1. Leadership in Regeneration: A Study of Leadership Capacity and Capability Dr Andrew Platten, Project Manager, Elevate East Lancashire Ruth Dowson, Raising Our Game Coordinator, RENEW Jonathan Breeze, CLES Consulting

2. Background Elevate East Lancashire is one of the government's nine housing market renewal pathfinders, charged with finding innovative solutions to the problem of low demand, negative equity, and housing market collapse in towns across East Lancashire. The project will last for 10 to 15 years and with funding of £94.9100 million funding for 2006-2008. Elevate is working with five local authority partners to deliver an ambitious programme to revitalise failing neighbourhoods. Defining the projected future for East Lancashire and its relationship within the North West forms a key activity in this process.

4. Background In this paper, a study undertaken by Elevate and RENEW supported by the Academy for Sustainable Communities is reported. The study progresses upon previous work commissioned by Elevate concerning the complexities of leadership skills for regeneration in East Lancashire (Turner & Townsend, 2005). The study focuses upon the relevant stakeholder groups and their perceptions of the relevant skills requirements which contribute to the regeneration agenda. This assessment is set against the Egan review of regeneration skills (Egan, 2004). The study reports the findings from self perception reviews and one to one interviews. This paper provides recommendations for action research which prepares the case for a detailed learning and development programme for the improvement of leadership capacity (the East Lancashire Learning Laboratory).

5. Introduction The succession of reviews of the construction and regeneration industries in the UK, including Latham (1994) and Egan (1998 and 2002) have led to a widening of the understanding of project management for construction. Developing effective skills for regeneration has for some time been a key priority for all stakeholders. This has been evidenced primarily in the English Partnerships Report (2004). This study was undertaken in parallel with the Egan study in review and generation of a skills structure in order to progress the agenda and performance of regeneration teams (2004).

6. Academy for Sustainable Communities The Academy for Sustainable Communities has expressed a desire to develop a series of skills ‘learning laboratories’ centred on sustainable communities programmes and projects across the country (ASC, 2006). Seven key components of a sustainable community are identified that together constitute a ‘common goal’ (ASC, 2006). –These are: Governance; Transport and Connectivity; Services; Environment; Economy; Housing and the Built Environment; Social and Cultural. To achieve this vision requires skills such as community engagement, leadership, project management and partnership working. In this study, the Centre for Regeneration Excellence in the northwest, RENEW, and the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder in East Lancashire, Elevate, have collaborated to develop a strategy for creating a learning laboratory which will ensure those working in regeneration in East Lancashire have the appropriate skills.

8. Methodology Two stakeholder events, A survey of regeneration project staff, Stakeholder interviews with senior regeneration personnel, Case studies of six regeneration projects, A mapping exercise of learning and training providers. The project was guided by a project team which was established to deliver and monitor the project.

9. Stakeholder Events Two stakeholder events were organised as part of the study. The purpose of the first event was to raise awareness of the project and to collect stakeholder opinions on the skill gaps in the field of regeneration in East Lancashire. The findings of the field research were presented at the second event, and priorities for the Learning Laboratory were explored.

10. Survey Further, a survey was undertaken of the personnel involved in 41 Elevate projects. These personnel included local authority staff (Economic Development, Housing, Planning), Registered Social Landlord staff, urban designers, and developers. The questionnaire concerned a self perception survey, which covered issues such as the importance of generic skills, skill competency levels, challenges faced when delivering regeneration, training currently undertaken, barriers to training, and preferred training delivery methods.

11. Case Studies A further validation of the survey findings was attained by the review of six regeneration projects. These case studies were selected to present a range of projects types and delivery issues. –Demolition and clearance; –Community planning initiative; –Neighbourhood management; –Master planning; –Area Action Plan; –Cross-borough funding bid. The outcomes from the above actions were compared to previous studies undertaken in the field (English Partnerships, 2004), (Turner & Townsend, 2005) and (RENEW, 2005) and the findings were then analysed and synthesised as a means of checking the validity of the study.

12. Generic Skills Senior Staff Project StaffOverall Partnership working1 st 4 th 1 st Making things happen4 th 5 th 2 nd Project Management5 th 3 rd Leadership2 nd 7 th 4 th Building stakeholder relationships6 th 2 nd 5 th Team working3 rd 6 th Analysis, decision making skills7 th 9 th 7 th Community Engagement13 th 1 st 8 th Creative thinking8 th 10 th 9 th Financial management10 th 8 th 10 th Communication11 th Conflict resolution14 th 12 th Customer awareness / feedback12 th 13 th Process/change management9 th 14th

13. Generic Skills

14. What’s Working Well Senior staff usually cited that the technical aspects of project delivery as positive outcomes, such as –‘Developing a Performance Management System.’, –‘Using evaluation to inform delivery.’, –‘Accessing external funding.’ And –‘Risk management.’ Project staff stated the skill that is most cited is making things happen given constraints. Example responses included: –‘Getting the job done despite externally imposed constraints.’, –‘Delivering projects despite funding and political constraints.’, –‘Making things happen.’, –‘Delivering good projects with absolutely bugger all in the way of support” and –‘Adapting plans to time and money constraints’

15. Perceived Competencies Senior Staff Project StaffOverall Project Management6 th 1 st Making things happen4 th 2 nd Team working1 st 4 th 3 rd Partnership working5 th 4 th Financial management2 nd 7 th 5 th Leadership3 rd 9 th 6 th Building stakeholder relationships9 th 8 th 7 th Creative thinking10 th 6 th 8 th Community Engagement13 th 3 rd 9 th Process/change management7 th 13 th 10 th Analysis, decision making skills8 th 11 th Communication11 th 12 th Customer awareness / feedback14 th 10 th 13 th Conflict resolution12 th 14 th

16. Competency Levels

17. Comparison between the importance of skills and competency levels – senior staff

18. Comparison between the importance of skills and competency levels – project staff

19. Interview Outcomes Partnership working, leadership and community engagement were all highlighted as priorities. In addition the survey highlights conflict resolution, building stakeholder relationships, and analysis and decision making as needing attention. The stakeholder events, highlighted a lot of positive activity in terms of partnership working. However, three issues emerged which could hinder successful regeneration. It was reported that it often proves difficult to get all key people to attend partnership meetings. Partners often come from very different professional backgrounds with very different working cultures, which can be a barrier when trying work together to achieve joint objectives. This can be of particular importance when both public and private sector organisations are involved in the partnership. The findings from the stakeholder events suggest that there is a lack of leadership capacity in the sub-region, including vision and strategy.

20. Stakeholder Feedback Some local authorities reported that it was the role of the contractor (e.g. Housing Association, urban designer) to take the lead on the project, when the same contractors believed that the council’s should assume this lead role. It has been suggested that this reluctance is due to a lack of leadership skills in both the public and private sectors.

21. Learning & Training Over ninety-five percent of survey and one-to-one interview participants reported that at least one member of their team had undertaken learning or training in the last 12 months. The majority of training was focused on developing technical or job specific skills. Training courses attended included: compulsory purchase order guidance; urban design; e-procurement; risk assessment and planning policy and the housing act. Other examples commonly cited were project management and team development. Sporadic examples of: Negotiation skills; Community governance; Best practice visits and Action learning. More than two in five people said they do not have the time to undertake training and nearly quarter said that a lack of funding prevents them undertaking learning.

22. Conclusions Previous research denotes that generic skills are essential attributes for people working, at all levels, in regeneration. This is supported by the findings of this project. When asked which elements of project delivery they thought they did well, senior staff cited technical skills such as developing Performance Management Systems and risk assessment. Project staff, when asked the same question, indicating that they had to be good at making things happen given constraints. Partnership working, leadership, community engagement, conflict resolution, building stakeholder relationships, and analysis and decision-making were highlighted as priorities for development. Clearly a coherent learning and training programme needs to be established if those that work in regeneration are going to develop the required skills.

23. Conclusions The majority of the training undertaken by respondents was aimed at developing technical or job specific skills. When asked about the barriers to training, over forty percent cited a lack of time and nearly a quarter cited a lack of funding. Other barriers mentioned included a lack of local relevant courses or not knowing about relevant training. Access to the skills highlighted in the Egan review are available in East Lancashire, however those that need it are not accessing it due to lack of funding, lack of time, or lack of knowledge of the programmes. As well as highlighting the skills that the learning laboratory should develop, a number of other considerations were identified by this project. These included recruitment and retention of staff, the development of the private sector, and low aspirations of people and organisations in East Lancashire. It is also clear that there are pockets of best practice that should be disseminated and widened in order to support other project teams. This agenda is the focus for the learning laboratory for the next two years of the project.