What is delivery?
In the delivery cycle, the most crucial phase is delivery itself – turning a plan into reality, by making sure the actions set out in the local partners’ delivery plan actually happen at the right time, in the right place, in the right order and to the right ‘spec’.
The first essential tool is simple, but cannot be taken off a shelf: knowledge of what is happening on the ground. This can be complemented by problem-solving tools and project and programme management (PPM) disciplines, to assess and advise on partners’ capacity and delivery arrangements and ensure they are adopting and delivering the right interventions in the right way.
Why is delivery useful to my work?
Supporting delivery is GO core business. All GO staff have a crucial role in helping local partners to put in place effective delivery arrangements, build their capacity, and assess where problems might arise and how to deal with them.
For GOs, the delivery of Sustainable Community Strategy and LAA outcomes is an end in itself and a means to an end i.e. the delivery of PSAs. If partners are not able to deliver local outcomes on the ground, it will hurt the delivery of PSAs across the region.
To help you support the delivery phase, the GO Network has developed the LAA Progress Assurance Report, which sets out a structured series of questions to test the delivery arrangements and capability of LSPs.
What is my role in helping partners to do it well?
The core GO role is to assess and advise: assessing whether partners’ capacity and delivery arrangements are ‘fit for purpose’ to deliver local targets which contribute in turn to the delivery of PSAs; and advising on how gaps or weaknesses can be addressed.
The first part of the assessment role is to gather intelligence about delivery. For example, the partners said they would second a Community Support Officer to set up a Neighbourhood Policing Team. Have they done it? Have there been problems in getting her release? Did they use project management tools to make sure every eventuality was considered? Your knowledge of delivery on the ground is the first step in to supporting local partners.
In advising partners, we may be able to offer simple ‘common sense’ advice directly, based on our knowledge of the tools and techniques in this Handbook. We can also help with systematic problems in delivery by working with the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships (RIEPs) to diagnose and deal with capacity issues.
Core tasks
The first core task – and this could fall to GO theme policy lead or Locality Manager – is getting the ear-to-the-ground information on whether the partners are getting things done, by asking basic questions: is there a gap or barrier in the delivery machinery? Is there a potential hold-up in getting resources agreed? Do they have the capacity to get the right people in post? Is the local performance management system up-to-scratch?
Based on that knowledge, the second core task is use tools and techniques, especially project and programme management tools, to support partners to put in place the best delivery mechanisms, with the right resources, to make sure outputs and outcomes are delivered.
