International Training - Governance and Administration

What constitutes good governance and management in public administration?

In the United Kingdom, public administration has been reformed since the 1980s, with the establishment of executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies. The core civil service has been substantially trimmed in size and there is now an emphasis on professional skills for staff, and a focus on the delivery of services to the public.

A regulatory framework has been established to cover the provision of services which have been passed into the private sector, and the relationship between the centre of government and the regions and nations has also been significantly revised.

Drawing on some of the most significant and successful initiatives which have been introduced in the UK in recent times, we can demonstrate how delegates can learn from the experience here, and facilitate discussions around models for procedures and programmes for incorporating such ideas and plans back in delegates’ own countries, addressing likely problems and proposing effective solutions to be built into reform vision and planning.

Best Practice in Public Procurement

This one- or two-day event introduces delegates to current best practice and legal requirements in the tendering and procurement process. Topics covered on the day include the effects of the European Union consolidated procurement directive, freedom of information and tendering, procuring for public private partnerships, the principles of Government purchasing, and how to provide value for money and efficiency in the provision of public services.

Managing Delivery

This one-day event will cover subjects such as the tension inherent in the management of the public sector delivery chain, achieving the results sought, comparative models for successful delivery, targets and psychology, choice and partnerships, contract management and delivery, regulation and intervention, the politics of failure and the opportunities arising from it, and social enterprises as models.

Developing Self-sustaining and Self-improving Systems in Public Administration

This one-day seminar will look at recruiting the right people, incentives and empowerment, retention and growth strategies, performance management, organisational structures, professional competence of delivery organisations, contestability, intervention and regulation, sustainability, funding and investment, planning, and community ownership of services.

Configurations, Structures and Relationships in the Public Sector

This day-long seminar will examine issues around the provision of public services, such as the role of the centre, reconfiguring departments of state, control and empowerment, culture and structure, systems theory, and comparative models, governance and ownership of programmes, and the implications of introducing business models into the public sector.

Working with Stakeholders and Partners

Identifying key stakeholders is a crucial part of modern public sector working practice. This one-day seminar will enable delegates to gain an understanding of the differences between stakeholders and partners, and will build up their ability to work most effectively with each category in different ways. An analysis of how stakeholders from various sectors operate will also be presented.

Ethical and Effective Presentation of Statistical Information

Delegates who choose this one-day seminar will enhance their ability to use complex statistical information. They will also develop the necessary skills to understand and use graphs and percentages created from these statistics to best effect, and gain an understanding of the ethical issues and guidelines surrounding the presentation of this information. International best practice in managing official information will be looked at, as will current initiatives in the UK to strengthen the independence of figures provided by the civil service.

Establishing Non Corrupt Public Administration

This day-long seminar examines ways in which both low-level and more overt entrenched corruption can be addressed effectively and constructively dealt with.

Starting with public appointments procedures based on open competition and transparent standards, we will go on to look at achieving staff buy-in, including motivation, reward and incentives. Establishing a service ethic, the tensions between empowerment and supervision, and independence and performance management will be examined.

Comparative expositions of methods and techniques will examine what works best where and why. There will also be a facilitated discussion on how ideas and systems can be successfully transferred into different cultures and contexts.

Legal frameworks, the role of regulators, establishing a compliance culture, fraud deterrence and combating fraud will also be analysed, as will the need to include executive agencies and contractors to the public administration in any systems being introduced.

Implementing a Political Programme

This one-day seminar looks at putting political ideas into action, examining the most effective ways of getting positive results from a political programme. It will look at lessons from the past, including Reagan, Thatcher, Mitterrand and Kohl. It will examine the influence of events, looking at the legacy of Gorbachev, and discussing ways of achieving success in a shrinking world.

Mobilising central government will be discussed, with current examples, as will persuading all the actors, including the public, the international audience, stakeholders and the different sectors.

The seminar will then look at improving personalised public services and delivery, and learning from each other’s experience in the world of public service reform.

International Perspectives On Public Service Reform

While the United Kingdom has been involved in public sector reform for the last twenty years, it cannot claim to have achieved everything it wished to. A major shift towards the personalisation of public services offered to the public is under way. Business methods, innovation, public expectation and technology are driving the agenda. This one-day seminar will not only look at ways in which the public and private sectors are working most effectively throughout the world to deliver this agenda, but will take a comparative view on a variety of administrative and political reform programmes.

Strategic Thinking

This day-long seminar is aimed at everyone who wants to develop their breadth of perspective and creative thinking. It will look at a range of different techniques that can help achieve this. By the end of the course delegates will learn their own individual way of thinking and how to put it to the best use to produce quality work within their department or organisation and beyond.

Advanced Strategic Thinking

Strategic thinking is rightly identified as a crucial skill not only in the civil service but as a vital ability for all senior managers and leaders.

This one-day seminar will look at topics such as understanding different types of strategy, building a mission, the difficulties in the public sector in achieving strategy cohesiveness, building competencies and behaviours to support strategy, building strategic alliances, analysis of power and authority of stakeholder groups, and internal communication – “winning hearts and minds” – of large and varied staff.