Bourne Training

The Council Plan identified performance management as a critical component in helping East Sussex County Council achieve its strategic vision of becoming a higher performing, customer focused, flexible and modern authority. Underpinning this was the need for staff and councillors to understand the council's priorities, how performance is managed and expectations of staff to improve the service they offered.

To support these aims, East Sussex County Council wanted to implement an on-line learning programme for all 15,000 staff and councillors. Specific requirements included:

• A one hour interactive course capable of delivery on-line or via CD-ROM, based on the Council's 'Pocket Guide to Performance Improvement'.
• Measurable outcomes validated through an assessment, with simple data capture to monitor usage and competence.
• Content designed to be relevant to all 15,000 council staff working in different roles across the Council's multi-site operations.
• The ability to maintain the course in-house to ensure that content is always up-to-date and changes can be implemented immediately.

“ I'd heard of the golden thread before but completing the course made it much clearer especially where actual examples were used to illustrate it. All my team have completed the course now and it has given us a real focus at regular team meetings”

Kevin Purdie - e-business manager

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Bourne designed and developed an e-Learning programme capable of deployment through the East Sussex County Council Intranet and via CD-ROM, to ensure all Council staff could access it through the available technology. Key features of the programme include:

• A modular structure to the course with a defined linear route through the material as well as direct access to specific modules. This is supported by links to additional resources including the Performance Improvement Intranet site and Pocket Guide
• A tutorial approach which uses strong visual imagery to support knowledge retention, and engages the learner by involving them in exercises to help them investigate their current knowledge of performance improvement and how it's implemented in their workplace
• Delivery through Bourne's Protius™ development framework which provides access to associated learning resources (frequently asked questions, glossary, email tutor function) and provides East Sussex County Council with the facility to update and maintain the course in-house
• An assessment module to establish the learner's competence after the training. The scores are e-mailed to a central point for collation to monitor that staff have completed and understood the course before the annual appraisal cycle

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As an organisation relatively new to e-Learning, East Sussex County Council made sure that the course was well publicised through internal communication channels and the corporate television service. The outcomes were measured at two levels; staff satisfaction and learning outcomes:

• Over 850 users completed the course within 6 months of the launch.
• More than 85% of users achieved a score of 80% or more in the post-course assessment.
• Evaluation of the programme in the first 6 months after launch reported excellent feedback:
• 86% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the e-Learning package helped them understand how they helped to achieve the Council's priorities.
• 91% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the e-Learning package helped them understand what is expected of me and what I can expect from my manager.
• 95% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the e-Learning package is easy to use.
• 84% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the e-Learning package design is engaging.

“ We are delighted with the programme. The feedback shows how much more colleagues understand about their role in managing performance linked to corporate objectives. Bourne Training were a joy to work with from start to finish, maintaining excellent relationships with us and translating an original concept into a very successful programme. I would not hesitate to recommend them to colleagues in other authorities”

Pete Rowley - Corporate Performance Manager

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