Essex Competency Toolkit

Human Resource Service

Essex

competency

toolkit

April 2005

Essex County Council and the East of England Regional Assembly Working in partnership with

Essex Competency Toolkit

Contents Forward

What is a Competency? What is a Competency Framework? Which organisations use Competency Frameworks?

1 - Competencies in other organisations

What does the Essex Competency Framework look like? 2 - Competency Framework wheel

Summary of the Essex Competency Framework

3 – The Essex Competency Framework

What makes our Competency Framework good? Application to different groups

Councillors

4 – Extract of Member Appraisal Scheme

Senior and middle managers

5 - Corporate objectives for senior managers 2005/6

Employees

6 - An example of a job profile and completed PMR paperwork

Competency Dictionary

7 - An illustration of how the Competency measures progress

What are the national and local key drivers that influence the Essex Competency Framework?

8 - The Essex Competency Framework – Drivers, Uses and Future Developments

The Gershon Efficiency Review

9 - Library Service – case study


Government Legislation / Regulations

Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA)

National Pay and Workforce Strategy and Local Workforce Development Plan

Investors in People

10 - Extract from the Investors in People Assessor’s Report - December 2003

Single Status Agreement

Best Value Performance Indicators

Essex Corporate Plan

11 – The Essex Approach 2001-2005

Local Service Agreements

How is the Essex Competency Framework used? Recruitment and selection

Stages of the recruitment & selection process

Writing the job profile and person specification

12 - Example of job profile –Technology Strategy Manager

13 - Castle Point case study

Recruitment advertising

14 - Admin & Clerical Talent Pool – generic job profile

Inviting applications

15 - Information in support of job application - example

Shortlisting

16 - Completed short list form - example

Assessment Centres

17 - Assessment Centre – example

Interviewing


A guide to structured interview questions

18 – Contact Centre Manager interview questions

Deciding to appoint

Managing performance

How to use competencies in reviewing performance


Links to the corporate objectives and strategies

19 - Example of a completed objective setting form

Competencies

20 - Example of completed competency form

Personal Development Plan

21 - Example of a completed Personal Development Plan

22 – Development Centres and Personal Competency Development Tracker

23 - Extract from our Employee PMR Guide

Applying performance management to job families

24 - School Crossing Patrol booklet

25 – Home Care booklet

Staff development

26 - Staff development module list by competencies

Pay progression

Linking Performance to Pay

Senior Managers

Middle Managers

Employees

27 - Competency Dictionary


Monitoring and Evaluation

Future developments The National Core CompetenciesFramework (Employer’s Organisation)

28 - Employers Organisation

e-Competencies (ODPM)

29 – Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

e-Government Agenda

Child Protection

Implementing a competency approach 30 – Presentation – Implementing the Essex Competency Framework

The key features of successful implementation

31 - Implementing Competencies at Uttlesford

Links with East of England Regional Assembly & Employers Organisation

32 – East of England Regional Assembly

Support on competencies What our employees think

From manager

From staff

http://www.lg-employers.gov.uk/default.php

http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_control/documents/homepage/odpm_home_page.hcsp

http://www.eera.gov.uk/


Foreword

This toolkit has been designed to help local authorities understand the importance of a competency approach, where it can be applied and some practical examples of how we use our Competency Framework at Essex County Council (ECC).

You can either work through the Toolkit from the beginning or dip into the parts which interest you most. The kit includes links which contain detailed practical guidance.

Over the past four years, our Council has been at the forefront of local government modernisation - in particular our Comprehensive Performance Assessment highlighted our people management approach and our ‘can do’ culture. The Essex Competency Framework, introduced in 2000, allows us to build a workforce that is both adaptable to local needs, ‘making Essex a better place to live and work’, and capable of reacting to regional and national demands.

Our framework assesses ‘behaviour’ as well as the ‘how’ element of ‘tasks’. It is now being highlighted as local government best practice both regionally and nationally.

The Essex Competency Framework has been critical to our organisational change process and is a key building block in our Human Resource Strategy. It reflects the Council’s aims and Core Values (outlined in the ‘Essex Approach’) by placing objectivity, accountability and transparency ‘at the heart of everything we do’.

The Framework has proved an easy way of highlighting skills and behaviours required in the organisation to deliver quality services. It has also given us the ability to recruit the best staff, to performance manage against priorities, and develop our people for continuous service improvement.

Based on research and developing local and national practice it is aligned to the emerging employee skills, competencies and behaviours within our changing organisational culture. This ensures we are more customer and service focused and helps us sharpen our performance management culture too.

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What is a Competency?

At Essex, competencies can be defined as individual characteristics or skills that can be both measured and shown to make a difference to performance. The competency approach ensures we focus on the behaviours, skills and abilities required by particular roles.

Competencies can measure ‘how’ we do things in the same way that objectives can measure ‘what’ we do.

What is a Competency Framework?

Competencies need to be structured in a logical way in order to make them usable. Many organisations therefore set them in a framework.

The Framework is an outline which is consistent across the organisation and helps to identify the types of behaviour the organisation wishes to promote, develop and is keen to engender. It is a key building block that links all of our council’s people management strategies and policies.

Which organisations use Competency Frameworks?

Competency Frameworks can be used in any organisation and are as relevant to the local/central government context as they are to the private sector. There are examples of good practice in the retail trade (Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Boots) the finance sector (Royal Bank of Scotland), in industry (Ford) and the voluntary sector (British Heart Foundation).

1 - Competencies in other organisations

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What does the Essex Competency Framework look like?

• twelve main headings, comprising eleven behavioural competency headings and one specific professional and technical

• a list outlining what each competency contains

• a set of measures/range of descriptive statements of how competency is demonstrated.

2 - Competency Framework wheel

Summary of the Essex Competency Framework

Competency 1 Self Awareness and Control

Contains Self Awareness, Self Discipline and Organisation, Self Control, Integrity, Priority Management.

Competency 2 Personal Effectiveness and Self Development

Contains Drive and Energy, Flexibility, Adaptability and Creativity, Assertiveness and Influence, Innovation, Decisiveness, Self Development and Continuous Learning, Awareness of Risk Management Issues, An Open Mind.

Competency 3 Analysis and Judgement

Contains Information Gathering, Problem Analysis, Problem Solving, Judgement.

Competency 4 Interpersonal Skills

Contains Sensitivity to Others, Teamwork, Developing and Maintaining Relationships, Awareness of Equality and Diversity Issues, Spoken Communication, Written Communication, IT Supported Communication.

Competency 5 Organisational Awareness and ‘Joined Up’ Thinking

Contains Organisational Awareness, Working Across Boundaries, Awareness of External Environments, Strategic Thinking.

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Competency 6 Customer/client Orientation

Contains Understanding Customer/Client Needs and Expectations, Developing and Using Customer/Client Service Standards, Awareness of Equality and Diversity Issues in Service Delivery, Providing Valued Services, Using Customer/Client Feedback in Continuous Improvement, Commercially Astute.

Competency 7 Using/managing Resources

Contains Budgets and Cost-Control, Information Management and Technology, and Data Protection, Buildings, Equipment and Materials.

Competency 8 Working in Partnership and Managing Contracts

Contains Developing and Working in Partnership, Procurement of Services, Contract and Project Management and Monitoring.

Competency 9 Managing Processes and Measuring Results

Contains Process Design and Management, Defining Performance Indicators, Measuring Outcomes.

Competency 10 Managing and Developing People

Contains Recruiting and Inducting Competent Employees, Agreeing and Monitoring Objectives, Empowering Others, Motivating Individuals and Teams, Valuing Diversity, Developing Others, Managing Conduct and Performance Issues, Managing Employee Care.

Competency 11 Leadership

Contains Personal Credibility, Environmental Scanning, Providing Direction, Providing Resources, Promoting and Leading Change, Passion for Quality/Excellence, Developing Relationships and Inter-relationships, Promoting and Marketing Services.

Competency 12 Professional and Technical

Contains Relevant Planned Experience, Qualifications to do the job,

Continuous Professional/Technical Development, Planned Career Development, Awareness of similar roles in other organisations.

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3 - The Essex Competency Framework

What makes our Competency Framework good?

It is:

• clear and simple to understand – and provides consistent language across a large, diverse organisation

• relevant to all those involved

• flexible enough to be used across the whole organisation

• relevant to the Council’s business aims

• fair for all who use it

• a logical structure.

The Competency Framework applies to everyone – from our frontline employees to our Councillors and senior managers including the Chief Executive – making it unique in Local Government and helping “join up” the organisation, Members and Officers.

Application to different groups

Councillors As part of the strategic leadership of the Council it is important that Councillors are up to date with legislative changes and good practice to support them in their roles. It is also vital that they receive constant support to help them develop their abilities.

A comprehensive Member Appraisal Scheme has been designed and includes the development and recording of objectives, assessment of competencies and evaluation of performance and development needs annually.

4 – Extract of Member Appraisal scheme

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Senior and middle managers The competencies are aligned to the business objectives of the Essex Approach to assess the performance of senior and middle managers. In the last two years senior manager appraisal has included common corporate and individual service objectives, competencies and a personal development plan.

5 - Corporate objectives for senior managers 2005/6

Employees The Council has a consistent approach to appraisal, called Performance Management Review, applicable to all its staff. The elements are:

• meeting your key objectives

• demonstrating your chosen competencies

• providing evidence

• identifying your development needs

6 - An example of a job profile completed PMR paperwork

Competency Dictionary The Competency Dictionary has been developed to apply the Essex Competency Framework to all staff in Essex subject to the Single Status Agreement. Measures have been developed to reflect the level appropriate for each spinal column point (pay point). In developing the competency dictionary care has been taken to ensure that the measures are:

• understandable

• achievable

• capable of assessment.

Some of the measures are constant (i.e. fixed throughout the spinal column points), others have elements which are progressively more challenging.

7 - An illustration of how the competency measures progress

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In practice the Dictionary is accessed electronically on the Council’s intranet site by employees and managers, to produce the measures for the appropriate spinal column point. Pay progression from the first to the second point in each of these broad bands is automatic, based on service. There is no automatic progression from one band to another.

What are the National and Local Key drivers that influence the Essex Competency Framework?

8 - The Essex Competency Framework – Drivers, Uses and Future Developments

The Gershon Efficiency Review Gershon calls for efficiency savings and the Using/Managing Resources competency helps to focus our activity in this area – specifically budgets and cost control and working “constantly with the principle of ‘value for money’ actively seeking to work more efficiently and thereby release money for other uses.”

9 – Library Service – case study

Government Legislation / Regulations Government legislation requires organisations to be more customer focussed, flexible and to provide equal access to jobs, information and services. The Essex Competency Framework supports these major national themes particularly by the competencies on customer/client orientation and inter-personal skills.

Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) The Competency Framework was seen as a key building block to the ‘good’ assessment result where the Council was praised for its people performance management and ‘can-do’ culture. In future CPA will require local authorities to consider their longer term workforce development needs – the Competency Framework has a clear role to play here.

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National Pay and Workforce Strategy and Local Workforce Development Plan The office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) National Pay and Workforce Strategy requires Public Authorities to consider five key themes:

• Developing Leadership

• Developing the Skills of the Workforce

• Developing the Organisation

• Resourcing Local Government

• Pay and Rewards.

A number of these themes are aligned to our Competency Framework – for example, we have a leadership competency that identifies the need for personal credibility, providing direction and leading change.

Councils are measuring their activities against the above themes and putting in place workforce development plans. In Essex the Competencies will be a key element of our workforce development plan.

Investors in People The Council is committed to retaining its Investors in People (IiP) accreditation. The Competency Framework helps us meet and exceed the IiP standard by providing a framework for our recruitment processes, development and review process and job profile/person specification.

10 - Extract from the Investors in People Assessor’s Report - December 2003

Single Status Agreement The Competency Dictionary that expands on the Competency Framework was introduced for staff in Essex who were part of the Single Status Agreement. Essex implemented the Single Status agreement under which pay increments are linked to satisfactory performance with effect from June 2001- being one of the first councils to do so.

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Best Value Performance Indicators A number of the Best Value Performance Indicators analyse the composition of the workforce BV 11, 16 and 17. The Competency Framework helps us to attract and recruit a diverse workforce, taking into account gender, disability and ethnicity by placing the emphasis on competencies rather than traditional routes such as qualifications.

Essex Corporate Plan The Council has a clear direction in its corporate plan, currently called the Essex Approach, that outlines our priorities and objectives. The priorities include ‘getting Essex moving again by tackling road congestion and improving public transport’ and ‘giving the elderly the support they need to stay in their own homes’, to name just two.

11 – Essex Approach 2001 - 2005

Along with what we want to achieve, the Council has also agreed a set of ‘Core Values’ that outline how we will work e.g. the:

• Council ‘develops and supports its staff and recognises their achievements’

• Council ‘is committed to fairness and enables equal access to opportunities for all.’

The Council received a ‘good’ CPA assessment result and is now striving to improve. A Corporate Plan is being developed for 2005/9.

Local Service Agreements Local service agreements have been established to support capacity building across local councils. They encourage partnership and joint project working. The Essex Competency Framework can be used as a key organisational development tool across a number of authorities, for example, the Essex Leadership Centre of Excellence. This centre is a flagship project that has received ODPM Capacity Building Funding. It involves 14 authorities across Essex and includes personal development, organisational sharing and addressing key CPA themes that impact on Essex. The Centre has a personal development tracking tool aligned to the Essex Competency Framework.

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How is the Essex Competency Framework used?

It is used as a key organisational development tool for all our employees and Councillors in recruitment, selection, performance management and staff development – it is a fundamental building block to our HR Strategy. The following shows how the Council uses the Essex Competency Framework.

Recruitment and selection Competencies help achieve objectivity, transparency and fairness through the recruitment process – they challenge recruiters to be clear about the precise skills and behaviours required for the job.

They also help us promote equality, eliminate discrimination and enable equal access to opportunities for all – ensuring we act fairly and support our aim to be an ‘Employer of Choice’ appointing the ‘best person for the job’. This means that through the recruitment process all jobseekers (including those from ‘under represented groups’) can more readily demonstrate their suitability for jobs, adding to the diversity of our workforce and the services we can offer.

Significantly, the competencies have introduced a shift in the assessment and selection of jobseekers from a reliance on more traditional requirements (such as qualifications and years of experience) to the skills and abilities directly related to the requirements of particular roles. Such an approach is key to success in a changing environment.

Although in certain instances a ‘qualification’ is an essential requirement to undertake a job, e.g. social worker, in many cases such a requirement is not necessary and specifying a qualification can restrict the ‘pool’ from which we can recruit, limits the diversity of the workforce and the knowledge base of the organisation.

Also, specifying ‘years of experience’ does not necessarily mean that the jobseeker is competent for the role. The competencies also support forthcoming Age legislation by reinforcing the principle of removing age barriers in job profiles. The emphasis is better placed on competency and skill to undertake the job rather than on years of experience or age.

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To support managers in the recruitment and selection process, we offer a two day Recruitment & Selection module on our Staff Development Programme – where the use of the competencies is covered.

Stages of the recruitment and selection process

Writing the job profile and person specification

We have introduced a generic job profile template. This provides a consistent approach by ensuring that competencies are included in all job profiles.

The person specification element of the job profile defines the competencies required by the role, alongside education, training and experience.

12 - Example of job profile –Technology Strategy Manager

13 - Castle Point case study

Recruitment advertising

Applying a competency approach to recruitment helps us reduce recruitment advertising. In particular areas, such as administration and clerical jobs we have developed generic job profiles which outline the skills and behaviours needed for all admin and clerical posts – this helps when we consider ‘talent pool’ approaches to recruitment – saving costly large advertisements. For the jobseeker this means only applying once for a job at the Council.

14 – Admin & Clerical Talent Pool – generic job profile

Inviting applications

Our recruitment literature outlines the 4 or 5 competencies required and invites jobseekers to match their application as closely as possible to the requirements contained in the person specification.

15 - Information in support of job application – example

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Shortlisting

Applying the chosen competencies makes it much easier to select/reject candidates objectively and confidently.

16 - Completed short list form - example

Assessment Centres

Having 4 or 5 key competencies identified for the post makes selection of appropriate tests easier and the results more relevant.

17 - Assessment Centre – example

Interviewing

Managers are advised to set interview questions in line with the person specification which includes the relevant competencies.

A guide to structured interview questions

Organisationally, we have developed a guide to assist managers in the use of the Essex County Council Competency Framework throughout the recruitment and selection process. Under each of the twelve main competency headings, there is a selection of structured interview questions. These are designed to encourage jobseekers to give examples of how they demonstrate competence from their own experience throughout the selection interview. Supplementary questions are also outlined to help probe for further details. They help recruiting managers to frame relevant questions aligned to the person specification.

The guide is used for external jobseekers as well as selecting and promoting existing staff either via, for example promotion or redeployment.

18 – Contact Centre Manager – interview questions

Deciding to appoint

Evidence through the recruitment and selection process provides a solid basis on which to make a decision on who to appoint. It also provides a sound and objective basis for feedback to candidates.

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Managing performance The Framework has a key role in performance management review (our appraisal scheme).

Benefits of this structured approach include:

For the organisation

• to manage good and poor performance

• to identify training and development for the future

• motivate staff

• reward performance

• reinforce organisational values and culture

• succession plan

• audit consistency across the organisation.

For the employee

• identify how well they are performing in their current role

• identify training & development needs in the current role and possible future roles

• rate performance to help assess reward

• identify potential for future progression.

How to use competencies in reviewing performance


The Competency Framework has provided a common language for discussion and is a non-confrontational way of discussing/raising problems/development areas with staff.

Links to the corporate objectives and strategies

Each member of staff works with their manager to agree 6 to 8 objectives for each performance cycle. In addition to the operational objectives there are also a number

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of corporate objectives to help support organisational culture change and ensure that senior managers are working towards the changing nature of the organisation.

19 - Example of completed objective setting form

Competencies

As well as objectives, 4 or 5 competency headings (which will include up to 10 measures for senior managers, for example) are selected and employees agree with their manager whether development is needed against these competencies/measures.

20 - Example of completed competency form

Personal Development Plan

Where it is considered that development is needed, then the personal development plan identifies the competencies and possible agreed methods of meeting the development need.

21 - Example of completed Personal Development Plan

The Development Centre and Personal Competency Development Tracker are structured tools which assist identifying and meeting development needs.

22 –Development Centres and Personal Competency Development Tracker

23 – Extract from our Employee PMR guide

Applying performance management to job families

Over the last three years, the council has also developed common objectives and applied common competencies for some job families i.e. school crossing patrols and home care staff.

This simplifies the performance management process where there are generic job profiles and large groups of staff, particularly remote workers.

24 - School Crossing Patrol booklet

25 - Home Care booklet

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Staff development To ensure that our training & development needs are aligned to the Essex Competency Framework we have put in place a Staff Development Programme accredited at its various levels by Greenwich University, the Institute of Management and Leadership and City & Guilds.

Individual courses, modules and learning methods are directly linked to the competencies and employees are able to receive development directly relevant to the job they do and the needs they have. This needs to be regularly evaluated to ensure that the training is up-to-date and in line with the changing culture of the organisation – e.g. equality training.

As a result, the competencies have seen our training and development programmes move from an ‘ad-hoc pick list’ to a proactive, demand led development model linked to the corporate strategy.

Because all generic training and development is linked to the competencies, employees now seek the training they require in order that they can cite it in their reviews. The training therefore becomes integral to the development of the employee and the overall drive of the council to continuously improve service delivery.

The Competency Framework guides our existing workforce down a path of improving their performance in their existing jobs and improving their suitability for those jobs to which they aspire because the competencies are relevant to the whole organisation.

26 - Staff development module list by competencies

Pay progression

Linking performance to pay

At Essex County Council we have linked objectives and competencies to our reward / remuneration strategy. This approach applies to three main pay groups:

Senior managers

A scheme was introduced in 2002/03 for senior managers performance pay (our top 150 managers); each senior manager has 6 –8 service objectives plus agreed corporate objectives, competencies and a personal development plan. An annual

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assessment of performance is undertaken based on the achievement of objectives and the demonstration of competencies. See link 5 for corporate objectives for senior managers

Senior managers are appointed on a 10-point pay scale; in addition they are eligible to earn a performance pay element of up to 15%.

Middle managers

A scheme was introduced in 2004 / 05 for performance pay for middle managers (approximately 1500 managers). In addition to the incremental progression approach linked to performance, service groups have the flexibility to introduce career progression schemes which allow for accelerated progression.

Employees

The Single Status Agreement was implemented in Essex in June 2001. Following the job evaluation process a new broad band grade structure was adopted for all posts below middle managers (spinal column points scp’s 4-34). With effect from 1st April 2002, incremental pay progression for these staff was linked to performance (meeting objectives and demonstrating competencies). Measures from the Essex Competency Framework were developed for this scp range and the Essex Competency Dictionary was introduced.

27 - Competency Dictionary

Monitoring and evaluation It is important to stress that the competency approach is evolving and there is a constant need to evaluate the competencies and the work connected with them to ensure they link to the organisational changes and government drivers.

Each year HR agrees a strategy to audit, measure and develop our work on competencies in line with regional and national guidance.

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Future developments

The National Core Competency Framework (Employer’s Organisation) Essex County Council is a partner in the National Skills Competency Framework being developed by the Employers’ Organisation.

28 - Employers Organisation

e-Competencies (ODPM) Essex County Council [via our Society Of Chief Personnel Officers (SOCPO) links] is represented on the national group looking at the e-government competencies. Essex will be working with the ODPM on aligning the suggested e-competencies with our competency framework as part of a diagnostic toolkit.

29 – Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

e-Government agenda In line with the e-government agenda, all guidance and support will be e-enabled where possible.

Child Protection Work is progressing at national and local levels on specific child protection competencies and how these relate to generic competency frameworks. Within the Council Child Protection accountabilities have been included in relevant job profiles.

Implementing a competency approach

It is important to consider how best to implement the competency approach in your organisation - whether to adopt an organisational development model including recruitment through to development or whether to consider one element such as recruitment and selection as a starting point with a planned approach. Clearly starting

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http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_control/documents/homepage/odpm_home_page.hcsp



points may vary, for example Essex County Council already had a performance management review scheme in place.

The implementation of the Essex Competency Framework at Essex County Council commenced in 2000 and the attached presentation outlines the work undertaken since this time to develop competencies in recruitment, performance management, and staff development.

30 - Presentation – Implementing the Essex Competency Framework

The key features of successful implementation are: • set the organisational context

• agree the components of the competency package

• detail the competency framework

• buy-in from the top / senior management commitment

• start with a pilot – learn from this experience and monitor and evaluate

• engage the workforce

• agree process and essential documentation

• conduct essential training and communication at every level

• monitor, review and evaluate after first cycle – formal audit if necessary

• develop ongoing action plans – emphasising a structured approach and continuous evaluation

• provide on-going support and advice available in various formats

31 - Implementing Competencies at Uttlesford

Links with East of England Regional Assembly and Employers Organisation

The work at Essex County Council is regarded as part of best practice and national and regional monies have been made available to help other organisations in Essex to develop

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the use of the Essex Competency Framework in a wider setting which will support future partnership working. This would mean that any future development of the Essex Competency Framework would be across Essex.

32 – East of England Regional Assembly

Support on competencies

• Consultancy – The Essex Strategic HR Partnership is being supported by ODPM Capacity Building funding nationally and regionally to undertake consultancy work with Essex districts/unitary/borough councils on competency development.

• If you need any information on the toolkit or need help, support or advice in implementing a competency approach in your council please contact Essex County Council PMR Helpdesk 01245 430254 or Ednet 20254 Email: [email protected]

A spiral bound printed version of the Toolkit is available form Essex County Council by emailing the PMR helpdesk above at a cost of £75.

What our employees think

From managers “Competencies provide a consistent approach to the measurement of performance”.

“It’s the glue that holds all of our HR strategy together which is integral to the cultural change process”.

“They help us define how we should undertake our work”.

“In the current cultural change climate it is increasingly important for us to be able to identify how we should undertake our roles, our Competency Framework provides a consistent mechanism for us to do this”.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.eera.gov.uk/


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“The Essex Competency Framework is at the heart of everything you do, it is the ‘glue’ to our HR Strategy”.

“The Competency review is working well for us because we do much of the reviewing and decisions on evidence during Supervisions, so there is no pressure.”

From staff “It is the modern approach to recruitment.”

“Using the Competency Framework has ensured that members of my team have a clear understanding of the skills.”

“Using competencies as part of the recruitment and selection process provides a better focus when shortlisting and interviewing. This has been further helped by the Guidance for Interview Questions”

“I think the PMR system is so much better now. I don’t have to produce loads of evidence. We just have to state where it can be found.”

“When I have my PMR we always have a copy of the Service Plan and Essex Approach so I can be very sure that any training I do can be justified.”

“Whatever I ask for in the way of training, I get, provided it meets my objectives. I am totally sure that the Council is committed to training me.”

Documents

Essex Competency Toolkit