Norfolk-specific courses and coaching programmes
Tony Oram Associates is offering a new kind of development course for public, private and voluntary sector organisations in Norfolk called Twenty35, backed with its own coaching programme Norfolk Prime. Twenty35 helps partners to look ahead, think about, and then work on the very real issues we will face in Norfolk over the next 25 years as public sector finances are squeezed and economic pressures felt, with the accompanying social and environmental impacts we might expect. Norfolk Prime supports individuals in developing their skills to meet these future challenges.
Twenty35
Agencies, organisations and even whole partnerships in Norfolk have undertaken training and development with the aim of improving how they work together to achieve positive change to the quality of life. A good example would be activity commissioned by Local Strategic Partnerships, which are comprised of public, private and voluntary sector agencies, designed to enable them develop a shared vision for improving quality of life. Vision is accompanied by clear priorities and agreed actions identified through engagement and consultation with local people. This is usually set out in a formal plan for the local community which partners commit to delivering within a given period of time.
Twenty35 will build on, integrate and multiply the benefits gained over many years and many different programmes of training, development and practical work that public, private and voluntary sector agencies in Norfolk have done across the County. Its special emphasis will be on developing the skills needed to set out and test future scenarios about quality of life in Norfolk – the art of looking ahead and shaping the future when the future is uncertain.
Twenty35 is a tailored programme supporting different partnership groups in developing visions for the future - and clear plans to deliver them - that tackle social, economic and environmental issues at a local, sub-regional or county level. It is designed to support agencies and organisations with the thorny issues that often accompany a drive to integrate many different work streams and programmes and marry up different requirements, demands, policy pressures and performance expectations. It focuses on open communication and enhancing cooperation. It helps partners to knock out duplication of effort and fill in crucial service gaps. Its goal is to make things easier and more rewarding for all concerned. At its heart, Twenty35 will focus on effective ways to shift the ability to meet lots of different needs into the very fabric of Norfolk community life.
The underlying principle of Twenty35 is that of emergent design. This means recognising that what we think we should do may not be what we end up doing - but where we end up may be better than where we thought we were going to be. It’s not the same as making it up as you go along. Nor is it about setting up a pre-determined, fixated work programme that ends up missing the point. In other words, partner agencies and organisations will shape content, focus and determine what Twenty35 does, when it does it, and how long it will run for as we go along. Being adaptable is crucial to success.
Twenty35 will support senior officers and managers in the public, private and voluntary sector, policy teams, senior politicians and portfolio holders in local government and other key movers and shapers, who want to develop their ability to work together and make a difference. Its approach is unique, in that it specifically aims to do away with the consultant. It focuses instead on enabling individuals and teams in organisations to develop and enhance their own skills and capacities to work out how they can tackle essential issues, without the need to keep bringing in “experts” from the outside.
Your initial Twenty35 programme can be delivered in small teams, with management boards, or scaled up to district and county-level partnerships, tailored to meet your needs and your timescales. Twenty35 will be your programme, not ours. Our goal is that, in time, you will take over the design, running, and delivery of your particular programme in-house.