Strategic development and priority setting

Public authorities, regardless of the size of the organisation, need to establish a collective vision to keep both political and administrative energy focused towards an agreed strategic plan that can be measured for accountability. The main priorities should be identified so there is a clear understanding of what key goals are to be achieved over the following three, five or ten years.

Priority setting provides an opportunity to connect corporate goals with the organisation’s documented vision, mission and values and staff need a clear mandate in order to keep focused and deliver effective services to the community.

LCS consultants have proven expertise in working with partnerships, managing complex cross sector relationships and facilitating consensus about Vision, Values and Priorities. For example:

Most recently (July 2009) we completed work for a Local Strategic Partnership to:

  • Provide independent challenge and review to their Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS)
  • Research changes in national, regional and local drivers
  • Recommend options and revise the SCS
  • Encourage and facilitate stakeholder involvement including community contributions to the revised strategy
  • Develop supporting performance management and project management frameworks

In 2008 LCS consultant Phillida Miles developed a strategic approach to the commissioning of advocacy services for a London borough. This involved:

  • Reviewing evidence of need and existing service specifications and service delivery priorities and outcomes
  • Exploring future plans with existing commissioned providers and researching market options
  • Reporting with recommendations to the Health Partnership Group, Procurement Advisory Panel and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee

We have also worked within local authorities to achieve agreement on priorities through service planning. For one authority we held a series of workshops with the Directorate Management Team to identify their high level objectives and with service managers to agree a format for the service plans. Following this agreement we supported each service manager to set their objectives in the context of the high level objectives and identifying appropriate outcome measures.

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