Programme Core Content

The Programme

The Programme comprises a number of interrelated development activities. Group support is provided through core modules and action learning sets. Participants are also supported on a one-to-one basis by a coach, mentor and line managers who help ensure that the planned development activities support the individual’s career aspirations and the organisation’s business.

Participants also work on an individual basis by way of a personalised Leadership Development Plan, building on feedback from the Assessment and Development Centre. They also conduct a Business Critical Project that serves as a major vehicle for learning, stretches them to work at SCS level and provides an opportunity to develop knowledge and refine skills across a range of PSG areas. Departments will need to assist participants in identifying suitable Business Critical Projects.

Individual work

Leadership Development Plan

The foundation for the Programme is the personalised Leadership Development Plan (LDP) that you will create with help from your coach, line manager and learning set. Each participant’s LDP will be different in its content and will concentrate on those development gaps you have in relation to the PSG framework and the Leadership Expectations Framework. The feedback you receive from the Assessment and Development Centre will help you to identify gaps.

Business Critical Project

The major vehicle for your learning and for implementing the LDP is your Business Critical Project (BCP). By leading a project at SCS level that is critical to your organisation’s business you will have an opportunity to develop your knowledge and apply and refine skills from a range of PSG areas. You will also be able to demonstrate your ability to work at SCS level.

You and your departmental sponsors will need to exercise judgement and discretion when choosing an appropriate BCP. Your organisation will be expected to actively assist you in selecting an appropriate project. Projects should normally meet the following criteria.

  • the project outcomes are critical to the organisation’s key strategic objectives. (We would expect that it would be signed off by Director General or equivalent);
  • tt is capable of being brought to conclusion or at a suitable point for assessment within 10 months from commencement on the Programme. The absolute minimum projected length of a project should be 8 months as it needs to afford opportunities for experimentation in the context of the Leadership Development Plan;
  • it involves you taking personal responsibility for individual work streams and genuine accountability for whole project outcomes;
  • tt stretches you to the extent that it involves you functioning at the level of an SCS Deputy Director.

Your project will be seen by others so you will need to select something that is unclassified, or at least has sufficient work streams that are unclassified such that suppression of certain sensitive streams will still allow your work to be assessed.

You will produce a portfolio of work based on your LDP and BCP which will be assessed. Your individual work will be supported at a number of levels.

1-1 Support

1-1 support will be from your coach, mentor and line manager.

  • you will be allocated a number of meetings with a professional coach who will help you implement your LDP and your BCP;
  • you will be assisted to find a mentor to support you through the Programme and beyond;
  • you should seek your line manager’s support with your development through his or her involvement with your LDP and BCP. Line managers are asked to attend part of the Enrolment Conference for briefing about the Programme and their role.

Small Group Support

You will have support from the learning set to which you will be allocated, affording you the opportunity to share problems and ideas. Sets will be facilitated but you may choose to meet outside of these formal meetings with peers from your set or from elsewhere in the cohort.

Large Group Support

The whole cohort will come together for three core modules, framed around the Leadership Expectations Framework. These will address issues pertaining to Leadership and stepping up to the SCS.

Bursary

You may be allocated a bursary to support your specific leadership development needs as specified in your LDP. The bursary has a number of objectives:

  • tt is a source of funding to augment and build on the core, common, training elements of the Programme;
  • tt provides a practical means for supporting the implementation of individual Leadership Development Plans and Learning Compacts;
  • as criteria for spending is closely linked to your leadership development needs as well as the business needs of your department, it helps ensure that the overall experience of Leaders UnLtd is relevant both corporately and in a more local, department context; and
  • it helps to expand your leadership development experience by offering you access to other leadership development programmes, both corporately and departmentally. This allows you opportunities to learn the practice of leadership with a wider group of people and build competencies alongside other emerging leaders – helping to integrate Leaders UnLtd, and your experience, into wider leadership development.

Assessment and Graduation

There is an assessment process involving your line manager, project sponsor and key stakeholders. All of these assessments and reviews will feed into a portfolio of evidence and work that you will submit for final assessment towards the end of the programme.