Solace in the East and West
Midlands
30 January 2014
Martin Reeves
Solace Policy Board Spokesperson & CEX
Coventry City Council
What is SOLACE?
 The professional body representing senior strategic managers in UK
local authorities & other public sector organisations
 We focus on promoting excellent public service leaders
 We seek to influence debate around the future of public services
ensuring policy and legislation is informed by the experience and
expertise of our members.
 We operate as a ‘profit for purpose’ organisation reinvesting profit from
our commercial arm into the professional development of our members
 We aim to make Solace membership an essential part of a successful
public senior career and be the ‘go to’ organisation for advice, opinion
on issues of professional leadership and public service sector
improvement
Our Objectives
To provide excellent
opportunities for our
members to learn from
the best, to share next
practice and to network
with each other and
with leaders from other
areas of public life
To contribute to and to
influence the debate
about the future of
public services and to
make sure that policy
is informed by the
experience and
expertise of our
members
To manage the Solace
Group effectively to
ensure it remains
relevant, effective
and valuable to its
members and partners
SOLACE – what we do
Policy
Spokespeople
Policy
MWB
Networks
Policy
Good
Brief
Stakeholder Blogs
Practice
MJ Lite
Relationship
Guides
Media &
Leader
Policy-led
Press
Business
-ship
Events
relations
Partner
events
Research &
Relationships
Mentoring
Comment
HoC
Training
Reception
Annual
courses
Marketing
Summit
Networks &
Annual
communities
Case
Studies
Dinner
Membership
& Articles
Master
data
Branch
Classes
Team
Events
Event
Shadowing
working
management
Recruitment drives
Information
management
Governance
Financial
management
Policy & Influence
Learn, Share & Network
Relevant, Effective, Valuable
All Change at Solace
• Strengthening your society: new governance arrangements
• Solace Group: created from Society, Foundation &
Company
• Chair: Joanna Killian, Essex CC
• President: Mark Rogers, Birmingham City Council
• Solace Group Board and Policy Board
• 10 Policy and 10 Deputy Spokespeople
• Policy networks to encourage member engagement
• New management arrangements & staff structure
• Solace in Business, our wholly owned commercial arm
Challenges for Solace
• Membership - ensuring you continue to get value for money
• Being relevant & focussed on things that matter to you as pubic
sector leaders
• Be a strong voice standing up for and challenging the
profession
• Tackling issues that are managerial rather than political
• Leadership & professional development- promoting ethical and
value lead standards of leadership
• Strengthening the regional activity and engaging more of you in
our work.
Statistics
•
•
•
•
•
1200 members and growing
85% of all Chief Executives in Membership
650 Senior Manager members from all sectors
Summit in Liverpool attended by over 300 delegates
New governance arrangements has trebled the
number of members directly engagement in our work
Policy Networks
• Policy Spokespeople appointed by our members at
AGM
• Policy Board to set our policy priorities
• Policy Spokespeople to establish and lead networks
of interested members
• Input from Regions on policy board and networks
• Support from Past services and graduate members
• Work in collaboration with other professional bodies
Policy Portfolios
Community Well Being
Jo Farrar/Penny Thompson
Digital Leadership
Martin Reeves/Robert Keynon
Children & Families
Phil Norrey/Kim Bromley-Derry
Leadership & Learning
Deborah Cadman/Becky Shaw
Civil Resilience & Community
Safety
John Barradell/Stephen Baker
Local Government Finance &
Commercialism
Paul Martin/Mike Suarez
Elections & Democratic Renewal
Dave Smith/Jo Miller
Economic Prosperity and
Housing
Martin Swales/Simon
Neilson/Manjeet Gill
Innovation and Commissioning
Max Wide/Sandy Hopkins
Evidence Based Policy
Abdool Kara/Steve Atkinson
How can you engage?
•
Policy Spokespeople will be introducing themselves and
asking for your views on priorities via MWB in the coming
weeks
•
Asking you to sign up to contribute to the networks
•
State of the Nation survey launched to identify local
pressures and the issues you want us to focus our policy
resources on
•
Policy Board met in January to set Business Plan Priorities
•
Actively seeking input from Regions on policy board and
networks (Ian Miller and Simon Bovey from E/W Mids)
Key priorities 2015/6
•
Skills for Leadership: Strengthening our professional development and
learning offer across our members career journey
•
Driving up standards: Developing a proposition for ethical based
leadership and a Solace Standard
•
Sector improvement: Working with other professional bodies as a
‘convenor of the professions’
•
Strengthening links between the public and private sectors via our
business partner programme
•
Strong voice: Continue to comment on things that matter most to the
profession
•
Excellent Events: Providing interesting and timely opportunities for you
to network with peers
Your views?
•
Keen to get your views on what Solace does well or could
do differently in future?
•
What more could we do to engage Solace members
regionally?
•
What are the core areas that Solace should be focussing
its resources on?
•
Do we keep you well enough informed? What more can
we do to ensure you value your society?
Dates for your diary
• 26th February 2015: Solace Leadership Forum and
Annual Charity Dinner, Globe Theatre, London
• 1 July 2015: Solace at the LGA conference, Harrogate
• 7-9 October 2015 Solace Summit, Bournemouth
Information about all our other regional event information
and master classes at www.solace.org.uk
Book at events@solace.org.uk
Graeme McDonald, Solace Group
Director
Graeme.Mcdonald@solace.org.uk
Debbie Wood, Solace Group
Director
Debbie.Wood@solace.org.uk
Terry McDougall, Group Director
Solace in Business
Terry.McDougall@solace.org.uk