Developing leadership and management skills has been identified as a priority for the region by the South West Regional Skills Partnership (SW RSP) as it is the number one skills issue identified by business, not just in the South West but throughout the UK. 
 
The challenge for the South West is to improve our economic performance which lags behind top performing regions, and in particular levels of productivity must be improved. Leadership and management development contributes directly to improvements in performance and gains in productivity; it also has a positive effect on workforce development in general. 
 
The South West RDA has invested in three south west leadership and management projects to support this priority:  
 
Leadership South West, a regional hub of expertise in leadership, is tasked with raising awareness on the benefits of leadership development to businesses. It does this through:

• delivery of the IOD Company Direction Programme
• delivery of the Leading the Way programme in partnership with HJ Heinz Frozen and Chilled Foods Ltd
• delivery of the Action Learning for Sectors programme in partnership with the Learning and Skills Council - South West
• capacity building sessions with skills brokers and South West FE Colleges in partnership with the Learning and Skills Council - South West
• providing a wide range of network events
• communicating to business leaders and intermediaries through the Leadership Matters newsletter
• providing a regional research base
• maintaining a database of providers of leadership development
• maintaining the Leadership SW website

The South West Regional Leadership and Management Project was a two year pilot which ended in July 2008. The £3m project was jointly funded by the Learning and Skills Council and the South West RDA. The project succeeded in its vision, which was to improve the organisational leadership and management skills of South West managers, employers and owners of small and medium sized enterprises in sufficient numbers to create a measurable 'step change' in their aspirations for both organisation performance and employee skills development. The programme provided south west businesses with specialist leadership and management skills brokerage including a diagnostic to identify need provided by Business Links across the South West. The businesses had access to a subsidy of £800 to assist with the cost of undertaking leadership and management development training.  
 
Further information: 
South West Leadership & Management Project Evaluation - Executive Summary (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 48.67kb) 
South West Leadership & Managment Project Evaluation (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 1027.78kb) 
South West Leadership & Management Project Case Studies (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 2005.44kb) 
 
 
The research report Mapping Leadership and Management Provision in the South West (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 741.51kb) was produced in July 2007 by SW-SLIM on behalf of the SW RSP. The main findings:

• There is a significant range of Leadership & Management provision within the South West, delivered by a large number of providers. This includes national and regional initiatives, offerings from public institutions, private bodies, trade associations and consultants.
• Leadership & Management programmes have been designed by providers to take into account: size of business; type of learning intervention; and time and budget available.
• Whilst there is a wide choice of Leadership & Management provision on offer in the region, it is this very choice that potentially creates a confusing picture for the customer. Accessibility and appropriateness of provision was not always clear.

In 2007, regional partners with an interest in leadership and management development (LMD) developed the SW Leadership and Management Development Strategy (Microsoft Word Document - 1360.89kb). The key focus of the strategy is on awareness-raising of the benefits of LMD, understanding what works, communicating good practice and improving the quality of access to and the provision of LMD. The strategy has been endorsed by the South West Regional Skills Partnership and a South West Leadership and Management Stakeholder Group has been established. 
 
For further information, please contact: 
Liz Georgeson - Tel: 01392 229561 
Email: liz.georgeson@southwestrda.org.uk