Solace in the East of England 7 November 2014 Joanna Killian Chair, Solace Group Board & CEX Essex CC

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 manage the Solace Group effectively to ensure it remains relevant, effective and valuable to its members and partners 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 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

SOLACE – what we do Learn, Share & Network Policy & Influence Relevant, Effective, Valuable Policy Brief MWB MJ Lite Annual Summit Annual Dinner HoC Reception Policy Networks Team working Media & Press relations Policy-led Events Recruitment drives Master Classes Leader -ship events Information management Membership data Branch Events Marketing Financial management Policy Spokespeople Blogs Business Partner Relationships Case Studies & Articles Good Practice Guides Stakeholder Relationship Research & Comment Governance Training courses Shadowing Mentoring Networks & communities Event management

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 All Change at Solace

Challenges for Solace Membership – ensuring you continue to get value for money Being relevant & focussed on things that matter to you as public 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 meeting in January to set Business Plan Priorities Actively seeking input from Regions on policy board and networks

Key priorities 2014/5 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 4 th December 2014: Whitehall Dialogues & House of Commons Reception 26 th 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 Book at

Graeme McDonald, Solace Group Director Debbie Wood, Solace Group Director Terry McDougall, Group Director Solace in Business