We help organisations that want to make a greater social impact, respond to change and meet the needs of their communities.

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More than 450,000 people contribute as governors of public services — including school governors, members of NHS boards, local strategic partnerships, police and probation boards, community safety and children's partnerships, housing associations, ALMOs, learning and skills councils and universities. Whether they are elected or appointed, the public expects a great deal from these governors. They are expected to focus on communities and improved social outcomes, on promoting equality, on co-operation and partnerships with other agencies, on ensuring probity and tackling difficult performance issues, while still meeting the demands of targets and inspections. And they are accountable for all these things. When it works, public governance is both difficult and immensely rewarding.

But the governance of Britain’s public service organisations does not always work well. Too often governors find themselves under-utilised and unfulfilled. They are too often expected to ‘rubber stamp’ the decisions of executives who exercise undue control of their organisations. And too often used as scapegoats by government departments that fail to provide clear direction or delineation of responsibilities.

We work with governors to promote excellence in this field by bringing together our expertise in leadership and organisational development with our experience of working with those in governance roles.

Leadership development for governance roles

Workshops

We are offering a range of workshops for people holding governance roles in the public services. Please see the side bar.

Coaching

For chairs of regional or national non-departmental public bodies and NHS bodies

We are able to offer professional coaching to hone your skills and help you to be highly effective in your demanding role.
Judith Smyth, Principal, Public Governance, will advise you on matching your coaching needs to an experienced coach from the OPM team.

Individual coaching sessions, each lasting two hours

Cost: £500 + VAT per session

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Scrutiny

We have been actively developing our ideas in this area, especially after the large amount of work we have done with local authorities and local partnerships. Read a short report of the one-day scrutiny workshop we ran in March 07, where speakers included Jessica Crowe, Executive Director of the Center for Public Scrutiny.

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Organisational development

We offer a range of consultancy support to boards and partnerships. We have worked with a wide range of clients across public services. Our experienced team is able to support you in:
• Board and organisational development
• Stakeholder engagement and community involvement
• Leadership and management development
• Research and analytical studies.

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