In tough times, the frequent recourse of hard-pressed management in local authorities is to top-slice departmental budgets, perhaps with some ring-fencing of sensitive areas. The problem with this is it impacts morale across the organisation, puts customers on the look-out for falls in service quality, and above all focuses staff attention on maintaining services as they are.

In an effort to make “Learning” more focused on the specific needs of our membership, we have reviewed our course offerings and launched a completely new programme for the next 12 months. The new programme offers a wider range of course, at more locations, and with more detail provided on each, to help you judge better who to nominate for the course, and the likely benefits to be achieved from it.

Doing things that are useful and not doing those that aren’t is a double win, and at the heart of lean thinking. Lean is an approach which turns on its head the idea that an imposed approach is a recipe for doing things better. It focuses on outcomes for the customer, rather than on processes for the provider.

"Applying Lean systems approaches, in their broadest sense – to question how best to achieve required outcomes, remove waste, and focus on customer need."