Training Programmes

Supervision and leadership for planning and development staff

Town planners tend to be promoted into supervisory positions on the basis of their professional qualifications and experience, with little formal training in the supervisory dimension of management. This is a potentially critical weakness, clearly identified in the RTPI's study Shifting the Gaze. This module equips planners either in, or aspiring to, such positions with the relevant management knowledge and skills.

The module relates particularly to the planning field, where there is little in the way of "supervisory tradition". It covers all the basic principles and good practice in supervising and motivating staff. However, it focuses especially on how to handle difficult staff relationships systematically and positively, an area in which town planners usually have no training or experience. Experience of running this module indicates that this component has proved especially valuable to participants.

Unusually, the module also explores the much more diffuse concept of "leadership" as a form of staff supervision. This is of particular relevance these days, where senior managers are not merely expected to operate a service, they are also expected to institute change and to inspire its effective implementation.

The module includes attendance at two separate two-day tutorial sessions at Madingley Hall, Cambridge, and successful completion of assessed practical project work. The dates for the two Tutorial sessions are given below.

Full details available on request - telephone Shelagh Pooley on 01204 385678