months the postholder returned to work just as the manager of the Research and Policy team left the department, so I covered this post for a while as well as working for 2 months directly to the Chief Executive, as Executive Officer. I am now on secondment again covering the Director of Regeneration post - they say as one door closes another one opens, but this last year has seen a number open for me!

The positive aspect has certainly been meeting other colleagues and partners, as well as being exposed to new areas of work and new challenges. It has also broadened my horizons and helped develop my skills and experience in areas that I needed.

Sioned-Mair Richards Secondment to the Centre for Public Scrutiny (June – December 2007)

I am a Scrutiny Adviser and Member Development Officer at Rotherham MBC. I saw the opportunity for a part-time Secondment to the CfPs as a Research and information Adviser advertised and decided to apply. I have been a Scrutiny Adviser for five years and while I enjoy it very much, I wanted to see Scrutiny from a different angle.

The team at CfPs were very welcoming and always made me feel a part of the set up despite only seeing them once a week. During my secondment my main responsibilities were:

• To work with a team of Advisers from the Equal Opportunities, Disability Rights and Racial Equality Commissions putting together a publication “Equal to the Task” - a look at how scrutiny can put equalities at the heart of its review work and monitor specific equalities policies effectively.
• Putting together “How to make Friends an influence partners” – CfPS’s guide on how overview and scrutiny can assist in the delivery of Local Area Agreements. This included finding the good practice case studies which make up a large part of the publication.
• Researching and writing a guide on the scrutiny role of being an “Independent Governor”. Again this involved looking for good examples around the country and also conducting interviews with NHS non-exec directors, school governors, RDA directors and co-opted Members of local authority scrutiny bodies.
• Liaison with the Welsh Local Government Association to fulfil the joint agreement with CfPS. This involved speaking at seminars, proofing publications and building the Wales scrutiny network.
• Giving presentations on the developing role of scrutiny as a result of the latest local government legislation.

I worked for the Centre 2½ days a week (usually at the beginning), though was able to be flexible when needs arose. This tended to mean Mondays in London then the other day and a half working from home. I had a laptop computer with remote access to the IDeA/CfPS intranet sites and a mobile phone for all business calls.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the CfPS and was sad to see it come to an end. Finding out what was going on in Scrutiny around the country was fascinating (I have the odd anorak tendency!) It was undertaken in so many different ways in different places but always there was a germ of similarity which allowed you to see how it could be transferred to work in a different setting. This meant that I did come back to Rotherham each week full of enthusiasm for new ways of working which we could perhaps try out.

The only draw back to the six months was being part time. Often, just as I really got into a piece of work it was time to go back to my other role in Rotherham. On the other hand, keeping my feet in Rotherham allowed me to work in scrutiny on the ground as opposed to the more theoretical view from a “think tank” which I think was useful for my colleagues at CfPS as a reality check.