ADD331 Training and Development Budget

1.1 The annual training and development budget for the GLA is £250,000 and is managed corporately by the HR and OD unit. This includes an allocation for local training budgets, which have been centralised into the overall corporate budget. The budget is used to support the corporate learning and development programme which is developed from the learning needs analysis from performance review forms, business plan priorities and an assessment of other cross organisational development needs.

1.2 The HR and OD team transfer an element of this budget to Units each year to meet local training needs. The local budgets are allocated following a review of all Unit Development Plans (UDPs) which set out local training needs and professional development requirements.

1.3 The purpose of the local training budget allocation is to provide funding to support the development of skills of individuals and teams.

1.4 This year, Units requested £325,000 to meet local training and development needs. This was not possible as it exceeded the full learning and development budget. However having assessed the local training needs it was considered appropriate to allocate £150,000 to all Units to support local training needs including training requirements to support statutory requirements and other essential organisational needs such as health and safety, event management, IT and digital infrastructure. This decision requests additional expenditure of £50,000 to meet the local and corporate training needs and will be funded from the Corporate Contingency Budget, as approved by the Executive Director of Resources.

2.1 The purpose of the local training budget allocation is to facilitate the Authority’s staff in enhancing their skills and abilities specific to the individual roles and teams. In doing so, it is envisaged that the Authority’s strategies will be more readily and better achieved as individuals learn new skills and reinforce current ones held, thus ensuring that the development needs of staff and the organisation are met

2.2 The corporate learning and development programme will meet the vast majority of identified management and leadership development as well as a range of professional and career development needs.

2.3 The corporate development programme has a range of offers, in particular:

• Management and leadership development – to provide options appropriate to managers at different levels and stages of their development and career – from aspiring managers through to first line, middle managers and senior leaders. This a new development programme.
• IT Training – a range of on line options available that will help refresh individuals’ skills or help them learn something new from the whole MS Office package.

2.4 We are in the process of designing the `Into Leadership Development Programme’ and `Leadership Excellence’ offers which are part of the Management and leadership Development Strategy with a view to rolling them out by the Autumn. We are also developing the following new courses as part of our `Management Essentials’ offer also for roll out by the Autumn:

• Creative Problem Solving for Managers
• Communicating with Impact for Managers
• Planning & Strategy
• Managing Finance for Non-Financial Managers
• Managing High Performance Teams
• Managing a Function/External Stakeholders
• Developing Teams and Individuals

2.5 The analysis of 2015-16 UDPs and other data have also highlighted the need to provide the following as part of the corporate programme and subject to funding may be developed by the end of the financial year:

• Policy Development and Implementation
• Contract Management
• Media Training
• Employment Law Updates for Managers
• Risk Management
• Assertiveness

2.6 There is also a requirement to support the training for Level 4 higher level project management apprentices, to support the Mayor’s priorities on delivering high quality apprenticeships.

3.1 The learning and development programme supports the equality objectives of the GLA. The management and leadership development programme is designed to develop positive management and leadership behaviours and standards as reflected in the staff Charter, Competency Framework and staff survey by:

• Clarifying management and leadership expectations of managers in the GLA
• Aligning management and leadership theories and models to GLA standards and behaviours
• Requiring delegates to complete ILM assignments (in the case of our accredited programmes) that directly relate to our management and leadership standards and behaviours

3.2 The corporate programme also includes specific diversity training, including dignity and inclusion training for all staff and public sector equality training.

4.1 Individual Units will be responsible for monitoring and containing spend within Unit learning and development budgets

5.1 Additional expenditure of £50,000 is required in 2015/16 to meet both corporate and local training demand.

5.2 The Executive Director of Resources has approved the transfer of £50,000 from the 2015/16 Executive Director of Resources Contingency Budget (Resources Directorate) to the 2015/16 Human Resources Budget (Resources Directorate) to meet the expenditure.

5.3 Any changes to this proposal, including budgetary implications will be subject to the Authority’s decision-making process.

5.4 All appropriate budget adjustments will be made.