TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS and NATIONAL TRAINING STRATEGIES

Transcription

1 TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS and NATIONAL TRAINING STRATEGIES How to ensue the ight taining at the ight time to the ight people? Deliveing Good Govenance Tools fo Local and Cental Authoities Pinciples of Taining Needs Analysis Reseach guidelines Pinciples of National Taining Stategies developed by Cezay Tutkowski fo the Decembe 2016 CENTRE OF EXPERTISE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM

2 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Table of contents 1. Pinciples of Taining Needs Analysis... 2 The ole of a taining needs analysis... 2 How to define taining needs?... 4 Fou steps in taining needs analysis... 9 Taining needs analysis as a continuous pocess Reseach as pat of taining needs analysis Implementation of a eseach poject Qualitative eseach methods Quantitative eseach methods Reliability and validity of social eseach Model TNA questionnaie Model guidelines fo individual in-depth inteviews TNA step-ladde National Taining Stategies fo local govenments Fom the analysis of taining needs to the National Taining Stategy Paticipatoy appoach to stategic planning The flow of the stategy development pocess The scope of the National Taining Stategy List of efeences Case study: Taining Needs Assessment of Local Councils in Malta (2014) Case study: Taining Needs Assessment of Local Administation in Poland (2016)

3 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 1. Pinciples of Taining Needs Analysis By definition, taining activities ae focused on achieving change: the univesal goal is to make a tansition fom a cetain specific state of knowledge (o lack theeof) and skills among a specific goup of people to a state which is defined as supeio, impoved and moe useful in the context of achieving some pe-defined goals. Theefoe, a taining activity in the life of an oganisation means that thee is a stiving to achieve a diffeent and, by definition, bette and desiable state of its opeation. Taining needs aise fom deficiencies elated to constaints o impefections in human activity, pimaily deficiencies in knowledge o skills. In this sense, they should be distinguished fom othe factos which exet influence on the functioning of oganisations. Notably, it is ae that actual developmental constaints would esult fom insufficient competences of people who ae pat of the oganisation. The condition of that oganisation may deviate fom the expectations due to vaious legal, institutional o histoical consideations. This Taining needs ae not the only token of an oganisation s need to develop. discepancy may also be connected with the social o political context o limited availability of human o financial esouces. The ole of a taining needs analysis The easons which constain effective pefomance of local administation obviously detemine the kinds of actions which ae needed to launch the institutional development pocess. In ode fo that pocess to be effective and efficient, one need to conduct pio in-depth analysis of contextual backgound of local administation. Such analysis should focus on identifying systemic baies to development and on assessing competencies of local govenment pesonnel and the esultant taining needs. The aspects to conside in such an analysis should include, among othes, the following: - Legal and institutional famewok of local govenance, in paticula the degee of decentalisation of public authoities as well as legal egulations detemining the scope of powes in the hands of local govenment; - Consistency of the legal system, possibility fo local govenment bodies to execise thei ights, consistency of legal supevision ove the opeations of local administation; - The economic context of local govenment opeations; - Oganisational pactices pevailing at local govenment offices, collaboation between local govenment units, local govenance monitoing systems, assessments of pefomance and the quality of sevices povided; - Status quo and quality of local govenment pesonnel, human esouces management pactices. Any diagnosis of the opeation of local govenment should also incopoate the social pespective: afte all, local govenments pefom a specific ange of public tasks wheeas citizens, membes of 2

4 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT specific local communities, ae the diect audience of thei sevices. Theefoe, when analysing local govenment opeations one should also eflect on the local living conditions, the quality of sevices and the natue of local social needs. Theefoe, we should stess that the taining needs diagnosis with espect to local govenment pesonnel should be one element in an oveall analysis of the situation of a specific local govenment unit o a specific public administation secto in a paticula county. In pinciple, such a diagnosis should always be accompanied by an insightful assessment of the legal and institutional famewok of local administation and an explication of the desiable model of this system and its opeations. Theefoe, in an analysis of taining needs, the issue that comes to the foe is not necessaily the subject-matte of taining (i.e. its content, taget ecipients, manne of oganisation) but, athe, the easonability of taining unde the existing cicumstances. The analysis should offe an answe to the question on whethe it is indeed the educational effot that will help the oganisation (o the secto as a whole) to attain the desiable state of affais. Afte all, it might well happen that mayos, executive secetaies o officials do have the necessay knowledge and skills to act but legal egulations o othe systemic constaints pevent them fom pefoming thei tasks efficiently. Status quo (identified baies to pefomance of local administation) Legal / systemic changes Taining stategy Desiable state of things (effective and efficient pefomance of local govenment units) In the light of these comments, it needs to be emphasized that a diagnosis of taining needs among local govenment pesonnel should always be pat of an oveall analysis of the situation of a specific LGU o a paticula local secto of public administation. Oveall, it should be accompanied by a summay of legal and institutional consideations in which local administation opeates, and a desciption of the desiable model of this system. In the Euopean context, the key document which lays down the key pinciples in this egad is the Euopean Chate of Local Self- Govenment, adopted in Stasboug in 1985, and atified by Poland in full (among few membe states of the Council of Euope) on 26 Apil One of the key povisions of the Chate is the pinciple of subsidiaity (Aticle 4.3): Public esponsibilities shall geneally be execised, in pefeence, by those authoities which ae closest to the citizen. Allocation of esponsibility to anothe authoity should weigh up the extent and natue of the task and equiements of efficiency and economy. ). Moeove, in the context of eseach findings pesented in this document, the following povisions of the Chate ae paticulaly notewothy: - Local self-govenment denotes the ight and the ability of local authoities, within the limits of the law, to egulate and manage a substantial shae of public affais unde thei own esponsibility and in the inteests of the local population. (Aticle 3.1) 1 The Chate became effective on 1 Mach

5 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT - Whee powes ae delegated to them by a cental o egional authoity, local authoities shall, insofa as possible, be allowed discetion in adapting thei execise to local conditions. (Aticle 4.5) - The conditions of sevice of local govenment employees shall be such as to pemit the ecuitment of high-quality staff on the basis of meit and competence; to this end adequate taining oppotunities, emuneation and caee pospects shall be povided. (Aticle 6.2) - Local authoities shall be entitled, within national economic policy, to adequate financial esouces of thei own, of which they may dispose feely within the famewok of thei powes. (Aticle 9.1) - Local authoities' financial esouces shall be commensuate with the esponsibilities povided fo by the constitution and the law. (Aticle 9.2) How to define taining needs? The diagnosis of taining needs helps to identify the discepancies between the knowledge held by potential taining/education paticipants and the knowledge which is desiable fo some specific easons. When descibing the status quo, we usually efe to the ealities of potential taining paticipants (e.g. local govenment officials), pesenting thei way of woking, identifying issues they gapple with, o identifying the impefections in how thei tasks ae caied out. In a nutshell, we pesent a desciption of the situation, an analysis of pofessional pactices of a specific goup of people (local officials, local govenment leades, councillos etc.). This kind of analysis may poduce two types of conclusions: - it may identify beliefs elating to the taining needs among the potential taget audience, which sometimes ae accompanied by the desie to meet those needs, o - it may identify the desiable level of knowledge o skills among specific goups of stakeholdes, i.e. indicate the extent to which educational effots may contibute to achieving a desiable state of things. Theefoe, we can speak of two appoaches in the planning of taining activities: on the one hand, we ae dealing with the identification of taining-elated expectations and, on the othe hand, we can speak of a pesciptive definition of needs elated to the development of competencies. Woth emembeing is that only in some cases the taining expectations voiced by local officials will be identical with the development needs of thei espective local govenment units. As mentioned ealie, the cuent effectiveness and efficiency of local administation may deviate fom the expectations haboued by specific stakeholdes, due to a Taining needs analysis is an attempt to specify who should be tained and to which extent, in ode to achieve the desiable status of knowledge, skills and ways of acting. lage numbe of highly divese extenal factos (such as the legal and institutional famewok, histoical backgound, economic factos etc.). It may also stem fom extenal consideations, fo 4

6 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT instance, it may esult fom weaknesses in the govenance of a local govenment unit, 2 o fom motivating factos (e.g. woking fo the local govenment may not be peceived as attactive, o the wok atmosphee in the office may discouage people fom being committed and pefoming well). Only some of those consideations may be obvious and will be noticed by the pesonnel of a local govenment unit (o, moe boadly, by people epesenting the secto of local govenment administation). Theefoe, we will always see a complete ovelap between the taining expectations and taining needs in this espect. Identification of taining expectations Such identification consists of two key steps: 1. Identification of taining postulates, i.e. establishing taining expectations among specific audiences, and descibing those postulates; 2. Identifying taining possibilities, i.e. a followup stage whee the most suitable and efficient ways to satisfy the postulates ae detemined. It is impotant to bea in mind that, with this appoach, we may be dealing with taining expectations o postulates which ae not at all valid fo the oganisation as a whole. One can easily imagine a situation whee someone wants something without needing it and vice vesa: we might need something without wanting it. What plays an impotant ole is an individual awaeness of ou own limitations: we do not always ealise the scope and, theefoe, also the consequences of ou own Identification of taining expectations is about identifying the postulates elated to taining and paticipation in educational activities voiced by membes of a specific goup (e.g. officials, councillos, local govenment leades, NGOs, etc.). It efes diectly to the ideas voiced o expectations incompetence. The moment we ealise them should be viewed as the stating point of pesonal development. An excellent illustation of this ule comes fom the competence ladde model poposed by Leslie Rae: 3 2 Fo instance, inefficient oganisation of wok, incompetence of some local administation epesentatives, faulty pocedues in local institutions, financial poblems elated to wong esouces management, limited human esouces etc. 3 L. Rae Planning and designing taining pogammes, Gowe Publishing Ltd.,

7 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT People can pefom specific tasks o fulfil paticula functions without having the ight knowledge o necessay skills. The esults of such pactices will be pesumably unsatisfactoy, which does not mean, howeve, that they can be peceived as poblematic by the individual concened in all situations. Anyone knows individual cases of thoughtless ignoance within people s pofessional, social o political functions. Ove time, as expeience accumulates and knowledge is obtained, people develop and undestanding of thei job (sometimes this happens as a consequence of vaious attempts and failues). This may help them to become awae of the constaints esulting fom insufficient knowledge o skills. If, in consequence, people begin a taining and development pocess, we can say they have embaked on a path to pesonal gowth. Anothe step on this path would be to achieve a state of conscious competence, whee people have the ight qualifications in a specific aea, enabling them to pefom thei tasks popely, effectively and efficiently. And, again, expeience, education and self-eflectivity may enable an individual to each an expet level whee the acquied competences ae used subconsciously, and the decisions ae optimal. Woth noting ae two essential aspects elated to the above-mentioned model. Fistly, people who ae not awae of thei incompetence just do not ealise that they do now know something. This is why it is vey had to assess that they need any educational suppot and, the moe so, to specify the kind of suppot needed. If people ae not awae of thei own incompetence, asking them what they should lean does not make much sense. This emak may be illustated by memoies of Polish efomes who wee active at the time when the local govenment efom was intoduced in Poland (ealy 1990s, vey soon afte the democatic tansfomation of 1989). Pofesso Jezy Regulski, egaded as one of the founding fathes of the Polish teitoial govenment, ecollects othe counties effots to identify the needs of the fledgling local administation in Poland at that time: We eceived enomous assistance fom a vaiety of souces ( ). A vey nice [man] came and he was helping us actively fo an entie yea. Howeve, one yea late, anothe man was sent and he thought he knew eveything and we knew nothing. And instead of discussing things with us and ageeing on an assistance plan, he decided that a needs assessment should be pefomed. He stated tavelling aound the county and asking voits and councillos what they didn t know and would like to lean. That made no sense. At that time, ou local govenment officials wee not at the stage whee they would know what they didn t know. Afte all, in ode to answe that question you should be able to detemine the scope of knowledge they should attain, and you should be able to identify what they aleady know, and only on this basis you can detemine what those people should lean. 4 On the othe hand, we cannot assume that the development of competence can have a final point, especially in a situation of changing govenance pactices, tansfomations of govenment systems o constant evolution of the society s needs. Someone who is an expet today can easily become an ignoamus in futue if they fail to notice the changes in the suounding wold in time. Notewothy is anothe theat elated to situations when taining needs analysis is limited to identification of expectations. Uncitical acceptance of postulates may bing unfavouable consequences fo the oganisation (e.g. a local govenment unit). One example would be the postulate to have foeign language taining, which is sometimes mentioned by local officials in 4 Jezy Regulski Życie splecione z histoią [Life intetwined with histoy]; Wocław: Zakład Naodowy im. Ossolińskich, 2014; p

8 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT questionnaies 5. It might well be that knowledge of foeign languages is not needed at all fo the tasks they pefom (even though the oppotunity to acquie such competences may be attactive as such). Anothe example would be the postulate to obtain taining in qualifications which will be useful mostly when seeking a job outside the public secto. Of couse, thee is an institutional pespective whee the focus on fulfilling the epoted taining expectations is valid and fully undestandable. This is the pespective of a commecial taining povide. As a ule, howeve, this pespective does not apply to stategic appoaches to competence building among the pesonnel of a public institution. In this case, a decisive ole is played by the effot to adapt educational activities to paticula oles and tasks which the institution is expected to fulfil. A pesciptive definition of competence development needs Defining actual taining needs of a specific taget goup should be always based on the afoementioned detailed analysis of discepancies between the status quo (specific competencies) and the desiable situation. Fo instance, the intoduction of new legal egulations may geneate a need to tain people who will be affected by such amendments (if we know about legislative plans in advance, we can develop a ange of poposed taining events ealie). The outcomes of a pefomance analysis at a local govenment office may pompt its management to implement changes to existing pocedues (and, at the same time, to upgade the staff s knowledge to match the new ules of opeation). In othe cases, new govenment efoms may geneate the need to educate key stakeholdes involved in local govenment. In the afoementioned examples we ae dealing with ex ante identification of taining needs. We should notice that conscious educational postulates ae usually closely connected with knowledge o skills gaps expeienced in eveyday activities. Howeve, fom the pespective of office management, political leades, epesentatives of egional, cental o intenational institutions it sometimes becomes essential to un a taining pogamme aimed at changing attitudes, skills o awaeness of a specific occupational o social goup (fo instance, local govenment pesonnel). In most cases, this means that thee is a need to povide knowledge o develop attitudes and skills wheneve gaps ae not clealy visible in eveyday activities but will become cucial in the long un. A pesciptive definition of taining needs efes to a specific need to tain a paticula audience, which stems fom the needs of a local govenment office (o system). As a ule, this need emains closely connected with the stiving to achieve a well-defined, intended state of affais. Fo instance, as many counties pepaed fo thei EU accession, an impotant poblem was to impove the pefomance of local authoities. It was necessay to tain a pool of officials who would be able to use the oppotunity of accession to enhance local communities. In that situation, national govenments sometimes decided to oganise taining pogammes fo local govenment officials. In the flood of eveyday poblems, the development of govenance skills is often not 5 A questionnaie is a way to aange questions to be asked by the inteviewe duing a suvey inteview. The inteviewe uses a questionnaie to ecod (mak) the espondent s answes. A questionnaie can be also selfadministeed, i.e. completed by the suvey espondent by him/heself, in which case no inteview takes place. 7

9 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT included among the pioities of local authoities. Howeve, postponing a taining pogamme until a moment when a need aises (i.e. until stuctual pogammes ae launched) may mean that multiple oppotunities elated to ealy EU membeship may be lost. SWOT analysis 6 is a useful tool helping us to develop a pesciptive definition of taining needs. It is used to povide a detailed diagnosis of factos which enable smooth pefomance of an oganisation. When unning this kind of analysis, we take into consideation stengths and weaknesses of the status quo, oppotunities elated to anticipated changes and weaknesses which may emege once changes have occued. A SWOT analysis enables us to captue the afoementioned discepancy between what exists and what should exist in the light of the adopted assumptions. Factos Facilitating the achievement of goals Obstucting the achievement of goals Intenal (chaacteistics of the oganisation) Oganizational stengths Oganizational weaknesses Extenal (chaacteistics of the envionment) Extenal oppotunities Extenal theats Notably, the poposed taining (stategy) should efe to both the identified attitudes and beliefs of potential taining audience as well as to objective ealities in which they opeate. Theefoe, a eliable analysis of taining needs tells us not only what kind of taining should be offeed and to whom, but, above all, it daws on the conclusions fom the analysis of existing govenance and administative pactices and the context of the oganisation (tasks pefomed, goals defined, pefomance indicatos etc.). In othe wods, it is based on identifying constaints in the cuent poblem-solving pactices. A compehensive analysis of taining needs specifies: the cuent state of knowledge and skills among potential taget goups, the state of knowledge and skills equied fo effective pefomance of pe-defined tasks and esponsibilities, the type of educational activities which enable the tansition fom the status quo to the desiable state of things, and factos which constain the effectiveness of taining activities (e.g. systemic poblems). 6 SWOT: Stengths, Weaknesses, Oppotunities and Theats. 8

10 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT In this sense, a taining needs analysis goes beyond fulfilling the postulates o educational pefeences. In the case of local govenment institutions, this means, on the one hand, that thee is a need to identify the status quo (systemic conditions) based on data fom a vaiety of souces and an attempt to explicate the obtained esults by efeing to social, political, economic o cultual consideations. On the othe hand, it assumes, obviously, the implementation of social eseach aimed at identifying pioities and expectations of local govenment pesonnel and assessing thei motivation and satisfaction with the wok pefomed. Fou steps in taining needs analysis A taining needs diagnosis which leads to the implementation of a taining stategy should cove fou essential elements: a) unning a gap analysis (gaps between the status quo and the desiable state), b) identifying the easons behind poblems, thei consequences and backgound, c) identifying the validity of taining activities and hieachy of thei impotance fo the oganisation, d) identifying the scope and topics of taining and possible oganisational solutions. These fou steps of taining needs analysis ae pat of a pocess which, in its entiety, leads fom a diagnosis of an oganisation s opeations and pefomance to the development of an educational stategy. With espect to a local govenment unit, if we want to un a discepancy (gap) analysis, we must, above all, identify the existing govenance solutions and the mandatoy pactices, and then identify the cuent knowledge and attitudes among specific goups of local govenment pesonnel. In many a case, this would entail the need to cay out social eseach o a benchmaking analysis. The key element in discepancy analysis is, of couse, to identify the desiable ways of opeation, the poposed sphees of esponsibility fo the staff, and pefomance tagets fo specific tasks. Studies and analysis should be planned in a way to make them useful fo the desciption and analysis of the status quo, including all kinds of poblems, insufficiencies and obstacles which may emege on the way to poposed outcomes. Expeience shows that studies always poduce a lot of additional and inteesting data, yet often elatively unelated to eseaches oiginal intentions. A discepancy analysis should identify the causes of poblems, as well as consequences and contexts of poblems. At this stage, one should make a clea distinction between institutional (pocedual o systemic) souces of poblems and factos elated to the knowledge/skills gap among local govenment pesonnel. It may tun out that taining is not the ight kind of antidote against the obseved poblems since legal, oganisational o govenance-elated consideations play a moe impotant ole. This step of taining needs diagnosis should poduce an exact list of 9

11 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT education-elated needs, clealy sepaating those needs fom any othe essential activities. One should additionally stess, howeve, that in many cases such a list of educational needs will be an essential, albeit peliminay document, not fully useful fo opeational puposes. What happens sometimes is that identified poblems can only be solved via solutions leading to systemic change. The final step of a taining needs diagnosis, which ceates the bidge to National Taining Stategy, is to identify pioity actions and thei hieachy of impotance. In othe wods, it is about exploing the elations between the list of educational needs, the existing implementation possibilities and the poposed goals of institutional change. Befoe undetaking any educational activities, we should attempt to answe a numbe of key questions: 7 Costs some changes equie a long taining pocess; sometimes it is essential to get a lage goup of people involved in the pocess. Ae the equied changes woth implementing lagescale educational activities and the elated financial expenditues and time? Legal equiements alongside knowledge gaps, a discepancy analysis may also eveal an insufficiency of the legal system (e.g. legal egulations concening local govenment). Is thee a chance to amend the impefect legal egulations? If so, should educational equiements take pecedence befoe legal changes? If not, should the taining, if any, be confined to the existing egulations o is it wothwhile expanding it and adding issues that go beyond the existing egulations (e.g. with the intention to build awaeness of the existing limitations)? Political pessue in some cases the poposed changes and actions may meet with stonge o weake esistance fom cental authoities o political leades; in othe cases, fa-eaching assistance fom decision-makes is possible. Unde what kind of political cicumstances will taining activities be implemented? Will the scope of taining depend on the decisions/supevision of the authoities? And, if so, to what extent and what kinds of consequences will this entail? Taget audiences/stakeholdes the identified taining needs may tun out to be so boad and acute that it will be necessay to include lage goups of ecipients o, on the contay, it may tun out that desiable changes may be achieved by taining a naow yet impotant goup of people. Who will be the taget audience of taining? Is it possible to educe the taget goup without theatening the desiable outcomes? What ae the potential paticipants expectations in tems of taining and is it possible to satisfy those expectations? Oganisational oppotunities of couse, taining needs identification does not need to emain in a elation with specific oganisational capabilities; instead, it may be seen as an intoduction to mobilise the ight kinds of esouces. It is, howeve, wothwhile asking about the existing human esouces, logistic and financial esouces needed fo the poposed implementation of taining effots. The decision to oganise a taining pogamme (o to establish a long-tem educational stategy) should be based on answes to the afoementioned questions. Of couse, one impotant facto may lie in the political will of cental authoities to poceed with the development of a taining 7 Cf. R.H. Rouda and M.E. Kusy Development of human esouces, Pat 2, Needs Assessment the fist step, Tappi Jounal,

12 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT pogamme. The impotance of this decision will often be decisive, even though a lack of eflection in the aeas outlined hee may ende the entie implementation pocess highly inefficient. If we conclude that not all identified taining needs ae equally impotant, o that we ae unable to addess all of them, it will be a good solution to implement actions on a smalle scale, fo instance as an expeience exchange pogamme o a taining pogamme tageted at key stakeholdes only. Popely implemented taining needs diagnosis would ceate a cedible gounds fo elaboation of National Taining Stategy, which should specify the coveage and topics of taining as well as the possible oganisational solutions. Of couse, the afoementioned indications efe to a model situation: those ae geneal ecommendations concening the flow and scope of taining needs diagnosis. Expeience shows (see examples in the appendices) that complete implementation is not always possible, needed o desiable. Unde specific, and vaied, institutional, legal, political, cultual etc. conditions, one should adjust the scope of analysis to the existing implementation possibilities while emembeing that a taining needs diagnosis should: clealy identify the souce of the desiable state of things that should be enabled by the taining stategy (e.g. intenational pactices, legal egulations, model activities, desiable pefomance indices etc.), help to identify key baies which constain the possibility to achieve the desiable outcome, seve to develop poposed effective activities which, once implemented, will help to intoduce the desiable change. Taining needs analysis as a continuous pocess The appoach to taining needs analysis pesented above assumes that the analysis is a pocess with a clealy specified beginning and end. Howeve, it is woth emembeing that any change entails vaious consequences, not only desiable ones, and is aely a linea pocess. Taining activities ae a special case since we ae dealing with a change of paticipants awaeness at each stage of the pocess. As a esult, the eality may be undestood in new ways (activities taken, tasks fulfilled, pocesses implemented, institutional goals adopted etc.), and elated new needs (o expectations) may emege. As the taining stategy is implemented, new poblems and new challenges will inevitably emege. This is why it is desiable to ensue effective and consistent impact monitoing. This can be done by pefoming eseach, conducting benchmaking analysis, o veifying the achievement of taget indicatos. Howeve, it is a good idea to ty less fomal methods as well, since they give us a cuent pictue of needs and expectations of the taget goups and enable us to espond adequately. To achieve this, we need to obseve the eality caefully, with paticula attention to the poblems faced by key stakeholdes. 11

13 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 2. Reseach as pat of taining needs analysis As mentioned ealie, an effective analysis of taining needs coves two paallel pocesses: identifying taining expectations among key stakeholdes in the local govenment secto, and conducting an analysis of the legal and institutional context of opeation fo local administation. In the latte case, when we exploe the factos which detemine efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness of local govenment, the following key elements should be incopoated into the analysis: the scope and natue of decentalisation in the sphee of govenment, institutional, systemic solutions which influence the opeation of local administation, the political context and the impact of paty politics on the opeations of local govenment, and social consideations which influence the condition of local govenment (the condition of civil society, citizens eadiness to take pat in public life, paticipation in the elections etc.). The natue of the factos pesented above, which lagely detemines the outcome of the taining needs analysis, indicates that two coe analytical pocesses must be implemented, namely: social eseach among epesentatives of the most impotant goups of officials and local leades, expet wok coveing the diagnosis of legal and institutional backgound fo the opeations of local govenment. Futhe on, this pape discusses mainly the most impotant issues elated to the implementation of social eseach. 8 Expet analysis emains a specific matte, detemined by the special natue of each case (county, system) and, as such, it can be paametised only to a vey limited extent. The county epots (Malta, Poland) enclosed at the end of the text (in the annexes), howeve, pesent the scope of issues which may constitute the coe focus of expet studies. Implementation of a eseach poject Implementation of taining needs eseach among the staff of local administation should begin with fomulation of the key eseach poblems which will delineate the ange of questions asked in inteviews with stakeholdes o in questionnaies. 8 The comments in this pat of the text have been patially taken fom the wok by C. Tutkowski entitled Planning and execution of social eseach in the local envionment [Planowanie i ealizacja badań społecznych w śodowisku lokalnym], published in Reseach on the quality of public sevices in local govenment [Badania jakości usług publicznych w samoządzie lokalnym (edited by C. Tutkowski), a book published by the Association of Polish Cities and Towns (2011). 12

14 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Reseach poblems can be fomulated as follows: The eseach outcomes should help to: Identify the key poblems in the opeation of local administation elated to gaps in officials competences/skills; Identify the scope and natue of expectations elated to pofessional knowledge and skills acquisition by local govenment officials, in paticula, identification of attitudes towads paticipation in vaious kinds of educational endeavous. Assess the usability of existing taining expeience among key goups of local govenment officials woking fo the local administation. Of couse, this is just an example of possible eseach poblems. Woth pointing out hee is that when we get down to doing eseach, we must clealy define its pupose. In othe wods, we must know what kind of infomation we will need in ode to be able to speak validly about actual taining needs among local govenment pesonnel, and, theefoe, be able to fomulate specific ecommendations in that egad. It is impotant to bea in mind that all activities elated to the execution of social eseach ae seconday vesus the goals of eseach 9. It is the pupose and the elated eseach questions that detemine the choice of eseach methods, eseach techniques used by the eseache and the souces of infomation and esouces needed to achieve success. Key methodological issues Once the eseach poblems have been fomulated, we should think about the souces of infomation to be queied in ode to obtain the knowledge needed fo an effective and exhaustive desciption. Woth noting is that vaious eseach poblems may entail vaious kinds of analytical endeavous. As the afoementioned example illustates, a single eseach poject may involve exploation (e.g. identification of majo poblems in the opeations of local administation), desciption (e.g. identifying the existing taining pactices) o an attempt to explicate the existing elations (e.g. analysis of the elationship between educational pactices and the pefomance of administation). The natue of eseach poblems usually detemines the couse of action in the empiical pat of eseach. Simply put, we can assume that exploatoy questions usually entail the need to use qualitative eseach methods which enable a moe in-depth, o Success of eseach depends on the eseach question, which must be clea and distinct. The eseach question detemines what is impotant (which data should be collected, which aspects of data should be analysed etc.) and, moeove, what is unimpotant and should be skipped (in the eseach poject concened). (Uwe Flick Designing qualitative eseach ) 9 See: Flick, U., (2007), Designing qualitative eseach ; London: Sage Publications 13

15 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT eflexive, analysis wheeas questions necessitating a desciptive o illustative answe will call fo quantitative eseach methods which can detemine the commonness o fequency of specific phenomena studied. Qualitative eseach methods This ange of methods include data collection techniques which help eseaches to identify the natue of things athe than quantify things. Qualitative techniques can be used, fo instance, to study poblems which ae unde-eseached, undefined and need an in-depth exploation of dependencies (e.g. when tying to answe why local govenment offices do not opeate effectively o which factos detemine the success of local policies implemented by local govenments). The qualitative methodology assumes a focus on the obseved pocess and the meanings contained in it, i.e. ones that cannot be quantified in tems of type, quantity, intensity o fequency. The most common qualitative eseach techniques include individual in-depth inteviews and focus goup inteviews. Individual in-depth inteview (IDI): An individual in-depth inteview is caied out by a specially tained inteviewe accoding to a pepepaed detailed guide which defines the objectives and the geneal flow of the convesation. It enables caeful exploation of how the inteviewees think and act, how they look at a situation, the motives behind specific activity and the extent of the inteviewee s knowledge. These inteviews ae usually held with individuals who shae simila chaacteistics that ae impotant fo the eseach. An IDI usually takes about one hou. Focus goup inteview (FGI): A focus goup enables a caefully planned discussion with selected paticipants in a comfotable envionment in ode to exploe thei peceptions of a specific aea of inteest. The aim of this eseach technique is to econstuct, as closely as possible, the eal pocesses of social communication and to confont paticipants vaying opinions though the discussion. Paticipants ae invited to a focus goup because they have distinctive pesonal chaacteistics that diectly coespond with the objectives of the eseach. This eseach technique is especially suitable fo investigating the opinion-foming pocesses and the poblems of decision-making that ae subject to pee influence and collective behaviou. Usually, a focus goup inteview has 6 to 10 paticipants. Famewok inteview guidelines ae the most common eseach tools in the qualitative appoach: on this basis the eseache conducts an inteview with selected espondents. A sample eseach inteview guides (used in the eseach on taining needs among local govenment staff in Poland, 2015, and then, in a modified fom, in Sebia, 2016, and in Geece, 2016) ae pesented in section

16 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT It is impotant to bea in mind that analysis of qualitative data is lagely intepetive: as such, the use of those methods equies special expeience and eseach competence, given a high isk of eo. When making methodological decisions, one must, above all, detemine the natue of the poposed study, i.e. detemine whethe the study should poduce in-depth analysis of the phenomena concened o should it esult in valid genealizations in quantitative data (aggegated esponses, summay tables, statistics etc.) that can be used to descibe chaacteistics of lage populations. We need to know if we seek to descibe the existing state of affais (e.g. pactices applied in local govenment offices) o to exploe and undestand why specific pactices ae followed. Quantitative eseach methods Such methods involve techniques which poduce numeical esults. They answe questions such as: How many? How fequently? etc. Quantitative methods ae pefectly suited to study the dissemination of a phenomenon (e.g. to exploe how many local govenment officials take pat in shot-tem couses and taining events o how often such paticipation occus). The most common quantitative eseach techniques ae based on questionnaies (thei types ae discussed late on), and data ae pesented in tables and chats. Due to the natue of this publication, we cannot povide a detailed desciption of how quantitative eseach instuments should be developed. Futhe on, we pesent the poposed model questionnaie fo Taining Needs Analysis. This questionnaie can be used in whole, as woded, o in pat, to study selected issues, of impotance in a specific context. Analysis of collected quantitative data is, by definition, objectivised, which means that the use of the ight pocedues should lead to identical outcomes, egadless of eseache impact. If analysis goes beyond a simple pesentation of pecentage distibutions, it equies technical knowledge in the field of statistics. Sampling methods Once we have detemined the scope of eseach techniques to be used, the next step is to identify the infomants, i.e. paticipants who will help us to obtain the equied infomation. If we analyse the taining needs of teitoial govenments, those might include (depending on specific systemic solutions) councillos, mayos, executive secetaies of local units, officials (as a geneal categoy o as specific goups of local govenment officials), customes of local administation offices, social leades o, finally, membes of local communities. Moeove, ecuitment of eseach paticipants is a poblem. In the pactice of social eseach, usually two main espondent ecuitment methods ae applied: vaious types of andom samples, and non-andom sampling (exhaustive, puposive and quota-based). 15

17 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT As egads andom sampling, the paticipants ae dawn andomly fom among the membes of a specific population. The andomly dawn goup is efeed to as the sample and its size is detemined by statistical ules. One paticula type of a andom sample is a epesentative sample, which is epesentative of a specific population. In othe wods, based on that sample we can make valid infeences about the chaacteistics of the entie population. Put simply, the size of a epesentative sample depends on the size of the population studied and on the assumptions egading the acceptable measuement eo in the obtained esults. Pepaation of a epesentative sample entails many technical difficulties and equies technical knowledge. Howeve, it is good to emembe that many eseach poblems do not equie no epesentative esults. This petains, in paticula, to exploatoy eseach, whee we want to undestand a poblem and get an idea of its potential causes, o exploe the ange of possible views among the espondents without detemining which pat of the population they efe to (e.g. a population of local govenment officials). Again, we need to emphasize that eseach methodology should always be detemined by the puposes of the study. Puposive sampling is a way of selecting espondents fo a poject which is detemined by specific citeia adopted by the eseache. This sampling stems fom specific expectations towads the espondents. Fo instance, if we want to hold inteviews only with mayos heading offices which achieve the highest quality in social sevices, simple andom sampling will make no sense (the likelihood of dawing such espondents would be too low). Identification of specific cases will be a much bette solution. Of couse, puposive sampling (unless it is exhaustive, see below) does not allow us to daw conclusions about the chaacteistics of the entie population. Howeve, the esults of eseach conducted in this way can povide valuable knowledge about selected sphees of eality (e.g. explain the factos which ae conducive to high quality in public sevices). Fo the sake of igou we should add that puposive sampling may be an element of a study pefomed on a andom sample (when we identify specific individuals in a study and ask specific questions on this basis). At least some poblems elated to espondent selection can be avoided by using exhaustive sampling, which occus when we study all membes of a population study. Fo instance, those could be all local officials, all councillos in a paticula local govenment unit etc. This sampling method has significant advantages but also vey cumbesome disadvantages. On the one hand, when we use exhaustive sampling, we avoid poblems elated to sample dawing, assessing epesentativeness of the esults o specifying the measuement eo. On the othe hand, we may expose ouselves to unnecessaily lage scope of eseach, with uneasonably high numbes of inteviews. Woth emembeing is that a epesentative sample, i.e. a sample whee the findings can be extapolated onto an entie population, usually compises a small numbe of cases fom the total population. The equied size of the sample depends on the size of the population and on eseaches assumptions egading the pecision of infeencing: Confidence inteval, commonly efeed to as sampling eo in suvey esults pesented in the media, the eo is given as a band of possible deviations fom the esult, e.g. +/- 3%. It is assumed that the confidence inteval contains, with a paticula pobability, the actual value of the studied paamete fo the entie population. Confidence level means the degee to which we can detemine whethe o not ou data ae tue i.e. the pobability that the esult ecoded fom the sample coesponds with the actual situation in the entie studied population. Theoetically, it is possible that the findings obtained 16

18 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT in the andomly dawn sample will not coespond with the distibution of specific phenomena, beliefs o pactices among membes of the population. Without going into details, which ae beyond the scope of this guidebook, it is enough to say that fo the needs of studies conducted in a local envionment it is entiely acceptable to adopt a confidence level of 95% o ecognising that thee is 5% of the isk that ou findings may be totally invalid. The table pesents the sample size fo a specific population size, assuming diffeent confidence intevals and adopting a confidence level of 95%. 10 The figues pesented in the table efe, in pinciple, to simple andom samples. 11 Population Confidence inteval +/- 3% +/- 4% +/- 5% Sample size appox appox. 600 appox. 390 And, finally, espondent selection in some studies is not based on any specific selection method. Such pactice may involve, fo instance, a web suvey posted on a website of an institution. We can then talk about a pobe athe than a solid suvey. Without much hesitation, we should advise against this appoach. This way to collect opinions offes no effective contol ove the couse of the study and lagely educes the eal possibility to assess the eliability of its findings. Fieldwok execution Regadless of the sampling pocedue used, questionnaie-based suveys can be executed in many ways. Each appoach has specific advantages and poblems. When making decisions about such eseach, we should ask the following questions: 1. Will ou suvey be conducted by inteviewes who will hold inteviews with espondents (in a face-to-face encounte with the espondent, the inteviewe will code the coesponding categoies depending on answes given)? O pehaps we might decide to distibute the questionnaies and the espondents will complete them by themselves. 2. How to each the espondents once we have decided to conduct ou suvey via inteviewes? 3. How to distibute questionnaies once we have decided to use a self-administeed method? When selecting the fieldwok method, we need to conside a numbe of elements: alongside specific eseach goals (which detemine many othe aspects) we should also think about fieldwok 10 These values efe to a simple andom sample. 11 Statistical issues wee omitted fo easie eading. Calculations of sample sizes ae based on Ceative Reseach Systems ( Reades may use a sample size calculato available fom beaing in mind that this souce efes to simple andom samples. 17

19 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT timing, costs, possibility to each ou espondents o the likelihood of getting cedible answes. Futhe on, we pesent the key stengths and weaknesses of selected most popula quantitative eseach techniques. Inteviewe-based questionnaie suveys Face-to-face inteview - suveys conducted by inteviewes ae the most classic type of questionnaie-based studies. The inteviewe s task is to each a specific espondent and hold an inteview whee questions ae asked in a manne stictly pescibed in the questionnaie. Key weaknesses/poblems High fieldwok costs Inteviewe effects (undesiable influence) Apat fom inteviewes fees, we must usually include costs of tavel to the espondents (sometimes multiple tips) and of copying questionnaies and othe mateials; this can sometimes epesent a consideable cost item in the suvey budget. The esults obtained in the suvey may depend a lot on the inteaction between the inteviewe and the inteviewee. Thee is a seious dange of a conscious o subconscious influence that the inteview situation may have on the inteviewee s esponses (diect suggestions, impact of inteviewes social chaacteistics, impact of vaious objects obseved by the espondent, such as badges won, featues of inteviewe s clothing and appeaance). Also, negative impact on suvey esults may come fom espondent s shyness, shame o concens about giving tue answes. Key advantages/benefits High degee of contol ove the scope and quality of data Reaching the ight espondents Inteviewe-based administation offes a geate contol ove the scope of data achieved since the inteviewe will make sue to ask all the ight questions in the questionnaie, claify doubts as to the question content o pobe the espondents in case of open-end questions. 12 The use of inteviewes should help to suvey the equested sample (to pefom the equied numbe of inteviews with andomly dawn espondents). As a ule, the inteviewe is obliged to make thee attempts to each the espondent (when the espondent is not at home o at anothe anticipated location). Telephone inteviews At pesent, telephone inteviews ae usually conducted fom pofessional inteviewing studios, equipped with inteviewe teminals with access to a compute and a telephone netwok. A telephone inteviewe has a task to ead questions fom the compute monito and to ente the espondent s answes via a special compute softwae (database). This technique is known as CATI 12 A espondent may not be asked all of the questions contained in a suvey questionnaie. Sometimes cetain questions ae skipped by the inteviewe in a pe-defined way afte the espondent has given specific answes. Fo instance, if a espondent says he/she has no childen, the inteviewe will skip questions about the espondent s child-eaing methods etc. 18

20 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT (Compute Assisted Telephone Inteview). Of couse, it is possible that an inteview can be held by telephone whee the inteviewe will take down answes in a taditional pape questionnaie. Key weaknesses/poblems Limited scope of questions Given that the inteviewe has less contol ove the espondent (no face-to-face inteaction) and the vaiation of inteviewing situation (the inteviewe in a studio, the espondent in an unknown place), a telephone inteview is usually much shote than a face-to-face inteview. The natue of such questions means that only the most impotant issues will be coveed: thee is always a dange that the espondent, annoyed by the duation of the inteview and the fact that she/he was in the middle of doing something, will just hang up and leave many questions unansweed. Howeve, some inteviews may be long, lasting even fo moe than 30 minutes. To conduct such inteviews, inteviewes must have special intepesonal skills and must be able to motivate the espondent. With limited means (a telephone contact), the inteviewe must maintain the espondent s inteest and co-opeation thoughout the convesation. Difficulties in accessing telephone diectoies One significant obstacle in conducting telephone suveys is the difficulty in accessing a telephone diectoy: people have phone numbes fom vaious mobile opeatos, some only have a fixed-line phone while othes only use a mobile phone. In ode to conduct a CATI suvey, e.g., among local govenment officials, it is often not sufficient to know the phone numbes of local govenment offices. Key advantages/benefits Moe effective use of the suvey questionnaie The use of dedicated softwae fo CATI suveys enables us to define detailed outing ules fo specific espondent types. Routing ules define which questions ae skipped, depending on the espondent answes o chaacteistics. Fo instance, local govenment officials will be asked about diffeent taining topics than councillos o local govenment leades. Anothe example is a situation whee we can ask the espondent if they eve consideed leaving thei local govenment job and, depending on the answe, we will eithe ask o skip a set of questions about choosing an altenative job. Such automatic outing eliminates many human eos made by inteviewes. Lowe fieldwok costs Shote fieldwok time An impotant advantage of telephone inteviewing (especially fo shote inteviews) is that they entail a lowe cost. In this case, no tavel expenses ae involved, but of couse the cost of telephone connections will be incued. A telephone suvey can be pefomed within a vey shot time, sometimes even within one day! This chaacteistic may pove impotant in a situation when we want to ask just a few simple questions and want ou esults quickly. Self-administeed questionnaies A postal suvey is conducted with a questionnaie which is distibuted to espondents via taditional post. In a postal suvey, the espondents complete the questionnaie by themselves and etun it into an envelope. This technique can be consideed when: 19

21 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT the espondents ae geogaphically dispesed and it is difficult to oganise the ight inteviewe team (e.g. when the eseach budget is limited); when the issues we want to cove in ou suvey equie that the espondents do some thinking and the questions will be moe easily undestood when ead athe than head, o when questions elate to a sphee whee the espondents need to have a sense of pivacy. A postal suvey makes sense when the list of topics to be coveed is not too long (and the questionnaie will not look like a thick book which might fighten the espondent) and we can assume that the espondents ae at least somewhat inteested in the topic 13 (othewise they will just discad the questionnaie). Key weaknesses/poblems No etuned questionnaies The most seious challenge of postal suveys is to obtain the needed numbe of completed questionnaies. Lack of esponses may disqualify the suvey as not fulfilling the essential citeion of eliability. While thee is no single answe which can tell us which pecentage of questionnaies etuned to eseaches can be viewed as high, yet any scoe above 85% can cetainly be consideed as excellent. In that case it is vey unlikely that the esults ae pone to non-esponse eo. A scoe of 70% to 85% of etuned questionnaies is vey good. If we obtain 60% to 70% of the questionnaies, this esult is acceptable yet one may aleady count with a slight distotion of esults because of the people who failed to espond. A esponse ate between 50% and 60% is had to accept and in each case it must be confimed using additional data. 14 Of couse, a ate below 50% means that moe than a half of the intended espondents did not take pat in the suvey. One method used by eseaches to boost the esponse ate is to send eminde lettes to the espondents (as a ule, two o thee such emindes ae sent to those who have not etuned the questionnaie). Sometimes small gifts ae attached (fountain pens, mugs, discount coupons). Even small gifts engage the ecipocity ule and help to incease the esponse ate. Longe duation of the suvey Anothe poblem in postal suveys is thei long duation. They usually take much longe than face-to-face o CATI suveys. Consideing that emindes must sometimes be sent and that post institutions sometimes wok with delay, we can assume that a postal suvey with two emindes may take even up to two months. 13 See: T.W. Mangione, Mail suveys. Impoving the quality, SAGE Publications Ibidem. 20

22 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Lowe quality of data One poblem expeienced by many eseaches who opted fo a postal suvey was the quality of data obtained via this method. The espondents might skip some difficult o toublesome questions o ones which they do not undestand. Moeove, the espondents might chose answes against the eseache s intention (e.g. tick many boxes instead of one box, as equied), o answe open-ended questions by poviding ielevant answes. It is impotant to emphasise that postal suveys conducted in homogenous occupational o social goups and concening poblems which ae impotant fo those goups usually bing bette esults: the esponse ate (pecentage of etuned questionnaies) is usually highe and the suvey takes less time to complete. Key advantages/benefits Relatively low fieldwok cost No inteviewe effect Undoubtedly, postal suveys have an advantage of a elatively low fieldwok cost (no need to pay inteviewe fees, inteviewe tavel o telephone calls). In a postal suvey, we also eliminate the inteviewe impact on esponses given by the espondents. Howeve, it is impotant to bea in mind that we lose contol ove the situation: we do not know who actually completed the questionnaie and unde what kind of conditions this was done. Web suveys (also known as CAWI Compute Assisted Web Inteview) ae vey simila to postal suveys, with some impotant diffeences. Fistly, they ae usually (but not always) much shote (which is enfoced by the natue of Intenet usage). Secondly, they can only each a limited goup of the espondents (Intenet uses). Thidly, thei duation is much shote than that of postal suveys (nealy zeo time needed fo the questionnaie to each the espondent, which is an advantage). It should be emphasized that web suveys ae vey well suited to study goups which have good access to the Intenet and . Handout suveys ae used when questionnaies ae handed out to the espondents in specific situations, e.g. to confeence paticipants, tain passenges, students in a class etc. As such, they shae the disadvantages of postal suveys (the espondents complete the questionnaie by themselves, they might skip some questions o povide an eoneous answe, and eseaches have vey limited influence on that. On the othe hand, they allow eseaches to un a suvey in a elatively shot time and at a low cost within a specific, limited goup. Woth noting is that this kind of suvey can be vey useful in a limited and stictly defined communities, such as people woking in one public office, o eades of a specific libay. Using the exhaustive sampling method we can suvey all membes of the community concened within a elatively shot time. Reliability and validity of social eseach Finally, it is impotant to devote some attention to eliability and validity of eseach. The notion of eliability is used to assess the cedibility of eseach techniques. Reliable techniques povide the same esult each time when used fo the same object. Fo instance, if we measue the length of the same wooden plank with the same measuing tape, we will get the same esult each time, in metes o centimetes. In that case we can say ou measuement is eliable. It can be also valid (which is not obvious), i.e. eflect the actual length of the plank. Ou measuement will be valid of 21

23 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT the measuing tape we use was poduced popely, i.e. the scale on the tape coesponds with the adopted patten (in this case, the Seves mete pototype). Now, if the measuing tape is made fom a flexible mateial and can be stetched, we will not conside it to be a eliable measuement tool because the esult will depend on how stetched it was athe than on the actual length of the plank. In the same way, if the measuing tape is made with a non-flexible mateial but the mete on the tape will be, in fact, diffeent fom the Seves pototype, the esults will be completely invalid (untue) even though the measuing tool was eliable (i.e. gave the same esult each time). How does that elate to social eseach? Well, fistly, eseach techniques diffe fom one anothe in tems of the degee of eliability. One can assume that the moe independent of the eseache s subjectivity a technique is, the moe eliable it should be. Fo instance, suveys on a epesentative sample will usually povide moe eliable esults than a suvey based on andom espondent selection, and had official data (official statistics) will tend to be moe eliable than social eseach. Why do we use hedging phases such as tend to o usually? The answe is that thee is no univesal, igid ule. One can, howeve, study the eliability of esults by epeating the measuement. If we obtain the same esult (o a vey simila one) in two independent suveys, e.g. a distibution of suppot fo political paties, we can usually assume that those measuements wee eliable. If two diffeent eseaches daw simila conclusions fom thei data analysis, we can conside thei eseach pocedue to be eliable. The issue of validity of esults is somewhat moe complicated. How can we check whethe ou eseach findings tuly eflect the studied eality? Of couse, social sciences have developed vaious ways to assess validity. Liteatue mentions face validity (when the esults obtained ae in line with ou expectations and pedictions), citeion validity (based on an extenal veifying facto) and theoetical validity (based on logical connections with vaious esults). What does that mean fo eveyday eseach pactice? Well, above all, the obtained findings must always be subjected to caeful eflection, in tems of thei intenal consistency, conguity with knowledge deived fom othe souces, elationships with pevious measuements o even elationships with common sense beliefs. Howeve, one should always bea in mind that each eseach technique involves a isk of eo and, at the same time, a isk of obtaining invalid and/o uneliable findings. We can secue oneself against that by applying tiangulation, i.e. using eseach techniques which have diffeent kinds of measuement eos (e.g. in-depth inteviews and questionnaie-based suveys) and using diffeent souces of infomation. With espect to taining needs analysis, this postulate means, above all, a combination of all available infomation egading paticipation in educational activities, the opeations of educational sevice povides, using data fom vaious benchmaking systems and esults of social eseach. This also means that we need to juxtapose vaious pespectives on taining needs, i.e. officials declaations and postulates expessed by officials, councillos, local govenment leades, epesentatives of cental institutions etc. 22

24 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Model TNA questionnaie This questionnaie was developed and used as a tool fo TNA in Poland (2015/2016). A web-based CAWI questionnaie (Compute Assisted Web Inteview) administeed via Dea Paticipant, Thank you fo ageeing to paticipate in this suvey conducted by the Foundation in Suppot of Local Democacy, in collaboation with the Cente of Expetise fo Local Govenment Refom of the Council of Euope. We would like to emind you that this suvey is completely anonymous. You answes will only be used to pepae aggegate analyses and summaies. To go to the suvey (and, each time, to move to the next question), please click on "NEXT" (bottom of the page). You can inteupt the suvey at any time (by clicking on "Postpone", in the top ight cone) and etun to the suvey at any moment to answe the emaining questions. In case of doubts o questions, please use the option "Contact the autho" by clicking on the icon in the top ight cone. 1. What is the PRIORITY of you local govenment in the cuent tem of office? Please choose UP TO 2 ANSWERS FROM the following list: Infastuctual investments Social issues, e.g. solving social poblems, integation of esidents Stabilisation of the municipal/town budget Day-to-day govenance, esponding to poblems as they aise Social activation of esidents Impoving the quality of public/municipal sevices Anothe issue impotant fo the locality Don t know, not sue 1a) You selected "anothe issue impotant fo the locality" to descibe one pioity of the local govenment in the cuent tem of office. Please descibe this pioity in 2. In you opinion, what ae the souces of the GREATEST difficulties in the day-to-day management of you local govenment unit? Please choose up to 3 categoies Instability of the law, changing egulations Legal limitations of decision-making fo local govenment in some aeas Wong intepetation of the law by egulatoy bodies Staff shotages in local administation 23

25 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Insufficient competencies among some officials Insufficient own evenues No adequate financing of commissioned tasks Passive citizens, thei lack of inteest in public affais Excessive budens associated with spending EU funds Conflicts between executive powe in the local govenment (voit/mayo) and the Council Political pessue, influence of political paties on how local govenment woks Unfavouable macoeconomic phenomena Anothe souce of poblems Not sue 2a) You mentioned "anothe souce of poblems" as one of the difficulties in day-to-day management of you local govenment unit. Please descibe this souce of poblems 3) The law equies that the municipality/town should fulfil multiple tasks simultaneously. No task can be abandoned but some of them can be teated as moe impotant in budget planning. Which aeas do you think should be paticulaly SUPPORTED in the specific situation of you local govenment unit? Please choose UP TO THREE most impotant items fom the list below: Public safety School/pe-school education and cae Extacuicula classes fo childen Activities of cultual institutions Suppot fom non-govenmental oganisations Welfae sevices and municipal housing Spot and eceation Health cae and pevention Geeney Cleanliness in the steets and public aeas Road infastuctue Watewoks and sewage system Anothe aea 3a) When asked about budgeting pioities at you local govenment unit, you mentioned "anothe aea". Which aea did you have in 4) What is you oveall assessment of you municipality/town AS A PLACE TO LIVE? (Please move the slide to the position which best eflects you views on the matte.) (OR) Ente a digit fom 1 to 7 whee 1 is the leftmost value and 7 is the ightmost value vey bad (7) vey good 24

26 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 5) Does you local govenment unit have an UP-TO-DATE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY (o an equivalent stategic document concening you entie local govenment unit)? Yes (--> ask questions 5a-5c) No (--> skip to question 5d) Don t know 5a) Please povide the DIRECT website addess whee this stategy document is available: Please povide the diect link to the stategy document (you can copy the link fom the bowse window and paste it 5b) Wee the RESIDENTS of you municipality involved in the wok on the cuent development stategy? Please choose one answe only Yes, the office woked intensively with the esidents to develop the stategy The esidents did not paticipate in developing the document but the daft document undewent public consultation No, we developed the stategy without involving the esidents The esidents wee involved in some othe way (please Don t know / Not sue 5c) Wee EXTERNAL EXPERTS involved in the wok to develop the development stategy? Please choose one answe only Yes, an extenal company/extenal consultant developed the stategy Yes, we used advisoy suppot of an extenal company/extenal consultant No, we did not use any extenal suppot Anothe situation (please Don t know / Not sue 5d) And ae you cuently doing any wok elated to the development/updating of you development stategy (o an equivalent document)? Please choose one answe only Yes, we ae woking on updating the existing document Yes, we ae developing a new document No, but we plan to develop a stategy in the coming yea No, and we have no plans to develop such a document in the coming yea Don t know / Not sue 6) Has you local govenment unit implemented an ISO:9001 compatible quality management system? Please choose one answe only Yes (--> ask question 6) No (--> skip to question 7) Don t know (--> skip to question 7) 25

27 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 6a) Does the (ISO-compatible) quality management system at you local govenment unit have valid cetification? Please choose one answe only Yes No Don t know 6b) Has you office intoduced the couption add-on to the ISO:9001 quality management system (the socalled couption pevention scheme)? Please choose one answe only Yes No Don t know 7) Has you local govenment conducted self-assessment in accodance with the CAF model? Please choose one answe only Yes (--> ask question 7a) No (--> skip to question 8) Don t know (--> skip to question 8) 7a) When was the last self-assessment (CAF) conducted? Please choose one answe only Within the last 3 months Between 3 and 6 months ago Between 6 months and 1 yea ago Between 1 yea and 2 yeas ago Ealie than 2 yeas ago Don t know / Not sue 7b) Ae you able to povide the aggegate esults of that self-assessment? Such esults will help us to ceate a compaative database, which will enable you to benchmak you esults with the esults of othe local govenments on an anonymous basis Yes (--> ask questions 7c-7k) No (--> skip to question 8) 7c) Assessment in tems of 7d) Assessment in tems of STRATEGY AND 7e) Assessment in tems of 26

28 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 7f) Assessment in tems of PARTNERSHIPS AND 7g) Assessment in tems of 7h) Assessment in tems of PERFORMANCE IN RELATIONS WITH 7i) Assessment in tems of PERFORMANCE IN RELATIONS WITH 7j) Assessment in tems of SOCIAL 7k) Assessment in tems of KEY 8) Has you local govenment conducted self-assessment in accodance with the IDP model? (IDP Institutional Development Planning method) Please choose one answe only Yes (--> ask question 8a) No (--> skip to question 9) Don t know (--> skip to question 9) 8a) When was the last self-assessment caied out (IDP)? Please choose one answe only Within the last 3 months Between 3 and 6 months ago Between 6 months and 1 yea ago Between 1 yea and 2 yeas ago Ealie than 2 yeas ago Don t know / Not sue 9) In the last two yeas, did you office conduct any self-assessments using a systematic tool othe than CAF o IDP? Please choose one answe only Yes (--> ask question 9a) No (--> skip to question 10) Don t know (--> skip to question 10) 9a) And which tool did you use fo the self-assessment? Please povide the name o descibe the tool 27

29 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 10) Geneally speaking, how would you assess the EFFICIENCY of local administation at you local govenment unit? (Please move the slide to the position which best eflects you views on the matte.) (OR) Ente a digit fom 1 to 9 whee 1 is the leftmost value and 9 is the ightmost value vey bad (9) vey good 11) In you opinion, what would be the most effective way to boost the pefomance of you office? Please choose up to two key methods Impoving staff s competencies Reoganising the wok of you local govenment office (please specify the pupose of such Inceasing employment at you office Raising staff s salaies Impoving the way the management manages the wok of officials Reducing employment at you office Changing emuneation ules fo you staff Impoving the elationships between staff membes Some othe way Don t know / Not sue 11a) You mentioned "some othe way" to boost the pefomance of you office. Please descibe biefly what such actions could 12) What is ou oveall assessment of the following at you local govenment office: Please choose one answe only in each ow Vey good Faily good Modeate Faily poo Vey poo Not sue Officials knowledge of thei job esponsibilities Quality of wok povided by officials Level of officials independence within thei esponsibilities Officials innovative thinking in solving poblems that aise Officials motivation to impove thei pofessional qualifications Staff s ability to wok as a team Officials commitment and thei wok motivation Officials integity in pefoming thei wok duties Quality of custome sevice Officials effectiveness in solving poblems that aise 28

30 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 13) In you pesonal opinion, is a job at the local govenment office ATTRACTIVE o UNATTRACTIVE in compaison with othe available employment oppotunities? (Please move the slide to the position which best eflects you views on the matte.) (OR) Ente a digit fom 1 to 9 whee 1 is the leftmost value and 9 is the ightmost value Definitely unattactive (9) Definitely attactive 14) Below is a list of vaious issued which may make a local govenment job attactive. Please specify if each of them is impotant o unimpotant TO YOU PERSONALLY in the context of woking fo local govenment? Please choose one answe only in each ow Vey impotant Faily impotant Faily unimpotant Totally unimpotant Level of emuneation Not sue Possibility to keep a balance between caee and pivate life Inteesting challenges involved in fulfilling job esponsibilities Oppotunities fo caee and pofessional advancement Oppotunities to impove one s competencies Good eputation of the employe Job stability Possibility to wok with inteesting people Autonomy at wok Vaied tasks and esponsibilities A chance fo attactive bonuses and pay ises Poximity between wokplace and home Woking time, woking hous 15) And which of those factos play the most impotant ole fo you in the context of you wok fo local govenment? Please name up to 2 most impotant factos à (factos you descibed as vey impotant have been selected) Level of emuneation Possibility to keep a balance between caee and pivate life Inteesting challenges involved in fulfilling job esponsibilities Oppotunities fo caee and pofessional advancement Oppotunities to impove one s competencies Good eputation of the employe Job stability Possibility to wok with inteesting people Autonomy at wok Vaied tasks and esponsibilities A chance fo attactive bonuses and pay ises Poximity between wokplace and home Woking time, woking hous 29

31 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 16) Is thee any othe issue, not mentioned hee, which you find impotant in the context of the attactiveness of local govenment jobs? Please choose one answe only Yes (--> ask question 16a) No (--> skip to question 17) Don t know (--> skip to question 17) 16a) Which othe issue plays a paticula ole in the context of the attactiveness of local govenment 17) Which of the factos listed do you conside to be the most impotant ones FOR THE STAFF at you office, making you office attactive as a place to wok at? Please name up to 3 most impotant factos Level of emuneation Possibility to keep a balance between caee and pivate life Inteesting challenges involved in fulfilling job esponsibilities Oppotunities fo caee and pofessional advancement Oppotunities to impove one s competencies Good eputation of the employe Job stability Possibility to wok with inteesting people Autonomy at wok Vaied tasks and esponsibilities A chance fo attactive bonuses and pay ises Poximity between wokplace and home Woking time, woking hous Something else is impotant (please Don t know / Not sue 18) In you opinion, is a job at you local govenment office SATISFACTORY fo officials who ae employed thee? (Please move the slide to the position which best eflects you views on the matte.) Ente a digit fom 1 to 9 whee 1 is the leftmost value and 9 is the ightmost value No, definitely not (9) Yes, definitely 19) Below listed ae vaious factos which may MOTIVATE staff to GET ENGAGED and WORK BETTER. Please name those which ae most impotant, modeately impotant and least impotant in motivating staff. Please goup those factos, placing each of them in the coesponding window on the ight, by dagging them with the mouse. (1) Key motivating factos (2) Impotant but not cucial (3) Without much impotance (4) Difficult to descibe/to classify into a goup Oppotunities fo pesonal gowth and gaining expeience Sense of causality having an impact on eality Positive eputation of the employe Good elations 30

32 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Being appeciated by the management of the office Level of emuneation Good co-opeation within the office A high degee of independence in pefoming one s tasks Leade s chaisma, espect fo the voit/mayo Supevisos being inteested in thei subodinates Oppotunities to get pomoted Financial and in-kind awads Sense of mission of the local govenment A good atmosphee at 20) And can you see any othe factos (not mentioned above) motivating officials to be committed and wok bette? Yes (--> ask question 20a) No (--> skip to question 21) Don t know (--> skip to question 21) 20a) Which othe MOTIVATING FACTORS can you 21) And what do you think mostly DISCOURAGES staff at you office to be committed and wok bette? Please specify factos which you believe ae most DEMOTIVATING fo the staff, discouaging them fom being committed and woking 22) Below mentioned ae vaious aeas whee local govenment institutions fulfil thei tasks. Please povide a GENERAL ASSESSMENT of you office in tems of the FULFILMENT OF TASKS in those aeas. Please subdivided those aeas into ones whee: (1) Aea whee tasks ae fulfilled smoothly (2) Fulfilling tasks is somewhat poblematic (3) Majo difficulties in fulfilling tasks (4) Not sue / No expeience Audit, intenal audit, management audit Building elationships with esidents, public consultations, collaboation etc. Activities of cultual institutions, implementation of cultual policy Activities of the egista office and vital statistics Implementation of e-administation and computeisation of the office Ethics and pevention of couption theats Sevices to customes of the office, oganisation of the secetaial office, custome sevice cente etc. Potection of classified infomation and pesonal data Envionment potection Wok oganisation at the office Oganisation of spots events, activities of institutions dealing with spots and eceation Planning and implementation of infastuctual investments Uban/spatial planning and management of eal popety Educational policy of the local govenment Social policy, social integation, activities of @ 31

33 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Administative poceedings, pocedues, decision-making etc. Raising, sevicing and management of extenal funding Stategic management of the local govenment unit Compute/IT taining, use of IT tools Public tanspot and oads Collaboation with non-govenmental oganisations Opeations of the Council, councillos fulfilment of thei tasks Public pocuement and tende pocedues Managing officials woking time Managing the finances of the local govenment unit, local taxes and fees, financial and accounting issues HR management, HR policy Cisis management Managing human teams, team wok techniques, conflict @ 23) Can you see any poblems in the wok of you office caused pimaily by insufficient knowledge o insufficient skills of officials at you local govenment unit? Please choose one answe only Yes, definitely (--> ask question 23a) Yes, pobably (--> ask question 23a) No, pobably not (--> skip to question 24) No, definitely not (--> skip to question 24) Not sue (--> skip to question 24) 23a) Please descibe those poblems 24) Ae the officials at you local govenment fomally equied to impove thei pofessional qualifications? Please choose one answe only Yes, all of them ae Yes, some of them ae (please specify the categoies of officials): No Don t know / Not sue 24a) How is this equiement fomulated? Moe than one answe allowed It is egulated in special clauses of employment contacts It is egulated in a special clause in the wok ules It is laid down in the povisions of the act on local govenment officials It is egulated by a special odinance issued by the management of the office Othe (please Don t know/ Not sue 32

34 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 25) What is you view on the idea to develop staff s competencies THROUGH PARTICIPATION IN TRAINING EVENTS? Please descibe the need to tain you staff in the context of the pefomance of you office. Wite in a numbe fom 1 to 9 whee 1 is the value on the leftmost end of the scale and 9 is the value on the ightmost end The staff of ou office do not need taining (9) Taining fo the staff is essential to impove the pefomance of ou office 26) Which of the aeas of taining listed below would you conside to be MOST NEEDED fo you STAFF in the cuent situation? Please indicate up to 5 aeas of taining which would most help to impove the pefomance of you office: Audit, intenal audit, management audit Building elationships with esidents, public consultations, collaboation etc. Activities of cultual institutions, implementation of cultual policy Activities of the egista office and vital statistics Implementation of e-administation and computeisation of the office Ethics and pevention of couption theats Sevices to customes of the office, oganisation of the secetaial office, custome sevice cente etc. Potection of classified infomation and pesonal data Envionment potection Wok oganisation at the office Oganisation of spots events, activities of institutions dealing with spots and eceation Planning and implementation of infastuctual investments Uban/spatial planning and management of eal popety Educational policy of the local govenment Social policy, social integation, activities of welfae institutions Administative poceedings, pocedues, decision-making etc. Raising, sevicing and management of extenal funding Stategic management of the local govenment unit Language taining, selected foeign languages Compute/IT taining, use of IT tools Public tanspot and oads Collaboation with non-govenmental oganisations Councillos tasks and esponsibilities, activities of the Council office Public pocuement and tende pocedues Wok time management Managing the finances of the local govenment unit, local taxes and fees, financial and accounting issues HR management, HR policy Cisis management Managing human teams, team wok techniques, conflict esolution etc. Ou staff membes do not need taining Not sue / had to say 27) Do you see any othe taining needs egading the staff of you office which have not been mentioned above? Yes (--> ask question 27a) No (--> skip to question 28) Don t know (--> skip to question 28) 33

35 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 27a) Please povide a shot desciption of those taining 28) And would taining in any of the listed aeas allow YOU PERSONALLY to be moe effective in fulfilling the tasks you ae entusted with? Please indicate up to 3 aeas of taining you would most need (Indicate at least 1 and no moe than 3 answes) Audit, intenal audit, management audit Building elationships with esidents, public consultations, collaboation etc. Activities of cultual institutions, implementation of cultual policy Activities of the egista office and vital statistics Implementation of e-administation and computeisation of the office Ethics and pevention of couption theats Sevices to customes of the office, oganisation of the secetaial office, custome sevice cente etc. Potection of classified infomation and pesonal data Envionment potection Wok oganisation at the office Oganisation of spots events, activities of institutions dealing with spots and eceation Planning and implementation of infastuctual investments Uban/spatial planning and management of eal popety Educational policy of the local govenment Social policy, social integation, activities of welfae institutions Administative poceedings, pocedues, decision-making etc. Raising, sevicing and management of extenal funding Stategic management of the local govenment unit Language taining, selected foeign languages Compute/IT taining, use of IT tools Public tanspot and oads Collaboation with non-govenmental oganisations Councillos tasks and esponsibilities, activities of the Council office Public pocuement and tende pocedues Wok time management Managing the finances of the local govenment unit, local taxes and fees, financial and accounting issues HR management, HR policy Cisis management Managing human teams, team wok techniques, conflict esolution etc. Anothe aea (please At the cuent moment I do not need any paticula taining Not sue / had to say 29) How often do staff membes of you office take pat in extenal taining? Please choose one answe only Vey often Quite often Quite aely Vey aely Not sue 34

36 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 30) Thinking of the last yea, did the staff of you office take pat in any EXTERNAL shot-tem taining events o couses? By shot-tem taining we mean events lasting between 1 and 5 days Yes (--> ask questions 31-33) No (--> skip to question 34) Don t know (--> skip to question 34) 31) What kind of (extenal) taining events wee those? Moe than one answe allowed Open paid taining fo staff of vaious public offices, oganised by an extenal povide, with paticipation financed by you office Taining oganised specifically fo the staff of you office by an extenal povide, financed by you office Fee-of-chage taining oganised by an extenal povide unde a poject whee you office was not an immediate beneficiay Fee-of-chage taining oganised unde poject(s) whee you office was an immediate beneficiay Taining paid by the staff who paticipated in it upon the consent of the office Othe taining (please Don t know / Not sue 32) Who was the oganise o those taining events? Moe than one answe allowed A local govenment institution/oganisation (--> ask question 32a) A univesity/highe education institution (--> ask question 32b) Anothe public institution unelated to local govenment, not a school o univesity (--> ask question 32c) A non-govenmental oganisation (--> ask question 32d) An intenational oganisation (please A pivate povide, a company (--> ask question 32e) Anothe povide (please Don t know/not sue (--> skip to question 33) 32a) Which institution (oganisation) oganised the taining events which you staff paticipated in? Moe than one answe allowed Mashal office o its agencies Office of the staost at the poviat level Association of Rual Municipalities Association of Polish Towns and Cities Association of Polish Poviats Anothe local govenment institution/oganisation (please 32b) Please specify the name of the UNIVERSITY/SCHOOL OF HIGHER EDUCATION which oganised the taining events you staff paticipated 32c) Which OTHER PUBLIC INSTITUTION (not elated to local govenment, not a univesity) oganised the taining you staff paticipated 35

37 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 32d) What is the name of the NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATION which oganised the taining you staff paticipated 32e) What is the name of the PRIVATE COMPANY which oganised the taining you staff paticipated 33) What wee the aeas of taining that you staff paticipated in thoughout 2015? Please select all applicable aeas; Moe than one answe allowed Audit, intenal audit, management audit Building elationships with esidents, public consultations, collaboation etc. Activities of cultual institutions, implementation of cultual policy Activities of the egista office and vital statistics Implementation of e-administation and computeisation of the office Ethics and pevention of couption theats Sevices to customes of the office, oganisation of the secetaial office, custome sevice cente etc. Potection of classified infomation and pesonal data Envionment potection Wok oganisation at the office Oganisation of spots events, activities of institutions dealing with spots and eceation Planning and implementation of infastuctual investments Uban/spatial planning and management of eal popety Educational policy of the local govenment Social policy, social integation, activities of welfae institutions Administative poceedings, pocedues, decision-making etc. Raising, sevicing and management of extenal funding Stategic management of the local govenment unit Language taining, selected foeign languages Compute/IT taining, use of IT tools Public tanspot and oads Collaboation with non-govenmental oganisations Councillos tasks and esponsibilities, activities of the Council office Public pocuement and tende pocedues Wok time management Managing the finances of the local govenment unit, local taxes and fees, financial and accounting issues HR management, HR policy Cisis management Managing human teams, team wok techniques, conflict esolution etc. Ou staff membes do not need taining Anothe aea of taining (--> ask question 33a) Not sue / had to say 33a) You mentioned "anothe aea of taining" which you staff paticipated in ealie this yea. Which aea was 36

38 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 34) How often (in geneal) do the following take pat in EXTERNAL taining events: This question efes to you local govenment unit; Please choose one answe only fo each ow Vey often Quite often Quite aely Vey aely Not sue Membes of top management of you office Heads of depatments/oganisational units Rank-and-file staff membes Councillos 35) The decision to send a staff membe to taining may be influenced by a vaiety of factos. Below given ae some of them. Please ank them fom the most impotant to the least impotant one when it comes to making you decisions about paticipation in taining. Ente numbes fom 1 to 7 in the cells. Each numbe can be used only once. Tust in the oganise of the taining: Belief that the taining facilitato(s) is/ae competent: Cost of taining: Duation of taining: Distance between the place of taining and you municipality: Staff s inteest in the topic of the taining: Relevance of taining topics fo the cuent needs of @.. 36) Apat fom the factos mentioned above, ae thee any othe factos influencing how you make decisions about you paticipation in taining and selection of taining events? Yes (--> ask question 36a) No (--> skip to question 37) Don t know / Not sue (--> skip to question 37) 36a) Which othe factos influence the decisions made at you office with egad to paticipation in 37) How many officials ae employed at you local govenment office? Please specify the numbe of FULL-TIME EQUIVALENTS fo 38) How much money did you office allocate this yea (2015) FROM ITS OWN BUDGET fo the taining of its staff? Please specify the entie cost (in Polish zloty) of staff taining duing this yea, excluding intenal taining, if 39) Do you conside the financing of staff s taining to be adequate? No, moe funding is needed Yes, it is sufficient I think we spend too much Don t know / Not sue 40) Did you finance the paticipation of councillos in extenal taining events this yea? Please choose one answe only Yes, vey often 37

39 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Yes, quite often Yes, a few times Yes, once No Don t know / Not sue 41) What is the budget of you municipality/town (in PLN fo 2015, as of the day when this questionnaie is completed)? Please ente the VALUE IN POLISH ZLOTY without commas, points 42) Wee any intenal taining events oganised at you office duing the last yea? Please choose one answe only Yes, vey often (--> ask question 42a) Yes, quite often (--> ask question 42a) Yes, a few times (--> ask question 42a) Yes, once (--> ask question 42a) No (--> skip to question 43) Don t know / Not sue (--> skip to question 43) 42a) Who facilitated those intenal taining events? Moe than one answe allowed A staff membe of the office A staff membe of an oganisational unit of the office A hied extenal taine A epesentative of anothe local govenment institution o oganisation A epesentative of anothe public institution, unelated to local govenment Someone else (please Don t know / Not sue 43) In which othe foms of taining did you staff paticipate in duing the last yea? Please choose all applicable categoies Additional study pogammes, e.g. post-gaduate pogammes (please specify the Distance leaning fomats Study visits (please specify the topics of those Exchange of expeience in occupational goups, e.g. club meetings, foums etc. Confeences on local govenment issues Othe foms of taining (please 44) Wee any study visits oganised at you municipality/town with officials fom othe local govenment units taking pat? Yes (--> ask question 34a) No (--> skip to question 45) Don t know / Not sue (--> skip to question 45) 38

40 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 44a) What was the focus of those study 45) Does you office develop a taining plan fo its staff? Yes (--> ask question 45a) No (--> skip to question 46) Don t know / Not sue (--> skip to question 46) 45a) What is the usual time fame of such a taining plan? Please choose one answe only Thee months o less Six months One yea Moe than one yea Don t know / Not sue 46) Does you office analyse the taining needs of its staff? Please choose one answe only Yes (--> ask questions 46a-46c) No (--> skip to question 47) Don t know / Not sue (--> skip to question 47) 46a) Is thee a pocedue, a odinance o a ule which defines how taining needs should be analysed? Please choose one answe only Yes No Don t know / Not sue 46b) How often ae staff s taining needs analysed? Once in thee months o moe often Once in six months Once a yea Once in two yeas Less often than once in two yeas Iegulaly, depending on the situation Don t know / Not sue 46c) How ae staff s taining needs analysed? Moe than one answe allowed A sheet used to epot taining needs Inteviews/individual convesations with staff membes Discussions/goup meetings with staff membes Suveys Othe methods (please Don t know / Not sue 39

41 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 47) What kinds of methods to motivate and ewad staff ae used at you office? Moe than one answe allowed Commendation, ecoded in the pesonal file Commendation which is officially published Financial bonus In-kind pizes Additional days off Study pogammes, couses and taining events financed by the office Othe (please Don t know / Not sue 48) Does you office analyse staff s satisfaction with thei wok and tems of employment? Yes, egulaly (--> ask question 48a) Yes, but not egulaly (--> ask question 48a) No (--> skip to question 49) Don t know / Not sue (--> skip to question 49) 48a) How is staff s satisfaction analysed? Moe than one answe allowed Suvey/staff s satisfaction assessment sheet Opinions gatheed when talking to supevisos Opinions gatheed duing meetings with staff membes Opinions collected duing peiodic assessment Recommendations fom intenal audits/contol execises Recommendations fom extenal audits/contol execises Othe methods (please Don t know / Not sue 49) Ae you familia with the activities of the Foundation in Suppot of Local Democacy (FSLD)? Yes, vey familia Yes, quite familia Modeately familia No, not eally (--> skip to question 50) No, I don t know it (--> skip to question 50) 49a) We will appeciate any comments fom you about the activities of the Foundation in Suppot of Local Democacy. You comments will help us guide the activities of the Foundation. If you do not wish to answe this question, please click on 50) In the last fou yeas, did you local govenment unit paticipate in any poject (pojects) opeated by the Foundation in Suppot of Local Democacy (o in patneship with the Foundation)? Yes (--> ask question 50a) No (--> skip to question 50) Don t know / Not sue (--> skip to question 50) 40

42 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 50a) What is you oveall assessment of the collaboation with the FSLD unde that poject (those pojects)? Ente a digit fom 1 to 9 whee 1 is the leftmost value and 9 is the ightmost value Vey bad (9) Vey good 51) Thinking of the last yea, did any staff membe fom you office take pat in any taining oganised by the Foundation in Suppot of Local Democacy? Yes (--> ask question 51a) No (--> skip to question 52) Don t know / Not sue (--> skip to question 52) 51a) What is you oveall assessment of taining events oganised by the Foundation in Suppot of Local Democacy? Please choose one answe only Vey good Faily good Modeate, it depends Faily poo Vey poo Don t know / Not sue 52) In case you needed to tain a staff membe fom you office, would the offeing of the Foundation in Suppot of Local Democacy be: Please choose one answe only You fist choice Not you fist choice but you would not ule it out Definitely not you choice Don t know / Not sue Finally, we would like to ask a few questions fo statistical puposes. We would like to emind you that THIS SURVEY IS COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS. Infomation fom specific, individual questionnaies will not be made available anywhee and in any manne, and you local govenment unit could not be identified in any way. Sex Female Male Education Please choose one answe only Incomplete pimay Post-seconday (not tetiay) Pimay Tetiay, 1 st cycle (bachelo, enginee) Gymnasium (lowe seconday) Tetiay, 2 nd cycle (maste, medical docto) Basic vocational Post-gaduate Seconday 41

43 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Do you cuently live in the same municipality/town which is the esponsibility of the local govenment office you wok fo? Yes No Position Pease select a categoy coesponding with you position: Voit/mayo Deputy voit/deputy mayo Municipality/town secetay Head of depatment Specialist at a depatment Staff membe at a lowe level Othe (please Sevice length at local govenment Please povide the numbe of yeas woked at the local govenment, ounded up to full Have you eve seved as a voit o mayo? (--> Skip if cuently a mayo) Yes No Type of local govenment unit Please choose one answe only Rual municipality Uban-and ual municipality Uban municipality Town with poviat ights Distict of a city with poviat ights Staost office at the poviat level Size of you local govenment unit Please choose one answe only Up to 5,000 esidents Ove 5,000, up to 20,000 esidents Ove 20,000, up to 100,000 esidents Ove 100,000, up to 500,000 esidents Ove 500,000 esidents Voivodship Thank You fo completing the questionnaie! 42

44 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Model guidelines fo individual in-depth inteviews Guidelines used as a tool fo TNA in Poland (2015/2016). INTERVIEW GUIDE Taining Needs Assessment The eseach findings should help to: Ä Ä Ä Identify the key poblems in the activity of local administation associated with the competence gaps/kills gaps among local govenment officials Outline the scope and type of needs elated to the acquisition of knowledge and skills by local govenment officials, and exploe the attitudes towads paticipation in taining Assess the usability of pevious taining expeience among main goups of local govenment officials woking fo municipal administation Assessment of the opeations of local govenment at the municipal level and esidents expectations How would you assess the cuent opeation of local govenment in Poland? How would you summaise the 25 yeas of local govenance in Poland? What is a success and what is a failue? Why? What ae the stengths and weaknesses of the local govenment and its opeation? Why? What is most missing and most needed fo local govenment to opeate seamlessly? Would thee be a need fo any efom of local govenment that would impove its pefomance? What would such a efom involve? (pobe about easons fo postulated efoms!) What is you oveall assessment of the 25 yeas of local govenance in this municipality? What has been achieved and what hasn t? What is you oveall peception of the activities of the local govenment in this municipality? How is the pefomance of the local govenment eflected in public opinion? To what extent can the local govenment take cedit fo successes (if any)? To what extent have the failues (poblems) been caused by the activity of the local govenment? What ae the esidents expectations towads local govenment? How do you view those expectations? Ae they justified? Do local authoities take those expectations into consideation when planning thei activities? What ae the key intentions and key goals of the local govenment? What ae the pioities in local govenment opeations in the next few yeas? Management of the local govenment unit Ae thee any sphees in the opeations of local govenment which pose paticula poblems fo the management of the local govenment unit (the entie unit, not just the local govenment office)? Which sphees ae those? What do the poblems consist in? What ae the consequences of those poblems? Has anything changed in this espect in ecent yeas? If so, what has changed and when? Whee do these poblems stem fom? What ae thei souces and causes? (pobe in detail about local/tanslocal causes of poblems) How do the authoities of the local govenment unit addess those poblems? How successful ae they in ovecoming those poblem? What is the outcome? 43

45 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Extenal collaboation What is the pictue of collaboation between local govenment authoities and the esidents? To what extent ae esidents involved in the local govenance affais/public affais? Do esidents show inteest in the affais of the municipality? How is that inteest manifested? Who ae the most impotant extenal patnes of the local govenment? What detemines thei ole/impotance? What does the collaboation with those patnes look like? How would you assess this collaboation? What kind of postulates can be fomulated with espect to this collaboation? What is the pictue of the collaboation between the local govenment and extenal institutions/othe local govenment units? What does that collaboation involve? What ae the puposes and dives of this collaboation? How would you assess it? Ae thee any pactices to co-odinate the activities/implement the policies with the neighbouing local govenment units? What do those pactices involve? What ae the pactical aspects of this co-odination? How is this collaboation caied out on a daily basis? What is the pictue of collaboation between the local govenment and the egion (egional authoities)? What does this collaboation involve? Should any changes be intoduced in this espect? Why? Assessment of the pefomance of the local govenment office What ae the stongest obstacles in the management of the local govenment office? What do those difficulties consist in? What ae thei souces? How would you assess the pefomance of the municipality office (as a unit/office of public administation)? Is the office efficient in fulfilling the tasks within its aea of esponsibility? What kind of factos influence this pefomance? Which elements enhance/constain the pefomance of the office? Is the office effective in fulfilling the tasks and plans fomulated by local authoities? Which factos play a ole hee/influence the effectiveness? Is the pefomance of the office assessed/monitoed in any fomal way? How is this done? (pobe in detail) How do local authoities identify poblems elated to the opeations of the office? What kinds of methods (fomal/infomal) ae used fo such identification? How do the municipal authoities cope with the difficulties in managing the office? Ae they able to ovecome those difficulties? Why? What kinds of factos detemine the success/failue of those measues? What kind of factos influence the effectiveness of local authoities in solving those poblems? Have thee been any significant changes in the opeations of the office? If so, what did they involve? Why wee they intoduced? What wee the outcomes of those changes? Do you see the need fo any changes in the opeations of the office? What would such changes involve? What would be the pupose of those changes? Ae/will those changes be intoduced? (if not, why not?) Ae thee any poblems in the supevision ove the opeations of the oganisational units? What kind of poblems ae those? What ae thei causes? How ae those poblems solved? How would you assess the effectiveness of local govenment in addessing those poblems? Does you municipality have a cuent development stategy? Does the stategy cove the pefomance of local administation o effectiveness of its activities? (If so, pobe on how this is included in the stategy, what specific povisions thee ae and whethe they ae executed.) 44

46 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Staff s motivation and engagement capacity building factos at the LGU What is you view on the motivation of the staff at the local govenment office and thei engagement in thei wok? What kinds of factos most stongly influence the level of motivation and engagement and how? Does the management of the office take any actions aimed to impove the staff s motivation and engagement? What kinds of activities ae those? Why ae those activities undetaken (o why ae no activities undetaken)? Is thee any monitoing of the staff s needs elated to the tasks they fulfil (If not, why not? Is thee pehaps no need to do so?)? How does the office obtain infomation about the staff s needs elated to thei job esponsibilities? Is thee a systematic appoach to identification of staff s needs elated to thei wok? (If so, what does it consist in?) How is the infomation used? Pevious expeience of taining and attitudes elated to taining How would you assess the competencies of the staff at you local govenment office? Ae thee any knowledge gaps and/o skills gaps? What ae they? What is the impotance of those gaps? How do they affect the pefomance of the office? What is the staff s attitude towads paticipation in extenal taining? What kinds of taining ae moe appeciated than othes? Why is that? Ae thee any examples of taining that the staff do not want to undetake? What ae those? How would you descibe the benefits of staff s paticipation in taining? What is the most impotant element fo local administation management? What is cucial fo the management of the local govenment office? Does the paticipation of staff in taining eally tanslate into impoved pefomance of the office? Does the staff taining tanslate into impoved quality of sevices offeed by the office? How? What ae the tangible benefits fo the opeations of the office? Ae thee any disadvantages/poblems elated to staff s paticipation in taining? What ae they? How bothesome ae they? Can they be pevented in any way? How does you office addess them? 45

47 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Guidelines used as a tool fo TNA in Sebia (2016). INTERVIEW GUIDE Taining Needs Assessment The eseach findings should help to: Ä Ä Ä Identify the key poblems in the activity of local administation associated with the competence gaps/skills gaps among local govenment officials Outline the scope and type of needs elated to the acquisition of knowledge and skills by local govenment officials, and exploe the attitudes towads paticipation in taining Assess the usability of pevious taining expeience among main goups of local govenment officials woking fo municipal administation The oganization Ask the inteviewee to descibe the oganization he/she epesents: mission, vision, expetise, legal pesonality, stuctue, main activities, etc. Assessment of the opeations of local govenment at the municipal level How would you assess the cuent opeation of local govenment in Sebia? What is a success and what is a failue? Why? What ae the stengths and weaknesses of the local govenment and its opeation? What is most missing and most needed fo local govenment to opeate seamlessly? Ae thee any sphees in the opeations of local govenments which pose paticula poblems fo the management of the local govenment units? Which sphees ae those? What do the poblems consist in? What ae the consequences of those poblems? Has anything changed in this espect in ecent yeas? If so, what has changed and when? Whee do these poblems stem fom? What ae thei souces and causes? (pobe in detail about local/tanslocal causes of poblems) How do the authoities of the local govenment units addess those poblems? How successful ae they in ovecoming those poblem? What is the outcome? What ae the stongest obstacles in the management of the local govenment offices? What do those difficulties consist in? What ae thei souces? How would you assess the pefomance of the local administation? Is this administation efficient in fulfilling the tasks within thei aea of esponsibility? What kind of factos influence this pefomance? Which elements enhance/constain thei pefomance? How do the municipal authoities cope with the difficulties in managing local affais? Ae they able to ovecome those difficulties? Why? What kinds of factos detemine the success/failue of those measues? What kind of factos influence the effectiveness of local authoities in solving those poblems? Attitudes elated to taining How would you assess the competencies of municipal staff? Ae thee any knowledge gaps and/o skills gaps? What ae they? What is the impotance of those gaps? How do they affect the pefomance of local administation? 46

48 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT How would you descibe the attitudes of municipal employees towad paticipation in extenal taining? What kinds of taining ae moe appeciated than othes? Why is that? Ae thee any examples of taining that the staff do not want to undetake? What ae those? Does the paticipation in taining eally tanslate into impoved pefomance of the local administation? Does it tanslate into impoved quality of sevices offeed by the office? How? What ae the tangible benefits fo the opeations of local administation? Ae thee any disadvantages/poblems elated to staff s paticipation in taining? What ae they? How bothesome ae they? Can they be pevented in any way? How does you office addess them? Taining activities oganized by the stakeholde What kind of taining fo local govenments have you oganization povided ove last thee yeas? What kind of taining (identify thematic aeas of taining pogammes)? Who deliveed the pogamme (e.g. intenational and local expets, pees, govenment officials, civil sevants, etc.) How have you selected taining topics? Why have you povided this paticula scope of taining? How wee the taining needs identified? Have you consulted local govenments ove the taining content? Have you discussed / consulted the content of taining with othe taining povides? How such consultations wee oganized? How these taining activities wee founded? WHO took pat in this taining? How wee the taget goups identified? What wee the easons behind involvement of tained goups? Have you coopeated with othe oganization / institution ove the povision of taining? What institution? How do you evaluate this coopeation? What wee the outcomes of the taining pogams? Have you assessed esults in any way? What wee the esults of such assessment? Peception of taining needs What kind of taining is needed in tems to impove pefomance of local administation in Sebia? Who should be tained and what should be the scope of taining? How would you descibe the expected esults of such taining activities? What taining fo local govenments would be the most valuable in tems of using the acquied knowledge to impove local govenment management? Afte the inteview infom the espondent that CoE will collect moe stuctued infomation about taining povision to local govenments by diffeent stakeholdes. Make aangements elated to exchange of such infomation. 47

49 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT TNA step-ladde (appoach used in TNA in Sebia, 2016) 15 STEP 1 Monitoing of Implemented Taining by vaious stakeholdes 1. Stakeholde analysis a. Identifying institutional actos involved in (geneal and specific) taining definition b. Identifying taining povides 2. Dissemination of Taining Data Collection Tool a. On-line b. 3. Suppot of the Dissemination a. Recalls b. Info-desk (i.e. dedicated contact-point bokeing the activity to espondents and facilitating eplies with inteviews o phone/ contacts) c. Meetings 4. Peiodic data collection 5. Data Analysis a. Geneal Repot The esults of this phase should be pesented in a fom of a Repot that makes use of gaphs and tables, as well as examples, to pesent the data and sets out an intepetation of that data identifying pattens and emeging tends. b. Specific Taining Good pactices Accoding to the main taining clustes identified, a numbe of epesentative taining should be selected and descibed in details identifying thei success factos with a focus on lessons leant and eplicability STEP 2 Taining Need Assessment Quantitative suvey 1. Pepaatoy phase pepae (and upgade) a database with s of all municipalities Mayos and Heads of Administation identify which municipalities would not be eachable by . Review and (if necessay) upgade the TNA questionnaie 15 Developed by Cezay Tutkowski and Daniele del Bianco 48

50 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT pepae plan fo data coding and inputting Send high level invitation to Mayos and Heads of Administation to answe the TNA questionnaie Identify most accedited sende Identify most efficient communication mean Identify info contact-point 2. Send questionnaies to Mayos and Heads of Administation with link to On-line questionnaie (suvey monkey- fee online suvey) o with attachment, o Odinay mail 3. Collect esponses 4. Systematise data Set adequate esponse time and pefom ecalling 5. Analyse data accoding to the TNA epot analysis scheme Qualitative inteviews The esults of the qualitative eseach should be pesented in a fom of a summay epot and tanscipts of the inteviews. Expet assistance is equied to manage a obust TNA. 1. Pepae inteview guidelines 2. Identify key stakeholdes / inteviewees to conduct in-depth inteviews 3. Conduct inteviews 4. Pepae tanscipts 5. Analyse data and pepae the epot STEP 3 Data Analysis 1. Coss-data on Taining collected in Step 1 with TNA esults (Step 2); 2. Pefom GAP analysis highlighting emeging tends and coelation between tainings pefomed, taining attended and changing taining needs; 3. Validate data though focus goup discussions with identified stakeholdes; 4. Fomulate ecommendations. 49

51 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 3. National Taining Stategies fo local govenments To begin with, we should note that the degee of decentalisation of public govenance and the natue of tasks pefomed by local govenment units in vaious pats of the wold ae fa fom unifom. In the membe states of the Council of Euope which, in pinciple, should comply with the Euopean Chate of Local Self-Govenment, we can identify many models of local govenment opeation. Among the 40 counties in the table pepaed by the Council of Euopean Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), 16 only seven have a thee-level division of powe in local administation and the second level (the intemediate level, in some cases) is found in 13 counties. Fance has nealy 37,000 local govenment units at the basic level wheeas the United Kingdom, fo instance, has only 433 such units, with the aveage population size pe a local govenment unit in that county exceeding 140 thousand inhabitants. The espective size in Fance is moe than 80 times smalle (meely 1768 people on aveage). In some counties, the competencies of basic local govenment units ae vey boad (fo instance in Scandinavia), wheeas they emain elatively limited elsewhee (e.g. Malta, Montenego o Ieland). Devolution is the pefeed aangement in Spain and the UK. The status o indeed suvival of sub-national paliaments is not constitutionally guaanteed in eithe county and thei cental paliaments etain supeme authoity in all aeas. Italy, Belgium and Gemany have opted fo fedeal aangements. Thee is no hieachy between levels of govenment in these counties, and the existence and competencies of state o egional paliaments ae constitutionally guaanteed. 17 Theefoe, the oganisation of local authoities in Euope emains divesified. At the same time, it is detemined by vaious factos, including histoical, cultual, social and, natually, economic cicumstances. In ecent yeas, as a esult of the economic cisis which spead acoss Westen democacies, many counties implemented vaious efoms and austeity measues in ode to boost the economic pefomance of local govenments. The main aim was to adjust the functioning of local and egional authoities to the budgetay and opeational estictions imposed by the cental govenments. 18 Analyses conducted by the CEMR indicate that efoms in some counties (e.g. Ieland, Hungay o Moldova) have led to decentalisation of management of some public sevices. Some local administation efoms involved effots to educe the numbe of local govenment units. Such changes wee intoduced in quite a spectacula way in Geece (the Kallikatis efom), even though, impotantly, those changes wee not necessaily connected with an inceased scope of esponsibility fo local administation. 19 In a few othe counties the efoms had a somewhat smalle scale (e.g. Switzeland, Ukaine), wheeas othe counties have seiously discussed such efoms. In effots to educe the costs of local administation, steps wee taken to educe employment in that secto (e.g. in Geece, Tukey, Potugal o Ieland). 16 Decentalisation at a cossoads. Teitoial efoms in Euope in times of cisis ; CEMR Stuat, Ch., Compaative political decentalization in Euope ; The Scottish Paliament, SPICe biefing, 09/19, 2009; p Decentalisation at a cossoads. Teitoial efoms in Euope in Times of cisis ; Council of Euopean Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), 2013, p Cf. Hlepas, N.K. (2015), Is it the twilight of decentalization? Testing the limits of functional efoms in the ea of austeity, Intenational Review of Administative Sciences, Vol. 82(2), pp

52 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT At this point it is woth stessing that the easons behind efoming effots ae not always based on a solid pefomance assessment of the local administation. A diagnosis of local govenment pefomance is sometimes eplaced with political assessments. Systemic changes ae not always implemented in esponse to the identified development baies faced by the local govenment but, instead, ae diven by a specific pevalent political pogamme o ae enfoced by the situation which the dominant political foces must gapple with. Such and othe pactices wee highlighted by the Euopean Union s Committee of the Regions (in Apil 2013), stessing that meging municipalities is vey often pesented as a way to achieve cost savings in the context of the financial and debt cises, based on economic aguments but without always being based on adequate studies o analyses. 20 Reliable analysis of the pefomance of local administation, the execution of public tasks entusted to it o the outcomes of its developmental activities is not a guaantee that a elevant, appopiate and effective pogamme of changes o efoms will be developed. Nevetheless, the absence of such analysis and a elevant, well-founded diagnosis of the situation usually makes efoming decisions moe disputable and susceptible to citicism. This does not mean, of couse, that even well-founded analysis will always lead to the development of adequate efom pogammes. One limitation hee lies in the ambiguity of the effectiveness of vaious oganisational, legal o systemic solutions undetaken unde vaious social, economic and cultual conditions. Fo this eason, all analyses and the elated stategic planning should be locally anchoed since it is not possible to develop univesal solutions which will be equally elevant fo vaious systemic solutions. In this vey context it is woth emembeing that, fistly, the diection of development of local administation is not a non-debatable matte and it stems fom specific systemic political decisions. This means that pogess can be defined as such diectional changes of ( ) a domain of eality which, with espect to some of thei chaacteistics, ae impotant to the obseve, and at the same time eceive positive evaluations, evaluation citeia o evaluation standads ae applied to them. With espect to the social domain, the assessment of pogess involves both the assessment of the diectional change of some social objects with espect to cetain chaacteistics, and the positive evaluation of these diectional changes. 21 Theefoe, it is woth beaing in mind that any efoms being implemented will always have both suppotes and opponents, and the assessment will be usually based on the assessing peson s expectations and inteests. On othe wods, it will be politically motivated. Secondly, a question aises whethe development must always be intentional and planned. Afte all, the opeations of local administation in many counties ae pimaily dictated by the eveyday challenges and not defined in any stategic famewok. Thee ae many systems whee local administation opeates at least modeately efficiently and its activities ae not co-odinated at the national level in any way (except whee the legal famewok and supevision ae limited to this dimension, fo instance in Poland). In such cases, the need to adopt national development stategies o to implement top-down pocesses to build the competence of local govenment 20 OPINION: Devolution in the Euopean Union and the place fo local and egional self govenment in EU policy making and delivey ; 100th plenay session, Apil 2013, p. 5. tpojj4tl7wyiw%3d&viewdoc=tue 21 S. Nowak, Models of diectional change and human values; the theoy of pogess as an applied social science, in: J.C. Alexande, P. Sztompka (ed.), Rethinking pogess: movements, foces and ideas at the end of the 20 th centuy, Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990, p

53 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT pesonnel is not only disputable but sometimes even undesiable (as a token of centalisation of at least some esponsibilities and public tasks). Each case whee wok is undetaken to develop a national taining stategy fo local govenment should, theefoe, efe to an identified need to develop such a stategy (a need stemming fom identified knowledge gaps o skills gaps among local govenment pesonnel, whee such gaps undemine thei pefomance and efficiency). On the othe hand, it should follow fom boadanging discussions and aangements between local govenment stakeholdes (e.g. cental authoities, local govenment unions, non-govenmental oganisations o, in some cases, also intenational oganisations). A stategy involving the implementation of cetain measues (e.g. taining activities) may be the ight esponse to poblems identified in the opeations of local govenments if key systemic stakeholdes shae the will to intoduce changes within the ecommended famewok. Fom the analysis of taining needs to the National Taining Stategy As mentioned ealie, effective stategic planning should be based on a eliable diagnosis of the initial situation. In the case of the national taining stategy fo local govenment (heeinafte efeed to as the NTS ), this ole is usually played by the taining needs assessment execise ( TNA ). Such a diagnosis should help to identify poblems in the opeations of local govenments (govenance, implementation) which have knowledge gaps o skills gaps as thei oot causes. The accompanying ecommendations should, howeve, go somewhat futhe, and efe to a clea distinction between competence-based poblems (on the pat of local govenment officials) and systemic poblems (legal, political etc.), which should be identified on the basis of a boad analysis efeing to the constuction of the local govenment system. In the light of the pevious delibeations, it should be stessed that a systemic analysis is only possible if the desiable oganisation model fo public authoities is detemined fo the given county context. Membe states of the Council of Euope should efe to the Euopean Chate of Local Self-Govenment as the key guiding document. The elationship between a systematic analysis of taining needs and the need to establish a national taining stategy fo local govenment is pesented in the diagam below. At this point, it is impotant to highlight the cucial impotance of the diffeence between the systemic easons behind the limited pefomance of local authoities and thei causes, linked to the 52

54 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT administation itself. When officials lack competence, this may, of couse, lead to incoect, faulty o ineffective delivey of public sevices. Howeve, even the best competencies ae not enough if the esponsibility fo those tasks is educed o blued due to the centalisation of public govenance. It should be highlighted that a wong identification of causes behind the obsevable poblems may lead to the adoption of ineffective efom effots. Fo this eason, attempts at efoms should be always peceded by a solid analysis of taining needs and a eflection on the souces and context of those needs. A National Taining Stategy is, above all, an attempt to systematise o steamline the catalogue of factos that should help the effective pefomance of public tasks in the local envionment. This, in tun, should geneate a set of policy ecommendations on how the institutional capacity of local administation should be stengthened. In an optimal case, the poposed ecommendations should be eflected in a specific stategy implementation plan, containing sets of well-defined indices, defined esponsibilities fo the implementation of tasks, and a specific implementation schedule (the stuctue of the plan is discussed late on in this chapte). What plays a cucial ole fo the success of the development, econciliation and, above all, adoption of a National Taining Stategy, is the legitimacy of the wok pefomed on that document and the issue of its owneship. Any attempts to impose a stategy without building elevant, bottom-up local suppot and without convincing the stakeholdes that the solutions would be valid in the specific county context should be seen as ineffective and simply wong. Only such legitimisation of the stategy (whee stakeholdes ae committed to its development and co-esponsible fo the implementation) will enable the actual intoduction of changes set out in the adopted document. The pinciples of a National Taining Stategy 22 Owneship A National Taining Stategy belongs to local govenment itself. Local authoities ae the main beneficiaies. They, and the Associations that epesent thei inteests, ae the pincipal ownes. But local authoities ae not the only stakeholdes. The Govenment itself wants local govenment to be efficient, effective, accessible to local people and financially accountable. NGOs and pivate companies wok with local authoities to povide sevices o to offe taining and suppot. Donos have povided, and will continue to povide, significant investment in local govenment. Othe oganisations povide elevant academic taining o othe kinds of suppot. Local people and local oganisations expect public sevices to be managed and deliveed by competent staff. Thee should theefoe be a widespead sense of owneship of the National Taining Stategy. 22 Adopted fom: TOOLKIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT CAPACITY-BUILDING PROGRAMMES ; Council of Euope,

55 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Coopeation between stakeholdes Leaning fom best pactice Caee development of staff Sustainability Each stakeholde has some elevant expeience. Between them they have developed good taining mateials and pogammes. Some of this, fo example, can fom the basis of standadised taining mateials and pogammes. Thee is best pactice both within any county and outside. Thee is much to lean fom best pactice. This can lead to bette taining methodologies and moe elevant taining content. Using best pactice as a taining vehicle can be moe motivating and effective than puely theoetical couses Staff need to be motivated to be tained. They need to see the benefit that they will eceive fom the investment of thei time and effot in taining. Taining should both impove thei competence and pomote thei caees. In the longe tem taining povision must be funded by cental and local govenment, with help fom extenal souces, if necessay, in the medium tem. Local authoities must develop the capacity to identify local souces of funding to suppot thei own taining needs as fa as possible Paticipatoy appoach to stategic planning In accodance with the key pinciples set out above, which should delineate the wok on the National Taining Stategy, one cucial issue is the paticipatoy pocess of developing that document i.e. involving vaious stakeholdes. It should be stessed that such a pocess is not intended to undemine the decision-making capacity o esponsibility of any of the patnes. Instead, the idea is to make sue that vaious entities and thei epesentatives feel suitably co- esponsible fo developing stategic activities and fo paticipation in the co-odination of stategy implementation. Of couse, nobody can be foced to adopt such co-esponsibility. Howeve, one can take actions and seek oppotunities to co-odinate dispesed activities implemented by specific stakeholdes and fomulate pinciples of collaboation which will encouage paties to assume esponsibility fo the outcomes of such coodinated activities. It should be emembeed that the National Taining Stategy is not meely a document that defines the scope and chaacte of possible and desiable taining activities but, instead, it should seve as a plan to develop the institutional capacity fo the entie local administation. This entails the need to each a local consensus aound the stategy povisions and to agee on how a boad goup of stakeholdes will be included in stategy implementation. Paticipatoy appoach to the development of a National Taining Stategy means: Engaging a boad epesentation of goups inteested in effective pefomance of local govenment to wok on the stategy document (cental govenment, cental institutions, local govenment associations, non-govenmental oganisations, local govenment leades, expets suppoting the activities of local administation); 54

56 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Suppoting the planning pocess with the esults of solid taining needs analysis and ecommendations following fom such analysis; Obtaining infomation on plans and stategies of action fo entities engaging in institutional suppot of local govenment and enhancement of the HR capacity in the local govenment; Veifying the developed stategic solutions (goals and poposed activities) in the couse of actual and effective consultations with inteested paties; Close collaboation between local (national) stakeholdes, epesentatives of the Council of Euope and intenational expets. Unde the National Taining Stategy, it is assumed that close collaboation will take place between epesentatives of cental govenment, local govenment units and the Council of Euope. Impotantly, the stategy document is developed with the paticipation of all paties engaged in its ceation: The initiating and co-odinating ole in the development of the National Taining Stategy should be played by a Steeing Committee (SC), which would also have a supevisoy and monitoing ole. Membes should include epesentatives of the cental govenment at the appopiate ank and intenational oganisations (as a ule, those engaged in financing stategy pepaation). Also epesentatives of local govenment associations may take pat in the wok of the Steeing Committee. People diectly engaged in the wok on the stategy would establish a Woking Goup (WG). The WG should include epesentatives of stakeholdes who may be affected by the povisions of the stategy. Thei task will be to take an active ole in meetings, engage in developing solutions, wok on specific pats of the document and take pat in oganising sectoal consultations, if needed. The intenational expet nomally plays the ole of a substantive adviso the expet pesents methodological solutions and actively helps to implement them, ovesees the pope couse of wok on the stategy, veifies the esults of the analysis and insights, edits specific pats of the document, ensues high quality of the outcomes of the entie pocess. The local expet is esponsible fo technical suppot fo the pocess (oganisation of bilateal meetings, soucing infomation), co-chaiing of the WG meetings and substantive wok on selected sections of the document. Paticipation of the cental authoities and local govenment associations in the wok on the stategy is one of the elements which detemine the success of the entie pocess. The expeience of the Council of Euope indicates that diect involvement of a cental govenment epesentative of the appopiate ank in the wok of the Steeing Goup has a positive effect on pocess efficiency, paticipant engagement and the socially peceived significance of measues undetaken. Visible engagement of cental authoities in the wok on the stategy adds cedibility and boosts the impotance of activities taken. 55

57 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT The FRAMEWORK pocess of development of a National Taining Stategy 23 Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Stage 9 Make political decisions; establish Steeing Committee Oganise a oundtable of stakeholdes to agee the concept and the appoach; pepae an Action Plan. Establish a national Woking Goup of stakeholdes, chaied by the senio epesentative of the cental govenment, with ageed Tems of Refeence Appoint a local consultant suppoted by an intenational expet to cay out the wok on behalf of the Woking Goup. Plan and cay out a compehensive Taining Needs Analysis Daft and seek consensus on the National Taining Stategy (including aangements fo its implementation), based on the findings of the Taining Needs Analysis and the views and expeience of stakeholdes. Whee necessay, pepae a detailed poject poposal fo the implementing body, i.e. facility; seek funding commitments in pinciple. Seek fomal appoval, as appopiate, fo the National Taining Stategy and the implementing body. Launch the National Taining Stategy; establish the implementing body as an oganisation in law, as necessay; begin opeations. Woth stessing is that the National Taining Stategy may assume that the implementation of tasks included in the implementation plan (o the oveall co-odination theeof) may be entusted to a specific oganisational stuctue. This ole may be played by an existing entity o a dedicated, newly established unit (e.g. with a pofile of a taining unit). The scope of oles elated to the pepaation and implementation of the National Taining Stategy is pesented in the diagam below. It should be emembeed, howeve, that the detailed distibution of tasks depends on the local conditions and expectations of poject stakeholdes. 23 Adopted fom: TOOLKIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT CAPACITY-BUILDING PROGRAMMES ; Council of Euope,

58 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Coodinatoy and monitoing function Stategic planning Implementation Woking Goup Local govenment units Othe stakeholdes Steeing Goup Taining unit (facility) Intenational & local expets Oganizational suppot Example: Tems of efeence fo the Woking Goup The Woking Goup would be fomally esponsible fo: 1. commissioning and ageeing a Taining Needs Analysis; 2. designing, commissioning and ageeing the National Taining Stategy in the light of the Taining Needs Analysis and any othe assessments; 3. secuing the ageement to the National Taining Stategy of the esponsible Ministy and the National Association(s); 4. dawing up an associated Implementation Plan and Budget, and identifying the equied esouces; 5. launching the National Taining Stategy in ways that secue maximum impact; The Woking Goup would identify, and secue ageement to, the institutional oles and esponsibilities fo the implementation of the National Taining Stategy. The Woking Goup would povide egula pogess epots to the esponsible cental and local authoities The flow of the stategy development pocess The wok on the National Taining Stategy usually involves the oganisation of a few Woking Goup meetings (minimum thee) and a numbe of steps and activities to be taken between those meetings. As a ule, the pocess takes between thee and six months, and its duation depends on the local needs, patnes willingness to collaboate and specific possibilities to activate vaious esouces (mostly human but also mateial esouces) and communities. 57

59 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT The fist Woking Goup meeting plays both an oganisational and a substantive ole. The paticipants become familia with the goals and the flow of the stategic planning pocess. In the couse of the meeting, subsequent steps of stategy development ae discussed, and tasks of individual Woking Goup membes ae ageed upon. Stakeholde analysis should be an impotant element of this meeting, i.e. identification of additional institutions, oganisations o leades whose paticipation in stategy development is potentially significant fo the adequate composition of the document and its social and systemic legitimacy. The ange of topics to be coveed duing the meeting depends on when it is oganised: If the WG meeting is held befoe the taining needs analysis has stated, the concept of social eseach is pesented, togethe with accompanying methodological solutions (methodology and schedule, eseach tools, e.g. a suvey questionnaie). The team makes decisions (and commitments) on how to suppot the eseach fieldwok. If the WG meeting is oganised afte the completion of the TNA, the esults of the eseach as well as conclusions and ecommendations fom the eseach ae pesented. The pesentation should be followed by a discussion on the poposed ecommendations because the ageed scope of ecommendations will guide futhe wok on the stategy. A list of stategic goals is a desiable outcome of the meeting. It will compise the most impotant, long-tem axes fo the oganisation of activities included in the stategy. On the basis of the aangements made duing the WG meeting, paticipating expets will develop a daft document, containing the following: A summay of the most cucial elements to diagnose the situation (based on the taining needs analysis); Recommendations fom the analyses aleady conducted (as ageed duing the WG meeting); A set of stategic goals (pimay, geneal couses of action); Poposed opeational goals (to opeationalise stategic goals, i.e. genealised tasks leading to the achievement of stategic goals) and possible accompanying specific activities. Woth stessing is that the opeational goals to be included in the stategy should be SMART, i.e. they should be: Specific Measuable Attainable Relevant Time-bound The second WG meeting should encompass a discussion on the daft document and, in paticula, wok to agee on the final woding of specific goals and accompanying activities. Duing the WG meeting, its paticipants will: discuss comments to the daft document (the pat compising TNA conclusions, key stategic and opeational goals); agee on specific goals of the stategy; develop impact indicatos (efeing to specific goals); identify and agee on activities associated with specific goals (shot-tem pespective of thee to fou yeas); 58

60 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT develop poduct and outcome indicatos (efeing to activities); allocate the esponsibility fo the implementation of specific activities and thei schedule. Theefoe, the stuctue of the stategic document should be hieachical: subsequent elements of the stategy ae subodinated to highe-level elements and ae closely linked with them. The oveaching ole is played by the stuctue of stategic goals ageed duing Woking Goup discussions. Key stategic goals MULTIANNUAL PERSPECTIVE Opeational goals SHORT-TERM PERSPECTIVE (3-4 YEARS) Actions SHORT-TERM PERSPECTIVE (3-4 YEARS) Pogess indicatos play an impotant ole in the stategy document. They enable actual monitoing of stategy implementation and assessment of outcomes of any activities that have been undetaken. Those pogess indicatos ae defined with efeence to the final outcomes of stategy implementation (impact assessment), and with efeence to specific activities undetaken within it (assessment of deliveed/developed poducts and thei outcomes). STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION INDICATORS include measues efeing to the impact of the stategy, its poducts, outcomes and inputs. They ae monitoed in the couse of implementation in ode to assess pogess towads the goals. They ae also used to assess the achieved outcomes. The indicatos oganise infomation by indicating the intedependence between impact, outcomes, poducts and inputs, and enable identification of poblems emeging duing stategy implementation: poblems which may pose a theat to the achievement of stategic goals. 59

61 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Input indicatos they elate to esouces (oganisational, mateial, human and othe) needed to implement the poposed activities. Financial indicatos they seve to monito the utilisation of financial esouces elated to stategy implementation. Output indicatos they elate to diect outcomes of the activities; they ae measued in human units (e.g. the numbe of people tained), mateial units (e.g. the numbe of taining sessions held, the numbe of taining mateials pepaed), time units (e.g. the numbe of suppot hous, duation of taining) and othes. Result indicatos they elate to diect and immediate outcomes of the pogamme fo diect beneficiaies (they may be mateial o financial) fo instance, educed time needed to issue an administative decision, boosted officials motivation to undetake nonstandad actions, o impoved efficiency in the delivey of a sevice. Impact indicatos they elate to long-tem outcomes of stategy implementation, going beyond the immediate effects. Above all, they include indicatos which help to measue impovements in the living conditions in the local community, economic gowth of a local govenment unit o oveall impovement in its pefomance. A shot-tem action plan should be an autonomous element of the stategy document. Within this plan, each stategic goal should be linked with specific goals and the latte should be connected with actions povided fo implementation in the next thee o fou yeas. Below pesented is a section of an action plan table which should accompany the stategy. The entie table should cove all tasks scheduled fo implementation. Each of them should be accompanied by key indicatos (output and esult indicatos), identification of souces, clea allocation of esponsibilities and the timeline fo implementation. 60

62 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Sample action plan sheet (such a sheet should be dawn up fo each set of a stategic goal and accompanying opeational goals): Stategic goal 1: Opeational goal 1.1.:.... Action Pogess (output) indicato Result of the action Souces Responsibility fo implementation Timeline fo implementation Action 1 Action 2. Afte the second Stategic Team meeting, the stategy document would be consolidated, edited and finalised in espect of substantive issues. As a esult, the daft vesion of the entie stategy is pepaed and then communicated to Woking Goup membes fo consultation. Between the second and the thid Woking Goup meeting, a ecommended pactice is to oganise infomation meetings fo local govenments, leades and local govenment expets, in ode to discuss the poposed actions and oganisational solutions. Such meetings help to expand the pespective on specific povisions in the stategy document and facilitate subsequent engagement of taget ecipients of actions coveed by the stategy. The discussion duing the thid Woking Goup meeting should end with the adoption of the final vesion of the stategy document. WG membes should also develop and agee on a stategy management plan, defining how the stategy will be implemented, how elated wok will be co-odinated, and how the outcomes will be monitoed. The plan will nomally indicate the co-odinating entity (e.g. institution, co-odinato o team), indicate epoting pocedues and ules fo updating the document. Afte the meeting, the final vesion of the document should be sent to the body which is empoweed to authoise (i.e. officially adopt) the stategy. 61

63 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Example: WORKING GROUP ACTION PLAN ARMENIA (2003 / 2004) TIME- SCALE TASK IMPLICATIONS PROGRESS Roundtable 2-3 July 03 Conside and agee poposal to develop a National Taining Stategy (NTS). - Repesentative Woking Goup (WG) to be established with Tems of Refeence - Action Plan to be pepaed - CoE to appoint local consultant and intenational expet P Note of Roundtable, Tems of Refeence and Action Plan issued to WG (18 July). P Meeting of Woking Goup to conside inteim Repot of Taining Needs Analysis (TNA) and outline NTS P Local consultant appointed July-Aug 03 CoE to appoint a local consultant The task will be to suppot the Woking Goup in caying out TNA and pepae NTS ove next 12 months in consultation with local govenment stakeholdes P Local consultant appointed July-Aug 03 CoE to appoint an intenational expet The task will be to suppot the local consultant in his/he task, e.g. in designing tools fo the TNA P Intenational expet appointed Aug-Oct 03 Undetake the TNA - pepae a plan fo the TNA - meet each of the main taining povides to conside cuent pogammes, any local taining assessments, gaps in povision. - pepae tools (suveys, questionnaies etc.) fo assessing taining needs in selected aeas - complete assessments and analyse esults fom selected aeas - pepae daft epot on TNA fo consideation by WG In hand by local expet; suppot fom intenational expet delayed; will pesent inteim epot to Novembe WG meeting Oct 03 Oganise 3-4 local seminas to assist with the assessment of taining needs - Makes the assessment of taining needs moe obust and the NTS moe acceptable - Can follow up issues identified in questionnaies and suveys In hand Oct 03 Pepae plan fo NTS - To seek WG ageement to the way fowad, based on daft TNA epot 20 Nov 03 Fist meeting of WG - Conside the daft TNA Repot and advise - Agee outline poposal fo the NTS Outline poposal being pepaed fo bainstoming at Novembe WG meeting See agenda fo 20 Novembe meeting 62

64 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Feb 04 Second meeting of WG - Conside TNA epot and advise / agee - Conside fist daft of NTS and advise - Conside institutional aangements fo suppoting the implementation of the NTS and commission poject poposal as equied Ma-Apil 04 Apil 04 Oganise 4 local seminas to conside daft NTS Oganise national confeence to conside daft NTS - Makes the NTS moe obust and acceptable; involves municipalities - To make all stakeholdes awae of the NTS and how they might use it and contibute to its implementation. - To seek commitment fom all local govenment stakeholdes - To seek political and dono commitment in paticula Apil 04 Thid meeting of WG - Agee final daft of NTS - Conside poposed institutional aangements fo NTS and advise - Agee launch and implementation plans of NTS Institutional aangements will depend on the NTS, cuent capacity of stakeholdes and whethe additional capacity is equied. A futhe WG meeting may be necessay to conside final poposal fo institutional aangements June 04 Fouth meeting of WG - Hand NTS ove to implementing bodies This should eflect the completion by the WG of its mandate; 63

65 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Example: WORKING GROUP ACTION PLAN MONTENEGRO (2006 / 2007) JOINT PROGRAMME BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN AGENCY FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE BUILDING THE CAPACITIES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN MONTENEGRO NATIONAL TRAINING STRATEGY Action Plan ( ) Timetable Task Responsible Identify local consultant / expet in accodance with a Job Desciption povided by the CoE 1 Nov 2006 Oganise a Round Table fo Stakeholdes and LG expets to discuss NTS appoach and daft Action Plan, and to agee Steeing Goup (ToR) Outcomes: (1) ageement in pinciple of the appoach of the NTS; (2) undestanding of the pocess and envionment of the NTS; (3) ageed ToR of the SG 2-3 Nov 2006 Bilateal meetings with the SG membes to discuss NTS Action Plan Outcome: ageed Action Plan Union of Municipalities (SNV) with CoE Union, Ministies, and intenational patnes CoE / SNV expets CoE and SNV expets 14 Nov 17 Nov 06 Dec 06 TNA tools and daft outline of TNA epot Bilateal meetings; Identify eseach oganisation to act as patne Complete task foce of local and intenational consultants Visit to 1 municipality Daft in-depth inteview scenaio Pepae a detailed TNA plan Outcomes: (1) detailed TNA plan; (2) daft in-depth inteview scenaio; (2) inteviewes identified Boad of Union infomed of the NTS Mayos asked to paticipate in pesonal inteview CoE expet and SNV expets SNV 64

66 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Timetable Task Responsible 22 Decembe 06 CoE and SNV attendance at the Assembly of the Union on 22 Decembe to explain the NTS to the Mayos and to seek suppot thei suppot CoE and SNV mid Jan 07 Povide status epot and TNA plan to SG membes Agee aangements, plan with CEED, UoM and Local Consultant CoE and SNV expets Jan 07 Meet CEED Tain inteviewes Local consultant, CoE, SNV 29 Jan 10 Mach Feb 15 Mach 07 Feb Mach 07 (By 22 Mach) Inteviewes conduct in-depth inteviews with Mayos Pepaation of tanscipts and summay (latte also in English) of in-depth inteviews Bilateal meetings Visit to municipalities FGI conducted Development of questionnaies fo the suvey taking account of the in-depth inteviews Local consultants, inteviewes, poject manage of UoM, SNV local expets Local consultants, CEED CoE and SNV expets, local consultant 5 th Apil, 07 Oganise a SG meeting to: bief new membes of SG take note of the esults of inteviews with Mayos accept the suvey questionnaie Tain inteviewes to cay out TNA execise, using TNA tools Make aangements fo inteviews and suvey Bilateal meetings Visit to municipalities CoE and SNV expets, local consultants Apil, 07 (by 5 th May) Inteviewes cay out inteviews and suvey with suppot of local consultants Collecting and systemising TNA data Pepae stuctue of the TNA epot Daft TNA epot Local consultants and inteviewes, CoE and SNV expets 65

67 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Timetable Task Responsible 17 th May, 07 Oganise a SG meeting to: - discuss daft TNA epot - identify objectives and stuctue of the NTS and options fo implementation Bilateal meetings 8 th June, 07 Oganise a SG meeting to: agee final TNA epot conside Daft 1 of NTS and make ecommendations fo implementation June August, 07 Septembe, 07 NTS Pepae Daft 2 of NTS and Implementation Action Plan and consult SG by Oganize oundtable fo stakeholdes SG meeting to conside and agee daft 3 of NTS and Implementation Action Plan Agee plans fo NTS official appoval and launch Semina fo Mayos and heads of HR/taining to explain NTS Publish and disseminate NTS; tanslate into English Set up national platfom (e.g. National Taining Council) to take esponsibility fo implementation of NTS Completion of wok of Steeing Goup Local consultants with suppot fom CoE and SNV expets Local consultants with suppot fom CoE and SNV expets Local consultants with suppot fom CoE and SNV expets SG, Union, CoE and SNV The National Platfom (its natue will depend on the ecommendations of the NTS) will take esponsibility fo the implementation of the NTS fom this point on. 66

68 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT The scope of the National Taining Stategy The following should be highlighted among the most impotant oveall easons fo undetaking wok to develop national taining stategies fo local govenment: Stiving to impove the pefomance of local govenment: to boost the effectiveness and efficiency of its opeations to make sue it can eally impove the quality of life fo local esidents, Effots to motivate local govenment staff to get involved in solving local poblems, to make local govenment jobs moe attactive and desiable, The need to ationalise the use of existing mateial and human esouces (incl. the need to co-odinate dispesed assistance measues). In ode fo these goals to be achieved, the document must have an appopiate, usability-oiented stuctue. A taining stategy has to be as specific as possible about the following: legitimacy of the document the stategy should be a specific action plan, officially appoved by the competent institution (usually the competent govenment agency in chage of capacity building in local administation). Tanspaency and consensual development pocess ae impotant elements which enhance the legitimacy of the stategy. A stategy cannot be imposed onto institutions that will be esponsible fo its implementation (unless those ae cental govenment agencies). stakeholdes of the taining stategy the document should clealy define the allocation of tasks and esponsibilities elated to the actions incopoated in the stategy; it should clealy define the ageed oles fo each stakeholde in ode to espect thei sepaate status, empowement and the ight to shape thei own policies. the topics to be coveed in the taining, the aeas to be coveed and the expected outcomes of the education pocess as mentioned ealie in the TNA chapte, taining needs do not always ovelap with the social expectations associated with taining. Nevetheless, the scope of educational activities should be undestandable fo potential ecipients, i.e. taining paticipants. In its desciptive pat, the stategy should explain the easons behind the choice of educational pioities (selected at the planning stage) and the action plan should specify the anticipated esults of activities. the fomat of educational activities (face-to-face vs. distance leaning; one-off events vs. a taining cycle, lectues vs. active leaning methods) the selected taining methods should match the special chaacteistics and capacities of local administation. oganisational/institutional solutions coveing the specification of tasks and esponsibilities elated to the implementation of the stategy. The idea that lies behind the poposition outlined in taining stategies eflects the need fo ceation of a compehensive and consistent famewok fo assuing quality of taining fo local govenment within a national context. 67

69 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Fo many yeas now, the CoE has poposed seveal tools fo inceasing the quality, compehensiveness and sustainability of LG development in the counties of SE Euope and Caucasus. Among these tools one can enumeate: TNA, NTS, best pactice pogams, and benchmaking. All of them constitute elements of a quality impovement oientated appoach. It seems that all these diffeent tools/elements can be put into a consistent famewok that would constitute guidelines fo policy actions elated to capacity building of local govenments in individual counties. Such combination of elements constitutes a set of possible solutions to be embedded in the National Taining Stategy. Below pesented is a famewok 24 (matix) that summaizes the most impotant elements, gouping them into six boad categoies elated to: taining envionment, taining expetise and taining delivey at both local authoity level as well as within the national famewok. Seveal impotant issues may influence the undestanding of the poposed famewok. At this stage it is impotant to stess the following: 1. The set of elements poposed within the matix is not exhaustive. Also, it is not intended to be intoduced all at the same time by a single activity o pogamme. Rathe, it constitutes a famewok that assues quality-contolled taining delivey system. 2. The poposed famewok is a geneal quality model to be used afte the necessay adaptation to local conditions. It poposes seveal povisions that may, but also may not, be elevant to paticula legal conditions, administative aangements, histoical envionment, etc. One of those peconditions is an existence of a fee maket of taining delivey fo local govenments. The inclusion of this element in the matix should not be seen as an attempt to put any egulations on such a maket o to e-intoduce any kind of centalised system. The matix itself just enlists seveal equiements fo an effective, efficient and sustainable system of LG taining. 3. TNA is a pecondition of any quality-based appoach to taining delivey. It is impotant to emembe that TNA elates to all those activities and changes that can be achieved though taining and theefoe needs to set apat all non-taining issues (like policy changes, institutional eaangements, etc.). Accodingly, the poposed famewok fo quality assuance elates to all educational activities, but does not tackle all possibly necessay activities elated to the intoduction of an effective LG system. 4. The validity of the poposed famewok stats with the elevance of taining activities. The famewok summaises the elements necessay to assue good quality taining fo LG when taining is elevant and necessay. 24 The pesented matix developed by myself was used, in a slightly diffeent fom, in a publication pepaed by the Council of Euope and the UNDP (2005), entitled: Appoach to quality assuance in local govenment taining. 68

70 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Factos influencing taining envionment Factos influencing taining povides / taines / methods Factos influencing taining effectiveness (envionment) (expetise and delivey) (effectiveness) National Famewok Legal and policy famewok fo local govenment taining National Taining Stategy Taining maket Coodination of national and intenational oganisations activities National Association of local authoities Coodinating body fo standads Acceditation and cetification pocess National database of taines National libay of taining esouces Updated cuicula/ methods/ mateials Update of TNA / NTS Taining pogamme evaluation Taining cuicula in line with NTS Local Authoity Pefomance (self)- assessment HR function In-house taining policy TNA appoach (content and method) Standad selection citeia (taines / povides) Post-taining suppot Standad taining impact assessment system Intenal (in-house) knowledge shaing The elements listed in the table above should be included when dafting the taining stategy. This does not mean, of couse, that each of them must be diectly tanslated into stategy goals. Those elements, howeve, ae cucial fo building an effective system to suppot the development of local govenment pesonnel a system which suppots development and offes development potential. Theefoe, it is wothwhile taking a close look at the afoementioned elements at the county level as they become paticulaly impotant when a stategy is fomulated. Taining envionment the national famewok 1. The legal and policy famewok fo local govenment taining should invoke intenational documents (Euopean Chate of Local Self-Govenment) and national egulations (National Constitution; Laws on local govenment, civil sevants & othes). The povisions of the Euopean Chate of Local Self-Govenment epesent the key benchmak to descibe the local govenment system in the county. As such, they should be used as the basis to plan any activities concening local administation in CoE membe states. In this context, two dimensions ae impotant fo the planning of taining activities: (1) tasks and competencies of local authoities laid down in those egulations, and (2) the identified taining needs. 2. The development of a National Taining Stategy enables the co-odination of dispesed taining effots, bette use of esouces, planning the development of local govenment pesonnel in the context of national and local development goals. The taining needs 69

71 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT analysis which accompanies stategy development helps to identify and monito poblems impacting the pefomance of local administation. 3. The fee maket of taining sevices enables flexible esponse to the changing needs of local govenment units, and allows knowledge gaps to be filled fast in case of changing egulations. Moeove, if suitable (financial) esouces ae available, it ensues pemanent suppot fo cleical staff. 4. Coodination of national and intenational oganizations activities in the context of limited esouces is cucial: it helps to optimise the effots undetaken by vaious entities and, though synegies, helps to boost the impact of vaious initiatives. Donos esouces may also lagely contibute to the success of NTS implementation. Taining povides / taines / methods the national famewok 1. An active ole of LG associations and the existence of a coodinating body fo taining standads this issue is emphasised in ode to highlight the essential ole of associations in co-odinating the NTS implementation. In many cases (and we ae speaking hee of teitoial govenment in the sense of decentalised public govenance), this is the entity which should be entusted with a special ole in the monitoing of the NTS implementation and often also with diect supevision ove the implementation of poposed activities, in line with local needs. 2. The situation looks somewhat diffeent when it comes to the development of an acceditation and cetification system of taining povides and taining esouces. This task equies a consideably institutionalised appoach. Vaious foms of taining and substantive suppot fo taines may be equied (coaching, mentoing, national taining of taines, foums of expets, etc.), and tanspaent ecuitment and cetification ules may need to be defined (including intoduction of some kind of an appaisal system fo cetificate enewal). An institutionalised fomat will help to mobilise the esouces fo systematic capacity building of taining povides (vaious capacity building pogammes). Taining effectiveness the national famewok And, finally, it is vey impotant to ensue the assessment of outcomes achieved though the implementation of a taining stategy. On the one hand, such assessment efes to the esults of the monitoing whee implementation is checked vesus the plan, and, on the othe hand, it efes to the evaluation of the stategy as such and the initiatives implemented within its famewok. The esults of the evaluation should seve as an impotant input fo document updates. Even though monitoing and evaluation assume somewhat diffeent pespectives on the activities which have been implemented, these two categoies ae closely inteelated. Monitoing is an essential element of an oveall poject evaluation. 70

72 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Monitoing geneally involves compaing the actual outcomes against the assumptions and expectations. In pactice, the poject implementation monitoing involves egula, systematic measuements o obsevations of actions elated to implementation and of the outcomes. This pocess should be based on pecisely defined indicatos. Evaluation entails a judgement on the value of the poject. In pactice, it involves asking questions, gatheing infomation and fomulating conclusions, mostly efeing to the effectiveness, efficiency, usability and the impact of activities conducted unde the poject. The essence of evaluation usually lies in its pactical oientation, i.e. the focus on modifications and impovements, the need to apply the outcomes in ode to avoid epeating past mistakes and to impove actions taken. The evaluation effots adopted in the context of the implementation of a National Taining Stategy should compise and consolidate thee impotant components: 1. Fomative evaluation (poactive evaluation), expected to help in poject implementation and, consequently, used fo ongoing decision-making; 2. Psychological evaluation, used to shape the poject contactos knowledge and awaeness of vaious activities and to stimulate desiable behavious; 3. Conclusive evaluation (etoactive evaluation), used fo ongoing epoting and fo the oveall assessment of poject outcomes and esults. The set of elements poposed above should be viewed as a benchmak fo veification, assessment and eflection on the povisions laid down in the stategy. In no way does it detemine any specific povisions of a nationally ageed document. Howeve, it should help to guide the discussion on the solutions adopted in the stategy. Below listed is an optimum set of elements fo a National Taining Stategy. Howeve, it should be stessed that the final shape of the stategy will depend on many specific, locally detemined factos. They will include the flow of the document development at the national level, local political and legal famewok, expeience in building local democacy, degee of decentalisation of public govenance, elations between key stakeholdes, economic situation, social elations and many othes. In the optimal scenaio, the final stategy document would nomally include the following: A concise analysis of the key consideations guiding decentalised public govenance, and some eflections on the national situation of local democacy in the light of the Euopean Chate of Local Self-Govenment, based on the existing documents, available epots and othe souces. Key conclusions and ecommendations fom the completed taining needs analysis. Pesentation of stategic development goals in a multi-annual pespective. A set of impact indicatos fo the stategy. A shot-tem action plan (fo thee to fou yeas) containing specific activities, output and esult indicatos, esponsibilities fo thei implementation as well as an implementation schedule. Stategy management plan (coveing the implementation monitoing pocedues and stategy update pocedues). 71

73 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Final emaks As it is fequently demonstated by the eseach conducted unde the Taining Needs Assessment, the natue of the easons which constain capacity development of local govenments is vaied. The will to impove the situation, which tanslates into effots to boost the effectiveness and efficiency of local administation and, in consequence, to impove the quality of life in local communities, may call fo vaied effots. Sometimes it is necessay, on the one hand, to undetake effots to change the oganisational and legal conditions unde which local administation is opeating. On the othe hand, development of competences among local govenment staff can, by itself, pose a significant challenge. It is woth emphasising that any National Taining Stategy should not be limited to identifying only the necessay taining activities but, athe, it should point to the coe diections of systemic suppot fo local administation in the pocess which aims to enhance local govenance. Any stategy should be based on a numbe of key assumptions undelying the Euopean Chate of Local Self Govenment: Local development cannot be appoached in a dispesed way. Instead, it should be undestood as a whole set of actions aimed to impove the quality of life of people living in a specific local community. Local development should lagely ely on local esouces. This means that the centalisation of esouces fo futhe edistibution is hadly eve an efficient solution. Such esouces should be sepaated and managed in a way that allows local govenments to enjoy elative autonomy in building thei coe public policies. Howeve, when it comes to local development, thee ae geneally no univesally adequate solutions, applicable to all counties, political backgounds, and histoical expeiences. This stems fom the fact that each county and, futhe on, each teitoial unit faces its specific poblems of local chaacte (alongside univesal human needs). In accodance with the sustainable development pinciples, local development policies should take account of specific social, economic and envionmental consideations. Fo this eason, the oganisation of wok on the National Taining Stategy, the ange of elated tasks, the flow of stategy development as well as the detailed stuctue of the stategy document should always be detemined locally. In some cases, it will be easonable to develop the afoementioned detailed action plan and define all elements of the afoesaid optimum set. In othe cases, the challenge might lie in developing a list of possible activities o, moe geneally, ageeing on the scope of opeational goals. Nevetheless, it should be emembeed that egadless of the final outcome the successful adoption of a stategy document is as impotant as the enlightening discussion on local democacy poblems among key national stakeholdes. 72

74 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT List of efeences CEMR (2013), Decentalisation at a cossoads. Teitoial efoms in Euope in Times of cisis ; Council of Euopean Municipalities and Regions Council of Euope and UNDP, (2005), Appoach to quality assuance in local govenment taining. Council of Euope, (2005), TOOLKIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT CAPACITY-BUILDING PROGRAMMES Euopean Committee of Regions, (2103), OPINION: Devolution in the Euopean Union and the place fo local and egional self govenment in EU policy making and delivey ; 100th plenay session, Apil 2013 ( 2bIviEiYu4LoYBLutpoJJ4tL7WYIw%3d&ViewDoc=tue) Flick, U., (2007), Designing qualitative eseach ; London: Sage Publications Hlepas, N.K. (2015), Is it the twilight of decentalization? Testing the limits of functional efoms in the ea of austeity, Intenational Review of Administative Sciences, Vol. 82(2), pp Mangione, T.W., Mail suveys. Impoving the quality, SAGE Publications Nowak, S., (1990), Models of diectional change and human values; the theoy of pogess as an applied social science, in: J.C. Alexande, P. Sztompka (ed.), Rethinking pogess: movements, foces and ideas at the end of the 20 th centuy, Boston: Unwin Hyman. Rae, L., (1997), Planning and designing taining pogammes, Gowe Publishing Ltd. Regulski, J., (2014), Życie splecione z histoią [Life intetwined with histoy]; Wocław: Zakład Naodowy im. Ossolińskich Roud, Cf. R.H., M.E. Kusy, (1995), Development of human esouces, Pat 2, Needs Assessment the fist step, Tappi Jounal. Stuat, Ch., Compaative political decentalization in Euope ; The Scottish Paliament, SPICe biefing, 09/19, 2009; p. 41. Tutkowski, C., (2011), (ed.) Badania jakości usług publicznych w samoządzie lokalnym [ Reseach on the quality of public sevices in local govenment], Poznań: Association of Polish Cities and Towns. 73

75 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT APPENDIX 1 Case study: Taining Needs Assessment of Local Councils in Malta (2014) 25 Backgound of the Poject implemented in Malta A Patneship fo Ceative Govenance, of the Noway Gants , is a capacitybuilding poject fo local govenment implemented by the Depatment fo Local Govenment, Malta as Poject Pomote and the Council of Euope Cente of Expetise fo Local Govenment Refom, the Local Councils Association of Malta and Association of Local Municipalities (KS) of Noway as Poject Patnes and suppoted by a gant fom Noway though Noway Gants , Pogamme Aea 25. It consisted of the following components a Taining Needs Assessment, a National Taining Stategy, a Pefomance Management Pogamme, a Leadeship Academy, the Stategy fo Innovation and Good Govenance and Euopean Label of Govenance Excellence. The Taining Needs Assessment was conducted duing sping-summe 2014 and esulted in the epot pesented below, as well as in the National Taining Stategy fo Local Councils in Malta that was elaboated subsequently. 25 This epot was pepaed by Cezay Tutkowski unde the poject MT04/1 A Patneship fo Ceative Govenance implemented by the Depatment fo Local Govenment of the Ministy Fo Justice, Cultue and Local Govenment, Malta, suppoted by a gant fom Noway though the Noway Gants , with assistance of the Council of Euope Cente of Expetise fo Local Govenment Refom 74

76 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT TNA FINAL REPORT (Malta, 2014) Competence Building among Local Govenment Officials as an Element of Decentalisation of Public Authoities 1. Executive summay Deconcentation of public authoities in Malta Reseach findings clealy indicate that one can hadly talk about the implementation of the subsidiaity pinciple in Malta. The main eason is, fistly, the limited ange of esponsibilities vested in the Local Councils and, secondly, the low degee of autonomy in decision-making at the lowest level of public administation, even within thei competences. In the couse of twenty yeas since the intoduction of Local Councils, it has poven impossible to cay out genuine decentalisation of public authoities and to hand ove the boad esponsibility fo public sevices and local development to local govenments. In accodance with statements made by paticipants of qualitative eseach, the vast majoity of public govenance continues to be in the hands of national politicians and officials who wok in cental govenment agencies. In the Maltese system, theefoe, we can talk about deconcentation of cetain tasks pefomed by cental institutions athe than of actual decentalisation of powe. In the light of numeous statements made by eseach paticipants, the futue of local administation in Malta is by no means obvious. Many of them challenged the sense of having Local Councils within the cuent legal famewok. Leades of local public administation and thei mutual elations What is enomously impotant fo the efficient wok of Local Councils ae the elations between councillos and membes of the local administation and, in paticula, the elations between councillos, mayos and executive secetaies. As one might guess, the natue of those elations is affected by a vaiety of factos, stating with pesonality aspects up to political plans made by individual councillos. One condition fo constuctive collaboation, howeve, is the awaeness of mutual powes and competences as well as the pope undestanding of oles played by specific individuals in local govenment bodies. The inteviews held unde the pesent study geneally indicate that secetaies and mayos have a faily diveging pespective on thei oles in local administation stuctues. The espondents statements leave no doubt that the missing element is a clea-cut and commonly accepted sepaation of competences between executive and legislative powes at the local level, and the elations between secetaies and mayos ae an impotant hotbed of potential poblems in this egad. What was often emphasised in inteviews was the politicisation of Local Councils. In the eyes of executive secetaies and officials, councillos ae faily often seen as politicians who pusue thei own inteests o paty inteests, often neglecting the developmental challenges faced by the entie community o geneal systemic constaints. 75

77 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT An impotant poblem elated to the opeation of Local Councils is that councillos ae often insufficiently pepaed to pefom thei function within the legally defined peogatives of local epesentative bodies. In the cuent legal famewok, executive secetaies ae employed by the LG Depatment which is pat of the cental govenment administation. In othe wods, the Depatment is the employe of executive secetaies. Statements made by secetaies indicate that they have an excessive ange of esponsibilities. In the light of the study, this does not indicate that thei fomal esponsibilities ae paticulaly vast but that they ae concentated within one position. In the case of Local Councils one can talk about an insufficiency of human esouces and a distibution of esponsibilities which is not entiely clea. Peception of Local Councils by citizens The vast majoity of Maltese citizens peceive thei place of pemanent esidence in vey positive light. In total, as many as 82.5% of the National Suvey espondents consideed thei locality to be a good (45.7%) o a vey good (36.8%) place to live. In the light of esponses given by National Suvey paticipants one should conclude that the majoity of Maltese citizens think they ae familia with the scope of Local Councils esponsibilities. At the same time, the majoity of those polled believe that the competences of the councils should be expanded. Both the geneal assessment of the pefomance of Local Councils by citizens and the assessment of most sevices povided by the councils is positive. Among univesal public sevices the best atings wee given to waste collection fom home, public ode and cleanliness of public places. Negative opinions wee expessed about the quality, maintenance and condition of public oads and pavements. Accoding to the opinions of most eseach paticipants, the quality of public sevices has impoved in ecent yeas. Pefomance of public sevices at the local level At pesent, majo esponsibilities of Local Councils include the cae of cleanliness and maintenance of public spaces (steet cleaning, collection of municipal waste, pak maintenance), consevation of geeney in towns and maintenance of selected elements of the local infastuctue, pedominantly oads. Repesentatives of local govenment believe that the aeas which give ise to most poblems in day-today local govenance include: law enfocement, oad infastuctue, the cleanliness of steets and public places and waste management. The geatest obstacles to efficient and effective povision of public sevices stem fom the limited autonomy of local govenments, inadequate financing fo thei tasks and staff shotages. Howeve, one should note that local govenments have vey esticted feedom in shaping thei own HR policies, which is also the case in many othe aeas. Woth noting is that egadless of poblems that have been identified, the vast majoity of inteviewed officials and elected epesentatives tend to give a positive assessment of the pefomance of Local Councils. Slightly highe atings in self-assessment wee ecoded in the case of officials and executive secetaies in compaison with councillos. 76

78 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 77

79 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Extenal collaboation The collaboation between Local Councils and extenal public bodies in Malta was, fo the most pat, ated negatively. The elations between local and cental bodies ae all-too-often distant fom the ideas of patneship and equal ights of paties. Many secetaies believe that they tend to be clients of vaious institutions athe than patnes within public administation. This is elated, above all, to the constained autonomy of Local Councils and thei lack of decision-making powes in many aeas. In many contacts between Local Councils and extenal bodies the fome act as intemediaies fo citizens who encounte vaious poblems in thei place of esidence and wish to contact cental institutions fo a binding decision that may help to solve those poblems. Taining needs While thee exists a ange of taining options tageted at local govenment pesonnel in geneal, thee is no compehensive system fo local administation staff to impove thei pofessional competences. The espondents wee nealy unanimous in indicating the need fo officials to be tained. The needs in this egad ae so vast that executive secetaies admitted in unison duing a goup discussion that, basically, any taining is welcome. Based on the eseach wok pefomed, it seems justified to ecommend the following thematic aeas fo taining to be offeed to Local Councils pesonnel: Awaeness-aising activities any activities aimed at explaining the systemic and legal famewok of the competences of vaious stakeholdes in the local govenment system, and familiaising the paticipants with geneal pinciples of decentalisation and opeation of local govenments in the Euopean context. Taining fo elected epesentatives activities in this egad should aim at aising awaeness and expanding councillos the knowledge of the competences of local epesentative bodies. Taining fo staff of cental institutions such taining should focus on the ules of opeation of the Local Councils in Malta and build awaeness of cental officials with egad to the desiable pattens of pefomance among public administation. Additionally, the epot had identified a few aeas of taining elated to moe specific issues, such as administative law, tendeing pocedues, custome cae, stategic management, accounting / finances, pefomance management, social elations (team wok, pofessional communication), and Euopean funds. The institutional back-up fo the oganisation of taining activities emains an open question. The scope of taining needs evealed in the study indicates, howeve, that thee is a definite need fo systematic action while not dispesing the effots, as this might lead to poblems with co-odination of taining suppot. 78

80 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 2. Assessment of taining needs Peliminay emaks By definition, taining activities ae focused on achieving change: the univesal goal is to make a tansition fom a cetain specific state of knowledge (o lack theeof) and skills among a specific goup of people to a state which is defined as supeio, impoved and moe useful in the context of achieving some pe-defined goals. Theefoe, a taining activity in the life of an oganisation means that thee is a stiving to achieve a diffeent and, by definition, bette and desiable state of its opeation. Taining needs aise fom deficiencies elated to constaints o impefections in human activity, pimaily deficiencies in knowledge o skills. In this sense, they should be distinguished fom othe factos which exet influence on the functioning of oganisations. Notably, it is ae that actual developmental constaints would esult fom insufficient competences of people who ae pat of the oganisation. The condition of that oganisation may deviate fom the expectations due to vaious legal, institutional o histoical consideations. This discepancy may also be connected with the social o political context o limited availability of human o financial esouces. Theefoe, in an assessment of taining needs, the issue that comes to the foe is not the subjectmatte of taining (i.e. its content, taget ecipients, manne of oganisation) but, athe, the easonability of taining unde the existing cicumstances. The analysis should offe an answe to the question on whethe it is indeed the educational effot that will help the oganisation to attain the desiable state of affais. Afte all, it might well happen that mayos, executive secetaies o officials do have the necessay knowledge and skills to act but legal egulations o othe systemic constaints pevent them fom pefoming thei tasks efficiently. In consequence, befoe making any decisions egading the any new taining stuctues o the execution of a specific taining pogamme, it is essential to define the guidelines that would indicate a desiable manne of opeation fo the oganisation (o administation system) concened. Such a definition should be based on intenal consideations (What kind of tasks should be pefomed? How should they be pefomed? What should be the outcomes?) as well as extenal systemic consideations (Which tasks ae, and which ones should be, undetaken by the oganisation? What ae the extenal effects of the oganisation s pefomance and what kinds of outcomes ae expected fom the tasks?). It is impotant to ealise that specific taining needs always coespond with specific institutional challenges. With a minimalist definition of expectations, the equied skills will be diffeent vesus a situation whee goals ae defined compehensively and boadly. Theefoe, the assessment of taining needs helps to identify the discepancies between the knowledge held by potential tagets of educational effots and the knowledge which, fo some eason, is equied o desiable. Moeove, when descibing the status quo we always efe to diect expeience of specific people, i.e. to the eality which has become familia to the taget uses of taining, wheeas definition of the desied situation usually calls fo extended eflection on possible yet non-existent ways in which the oganisation could opeate. In othe wods, it calls fo the ealisation that things may look diffeent in the fist place! In this spiit, we can talk about two ways to identify taining needs: - desciption of taining-elated expectations (o desies), OR 79

81 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT - identifying the equied competences (o, in othe wods, poviding a pesciptive definition of taining needs). In the fome case we ae dealing pimaily with taining-elated wishes (desies) of specific individuals wheeas in the latte case we ae talking about a systemic necessity of (need fo) taining. The key challenge is to know how to sepaate desies fom needs. In the case of public administation system, officials taining-elated wishes ae constained by thei awaeness levels and thei motivation fo pesonal gowth wheeas needs stem mostly fom the way the system is oganised and fom efom pogammes developed by political leades. 3. Implementation of the eseach pocess Notes on methodology This document is based on the esults of the taining needs assessment (TNA) conducted among Maltese Local Councils between Apil and Septembe The assessment was pefomed unde the poject entitled A Patneship fo Ceative Govenance suppoted by a gant fom Noway though the Noway Gants The taining needs assessment was intended as an input fo the development of the National Taining Stategy fo Local Govenments. TNA: Key assumptions The most impotant pemise behind the implementation of the National Taining Stategy (NTS) in Malta is that it should constitute a key facto pomoting change in the institutional and opeational famewok of Local Councils. The intoduction of the NTS should bing about development in municipalities based on the existing needs fo taining and the legal paametes of local govenment. Theefoe, the NTS will be based on a Taining Needs Analysis (TNA), compising: - independent and eliable field eseach into Local Councils taining that will allow taining to be developed in esponse to the needs and expectations of municipal staff and elected membes, - a legal analysis that will identify the taining necessay fo municipalities to popely fulfil thei obligations. This eseach and analysis will be complemented by bilateal meetings with stakeholdes in local govenment to take account of thei expeience and peceptions and to build on cuent and ecent initiatives. TNA field eseach TNA ecommendations NTS stategic objectives NTS action plan The TNA should pesent a solid and cedible foundation to plan taining pogammes. The esults should enable a pecise identification of the level of inteest in a specific taining topic and 80

82 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT identification of taget goups. The TNA should ensue elevance of the poposed taining content to existing needs of Maltese local administation. TNA: Objectives The key objective of the TNA was to identify taining-elated expectations of local administation staff as well as the needs with egad to futhe stategic taining of local govenment pesonnel in Malta. The eseach which has been pefomed aimed to identify: ü the existing status of knowledge and pevious expeience of key goups of local govenment staff and elected epesentatives; ü the need fo impoved knowledge and pofessional skills; ü attitudes towads taining; ü councils willingness to paticipate in taining and the affodability of taining; ü constaints that may theaten a successful implementation of NTS. Additionally, the following elements should be indicated among the goals of the eseach which has been conducted: ü identify the scope of the taining and the diffeent taining methodologies expeienced so fa by key goups of municipal staff and politicians; ü detemine the taining content, scope and methodologies to be coveed by new taining and development pogams; ü analyze the capacity of municipalities to oganize thei own intenal taining system on a sustainable basis; ü define the most appopiate institutional famewok fo implementing the NTS. TNA: Implementation method The afoementioned objectives of the TNA necessitate the implementation of a elatively extensive eseach endeavou that should consist of thee components: Qualitative eseach P Exploative qualitative investigation based on a seies of individual in-depth inteviews with LG epesentatives; TNA P P A veifying suvey to be conducted in all (68) Local Councils in Malta; A epesentative suvey of the geneal public (Maltese citizens) app. sample size N=400. Suvey of the Councils Repesentative suvey of the Maltese population In paallel to the collection and examination of the TNA field eseach data, an institutional and legal famewok of the LC system has been investigated in ode to detemine its influence on possible taining activities 81

83 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Qualitative Reseach The main agument fo the use of qualitative eseach techniques is the need to develop an indepth undestanding of both the scope and the kind of knowledge needed by key offices of municipalities so that taining can be developed to espond to thei pesonal needs and expectations. The findings of qualitative inteviews ae usually not epesentative of the entie population. Howeve, they do povide a bette undestanding of the inteviewees positions as well as thei thoughts and attitudes. They enable eseaches to undestand the issues in question. The application of qualitative eseach methods within the TNA allowed us to: P P P P P P ecognize the most poblematic aeas in eveyday opeations of Local Councils in Malta; descibe existing pactices of dealing with these poblems; identify impotant aeas of taining in elation to existing poblems and pactices; identify the most common attitudes towad local govenance and citizen paticipation as well as attitudes towad pesonal development and paticipation in taining; detemine and specify appoaches to the evaluation of taining activities; lean about key souces of infomation elevant to implementing the pioities of local govenment. As pat of the qualitative study, a total of 18 inteviews wee held with mayos, executive secetaies and officials (incl. 14 individual in-depth inteviews and 4 goup inteviews). In total, 33 individuals took pat in the inteviews. Individual in-depth inteview (IDI): An individual in-depth inteview is caied out by a specially tained inteviewe accoding to a pepaed and detailed scenaio that defines the objectives and geneal guidelines fo the convesation. It allows a caeful examination of the way the inteviewee thinks and acts, of how he/she looks at a situation, the motives behind specific activity and the extent of his/he knowledge. These inteviews ae usually held with individuals with simila chaacteistics that ae impotant fo the eseach; they usually take about one hou each. Focus goup inteview (FGI): A focus goup enables a caefully planned discussion with selected paticipants in a comfotable envionment in ode to exploe thei peceptions of a specific aea of inteest. The aim of this eseach technique is to econstuct, as closely as possible, the eal pocesses of social communication and to confont paticipants diffeent opinions though the discussion. Paticipants ae invited to a focus goup because they have distinctive pesonal chaacteistics that diectly coespond with the objectives of the eseach. This eseach technique is especially suitable fo investigating the pocesses of foming opinions and the poblems of decision-making that ae subject to pee influence and collective behaviou. Usually 6 to 10 people paticipate in one focus goup inteview. 82

84 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Table 1: Numbe of qualitative inteviews Reseach method Numbe of inteviews Respondents Individual in-depth inteviews (14) Focus goup inteviews (4) 6 Mayos 4 Executive secetaies LC 1 Executive secetay Region 2 Membes of staff 1 Pesident of AKL 1 Membes of staff 2 Executive secetaies 1 Mayos Quantitative Reseach The main agument suppoting the use of quantitative eseach methods is the need to obtain cedible, solid and veifiable esults. The NTS equies the use of appopiate tools that can guaantee the fine-tuning of the final poduct to the needs and expectations of municipal staff and elected epesentatives as well to the legal and institutional equiements of local govenment. Suvey of the Local Councils The quantitative eseach has been implemented: P among all Local Councils in Malta; P with epesentatives of vaious types of positions in the local govenment: mayos executive secetaies councillos municipal staff The pupose behind the suvey conducted among all local council offices was to: P veify the findings of the qualitative inteviews; P lean about pevious taining expeience of Maltese local govenment staff and elected epesentatives; P obtain epesentative, cedible data on the demand fo taining couses and thei content; P assess the need fo the pesonal development of municipal staff and elected epesentatives. 83

85 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT The suvey conducted among Local Councils enabled us to obtain: ü objective and veifiable knowledge of the needs, poblems and taining expectations of the local govenment community; ü epesentative data on the inteest in specific taining pogams and topics. The study was co-odinated by the Depatment fo Local Govenment. Suvey questionnaies wee distibuted among all local council offices. In the couse of the eseach pocess the staff of the Depatment initiated multiple contacts with the espondents, encouaging them to take pat in the study. As a esult, the following outputs wee obtained: - 30 suvey questionnaies completed by mayos, - 86 suvey questionnaies completed by councillos, - 53 suvey questionnaies completed by executive secetaies, suvey questionnaies completed by municipal staff. Table 2: LC SURVEY distibution of espondents by gende, age and level of education % of espondents in specific categoies MAYORS gende age level of education OTHERS ELECTED EXECUTIVE SECRETARY STAFF female male yeas and unde yeas yeas yeas yeas and ove pimay school seconday school post-seconday school highe: univesity othe Repesentative suvey of the population of Maltese citizens The main pupose of local govenment is to egulate and manage a substantial shae of public affais. Opeations of local administation should seve the geneal public and the citizens satisfaction should be the ultimate goal. To lean how the local govenment is pefoming and, by the way, to identify the dawbacks of local administation s eveyday pactice one has to addess the ecipients of the sevices. Govenance indicatos ae now used acoss Euope (and in developed counties in othe pats of the wold) to monito pefomance of local sevice povides, including public entities. They ae widely used as tools fo stategic planning, conducting development 84

86 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT dialogue, allocating extenal assistance, and influencing foeign diect investment. Having identified poblems elated to pefomance one can decide upon appopiate solutions including impovement of competences of those esponsible. It is an option to boaden the TNA in Malta with the implementation of the suvey of citizens satisfaction with local sevices delivey. Good pactice fo such activity can be found in Noway the Nowegian Citizens Suvey was initiated thee in 2007 and has been implemented since, with positive esults. It measues the satisfaction of the county s citizens with govenmental, egional and municipal sevices. Implementation of the National Suvey A Statified Random sampling pocess was employed fo this suvey. This pobability sampling method entails patitioning the population into mutually exclusive sub-goups, and selecting an independent (Simple) andom sample fom each of these sub-goups to ensue a unifom distibution of the sample elative to a numbe of pe-selected chaacteistics of the population. In this case, sub-goups wee constucted elative to diffeent combinations of sex, age goup and distict. In addition to this, quotas wee used thoughout the data collection phase to ensue that the equied numbe of individuals fom each sub-goup was obtained. The main advantage of using quotas is to ensue that an adequate numbe of units is sampled fom evey sub-goup, even in vey small ones fo which the pobability of selection is The Citizen Suvey povides impotant knowledge fo manages in municipal, egional and govenment administation. We need suveys like this to get infomation on whee the shoe pinches so that we may taget ou effots and impove sevices fo ou uses. - Rigmo Aasud; Nowegian ministe fo govenment administation, efom and chuch affais. elatively small compaed to othe goups. Since the mechanism of selecting pesons was made in a andom manne, no significant bias was intoduced by applying such quotas. The oiginal goss sample consisted of 1,200 individuals, of whom 407 paticipated in the suvey whilst 540 wee not consideed fo vaious easons including eached quotas, wong telephone numbes, neve contacted etc. This esulted in an effective net esponse ate of 61,7%. Table 3 below displays the distibution of the goss sample by type of esponse and table 4 shows the distibution of the net sample by sex and age goup. Table 3: NATIONAL SURVEY distibution of effective goss sample by type of esponse Desciption No. % No. (Effective) % (Effective) a) Good esponses b) Refusals c) Othe (no eply etc.) d) Ineligibles (Reached quotas, wong telephone numbes, neve contacted etc.) Total 1,

87 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Table 4: NATIONAL SURVEY distibution of net sample by sex and age goup Sex Male Female Total Age Goup Count % Count % Count % Total Suvey data was weighted to align and goss-up sample estimates with the benchmak distibution in tems of sex, age goup and distict of individuals. In addition to this, sampling weights seved to coect fo biases and discepancies pesent in the final sample of paticipating units aising fom diffeent esponse ates obseved in diffeent categoies. Post-statification weights wee also used to match the net sample with the taget population. Data wee collected by means of Compute-Assisted Telephone Inteviewing (CATI) between 2 and 8 July In CATI, although espondents ae contacted by telephone, computes ae used to ente the data obtained fom espondents duing the inteview. Anothe impotant aspect of CATI suveys is that each sampling unit is andomly assigned among inteviewes, and hence educes inteviewe bias to a bae minimum. Pesentation of eseach esults in this epot The esults of quantitative suveys ae pesented gaphically in chats and tables. In each case, detailed chaacteistics of the pesented data ae povided. The body of the epot contains selected chats and summay tables. Futhe data and a complete pesentation of distibutions of answes to questions contained in suvey questionnaies can be found in the Appendix. When eading infomation fom the chats, it is impotant to bea in mind that the suvey among local council offices was a census-type suvey by definition, i.e. the questionnaie was sent to all epesentatives of fou occupational goups (mayos, councillos, executive secetaies and municipal officials). Despite multiple attempts, achieving a 100% esponse ate tuned out to be impossible. Fo this eason, the esults of this suvey ae budened with an eo which cannot be pecisely estimated due to the unavailability of elevant data. Howeve, it should be stessed that the findings fom this study ae consistent with the esults of qualitative inteviews and, moeove, ae intenally coheent. The epot pesents selected excepts fom espondents statements made duing qualitative inteviews. The selection of those vebatim statements was made puposefully, to be intetwined into the body of the epot athe than to povide a andom selection of quotations. This means that the opinions quoted hee ae typical of the themes which emeged fom the inteviews. One should note, howeve, that the vebatim statements quoted hee ae illustative: they epesent vaious pespectives and wee selected in ode to demonstate vaious points of view pesented in the study. 86

88 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT The analysis pesented in this epot is based on statements and views expessed by all eseach paticipants. Howeve, this does not mean that we have attempted to povide some aveaged opinions. Conclusions wee peceded by citical analysis and ae based on a juxtaposition of opinions and beliefs pesented in the study. Theefoe, many conclusions contained in this epot ae of analytical natue and do not necessaily coespond with any paticula statement made by any specific inteviewee. In ode to maximise espondent anonymity, vebatim quotes have not been numbeed. The quotes ae only accompanied with the espondent s function and inteview type (FGI: Focus Goup Inteview; IDI: Individual In-Depth Inteview). 4. Peception of living conditions and the quality of public sevices To begin with, it is woth stessing that the vast majoity of Maltese citizens have a vey positive peception of thei place of pemanent esidence. In total, as many as 82.5% of the National Suvey Respondents consideed thei locality to be eithe a good (45.7%) o a vey good (36.8%) place to live. Figue 1: NATIONAL SURVEY - evaluation of the locality as a place to live How, in geneal tems, do you egad you locality AS A PLACE TO LIVE? 45,7 36,8 2 3,2 11,5 82.5% 0,7 Vey bad Bad Neithe good no bad Good Vey good Do not know As egads public sevices which wee assessed fo quality in the National Suvey, by fa the best atings wee given to waste collection fom home 84.3% of the espondents in total selected a positive answe in this case ( vey good : 27.8% and good : 55.6%). Positive atings wee also given to aspects such as public ode (53.9% of positive atings in total) and cleanliness of public places (52.8% of positive atings in total). Faily polaised opinions wee evealed in the case of the quality, maintenance and condition of public oads and pavements a total of 33% of the espondents ated this aspect negatively, 36.6% assessed it positively and 30.5% did not expess a fim opinion on the matte. Many espondents wee unable to give an opinion on sevices tageted at specific goups, such as the inteest shown by Local Councils in the needs of senio citizens, the needs of young esidents, o availability of eceational o cultual activities in the locality. In those cases, consideable pecentages of the espondents selected the answe option don t know, indicating thei lack of knowledge and expeience in those sphees of public sevices (e.g. 54.7% of the espondents wee unable to give a ating fo the Local Councils inteest in the needs of young people, and 50.5% did not know how to assess the Local Councils inteest in the needs of senio citizens). Howeve, we should stess that the majoity of those espondents who did expess a view gave a positive assessment of those aspects. 87

89 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Figue 2: NATIONAL SURVEY assessment of the quality of selected public sevices waste collection fom home 5,9 Negative Positive 84,3 the inteest shown by the local council in the needs of SENIOR esidents availability of eceational o cultual activities in the locality the inteest shown by the local council in the needs of YOUTH esidents public ode the cleanliness of public places 9,8 12,6 17,7 13,5 17,8 72,1 67,7 65,6 60,9 53,5 the quality, maintenance and condition of public oads and pavements 33,1 36,8 % of espondents The espondents wee also asked about thei view on changes in the quality of public sevices ove the last thee yeas. Accoding to suvey esults, meely 10.2% of the population said that the quality of those sevices had geneally deteioated. The stongest impact on those opinions was exeted by negative atings fo the maintenance and condition of public oads and pavements wheeas positive opinions on waste collection fom home mitigated the negative pictue. Figue 3: NATIONAL SURVEY - peception of the quality of public sevices Assessment of change in the quality of public sevices ove last thee yeas 36,4 40,5 10,2 12,9 % of espondents Impoved Wosened Remained the same Do not know The oveall assessment of changes in the quality of public sevices in the National Suvey is conguent with the atings given by councillos. Executive secetaies and municipal officials expessed just slightly moe citical opinions on the matte. 88

90 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Figue 4: LC SURVEY assessment of change in the quality of public sevices 26 In you opinion, in the last thee yeas, the oveall quality of public sevices in the teitoy of the Local Council has: ELECTED % of espondents in selected categoies EMPLOYED inceased emained the same wosened had to say n.a. At the same time, it is woth noting that the majoity of local administatos believe that the oveall quality of life in many localities in Malta has impoved in the couse of ecent yeas (with councillos being somewhat moe citical in thei views). Figue 5: LC SURVEY assessment of change in the quality of life in ecent yeas In the last thee yeas, the oveall quality of life of the people living in the teitoy of the Local Council has: ELECTED % of espondents in selected categoies EMPLOYED inceased emained the same wosened had to say n.a. 5. Peception of the ole and esponsibilities of local councils Cuently, when talking about the most impotant esponsibilities of Local Councils, one should mention the cae of cleanliness and maintenance of public places (steet cleaning, collection of municipal waste, maintenance of paks), consevation of municipal geeney and maintenance of selected elements of the local infastuctue, notably oads. In geneal, the biggest management that we do is the cleaning of the city. It takes most of ou budget I would imagine, some 60% of ou budget, which is quite a lot, and the thing 26 ELECTED Mayos, Vice-Mayos, Councilos; EMPLOYED Executive Secetaies and staff membes 89

91 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT is that contacts keep on going up but ou allocation stays the same o sometimes goes down as well. So we can t manage with the funds we ae given. Mayo (IDI) Anothe field whee the local administation is involved is the issuance of vaious pemits, e.g. fo constuction o oganisation of vaious events in public places. In the latte case many steps ae needed to co-odinate effots with the sevices esponsible fo public ode o to co-odinate the oganisation between vaious entities in case of ovelapping events. It doesn t mean that eveything falls unde ou esponsibility, even though it should. Mayo (IDI) Woth noting is that Local Councils only act as an intemediay in the issuance of cetain pemits, such as those fo constuction woks. Fo example, you have things like MEPA, the pemit ganting body, authoity, which we don t have any influence on. They don t even ask fo ou advice. Mayo Local Councils may issue vaious types of odes to egulate impotant local issues. One example ae odes concening the ules of maintenance and upkeep of facades of buildings, the ules of using hose-diven vehicles in public oads, the tems of using local eceation gounds etc. As in many othe cases, an impotant poblem with such odes is that Local Councils do not enjoy complete autonomy in implementation of such instuments. In fact, Local Councils develop poposals fo such egulations which ae then eviewed and appoved by cental administation bodies, mostly by the Teitoial Govenment Depatment. We send them to the Depatment of Local Govenment, and then they have thei own pocedue they check with othe ministies, and staff. Mayo (IDI) Local authoities in Malta have not been ganted the local owneship of popety (except fo some administation buildings) in a systemic manne. If a need aises to obtain some eal popety fo public puposes (e.g. to build a paking gaage, a cultual cente o fo othe undetakings) epesentatives of Local Councils must, each time, apply to the cental govenment asking fo the tansfe of elevant ights. If such an application is ganted, a tempoay ight of usage is given. We have to fist get the land fom cental govenment and then we can build. Mayo (IDI) We own one popety ( ). No land ( ). [If you want to build something] you have to get that land devolved to you fom the cental govenment, and the cental govenment gives it to you fo 15 yeas, enewable fo anothe 15 yeas. It is a standad pocedue. Land in Malta is always maintained by the Land Depatment. Executive Secetay (IDI) Anothe impotant aea of activity fo local administation is the oganisation of cultual events and suppot fo community initiatives. The ange of such activities is athe boad: fom the suppot of local clubs and societies to the oganisation of majo celebations of local holidays o local celebations of national events. Some espondents peceived this kind of activity as the aison d ête of Local Councils. Fo me cultual events ae impotant fo the community like any othe infastuctue. Because you bing community moe close. It is an impeative that the Local Councils wok on these issues because sometimes I feel that, in ou case, thee is no sense of belonging. Executive Secetay (FGI) 90

92 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT It is difficult to confim to what extent this opinion may eflect the poblem of disappeaing local social identity (an impotant issue fo Malta) o deteioated social tust quantitative eseach has not evealed any paticula issues with egad to the development of social capital o the status of elations between membes of local communities. Figue 6: NATIONAL SURVEY level of social tust % of espondents 18,3 Do you tust othe people living in the same locality? 28,3 23,8 16,4 26.9% 8,6 44.7% 4,5 Neve Yes, but aely Yes, occasionally Yes, often Yes, always Do not know One should also stess that collaboation between the local administation and non-govenmental oganisations is mostly infomal and often depends on pesonal elations between local council membes and community leades. We ty to help as much as we can, obviously given ou limitations ( ). If they have an activity we ty to suppot them, even with just small things fo example, if they want to make use of the gaden we don t chage them with ent, just to cove ou expenses and that s all. - Mayo Intenational collaboation is anothe field of activity fo epesentatives of local administation, and it is paticulaly impotant given the impotance of Malta fo histoy and touism. And then I have othe duties like intenational coopeation ( ) I say that I have thee aeas whee I wok the local, the national mostly with the cental govenment and obviously at the Euopean level. - Mayo (IDI) Peception of Local Councils by citizens In the light of answes given by the National Suvey espondents it seems that most Maltese citizens feel they ae familia with the scope of esponsibilities vested in the Local Councils: only 9.2% of the espondents decided to select an answe indicating thei lack of awaeness when it comes to esponsibilities of local govenment. 91

93 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Figue 7: NATIONAL SURVEY declaed awaeness of competences held by Local Councils Ae you awae of the esponsibilities of you Local Council do you know what you Local Council does on eveyday basis? % of espondents 9,2 61,1 29,8 Yes, vey awae Yes, awae Not awae At the same time, a small minoity of the espondents believed that Local Councils should have less esponsibilities than they cuently have (meely 2.9%) o, at most, the same extent of competences as they have now (19.2%). The vast majoity of the espondents think that the competences of Local Councils should be expanded, with 8.4% of the espondents opting fo a adical expansion and 33.8% fo a modeate move in this diection. Figue 8: NATIONAL SURVEY espondents attitudes towads the idea to expand the competences of Local Councils Do you think that the LC should have moe o less esponsibilities? 33,8 % of espondents 19,2 8,4 2,9,3 5,8 Yes, they should have much moe Yes, they should have moe No, they should have the same esponsibilities No, they should have less No, they should have much less Do not know Woth noting is that the suppot fo the expansion of local govenment s competences is slightly highe among the espondents who believe that the oveall quality of public sevices has deteioated in ecent yeas. This could be viewed as indicating some citizens awaeness of the fact that local govenments have a faily esticted scope of esponsibilities in the Maltese system. The esults of qualitative eseach indicate, howeve, that such a conclusion should be appoached with caution. Accoding to some epesentatives of local govenments, citizens often demonstate thei lack of awaeness as to the famewok which esticts the opeations of local govenments. Citizens ae awae [of the competences of LC] because they demand. Howeve, they ae not awae about the costs. They ae not awae of what funding we have and what the costs ae. ( ) The demands ae geate that what we can supply Executive Secetay (FGI) Citizens oveall assessment of the pefomance of Local Councils is positive: 44.8% of the National Suvey espondents confimed thei satisfaction with the pefomance of the councils wheeas 21.1% of the espondents held the opposite view. 92

94 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Figue 9: NATIONAL SURVEY assessment of the pefomance of Local Councils To what extent ae you satisfied with the pefomance of you Local Council? 32,5 27,4 % of espondents 12,3 10,9 10,2 6,7 Vey satisfied Satisfied Neithe satisfied no dissatisfied Dissatisfied Vey dissatisfied Do not know The boad suppot fo the activities of Local Councils, as evealed in the National Suvey, is not always backed up with eal-life expeience of contacts with this level of public administation. Only less than a half of all citizens had any pesonal encountes with epesentatives of local govenment in the past yea. This is pesumably why slightly moe than a thid of the espondents wee unable to povide an opinion on the wok of local govenment officials (incl. the executive secetay) and thei attitude towads esidents who aange vaious mattes at the local govenment office. Figue 10: NATIONAL SURVEY assessment of the pefomance of local council office staff In geneal tems, how do you assess the WORK of the executive secetaies and cleks employed at the Local Council Office? % of espondents 2,2 1,8 10,6 36,8 11,5 37,1 Vey bad Bad Neithe good no bad Good Vey good Do not know The espondents who povided an assessment of local administation staff tended to expess positive opinions about the wok pefomed and about thei attitudes towads esidents who visit the local council office to aange something. The suvey conducted among epesentatives of local administation also contained a question about citizens satisfaction with the pefomance of Local Councils: people woking fo the local govenment wee asked how they thought the pefomance of councils was viewed by citizens. The findings eveal a elatively high self-assessment among epesentatives of Local Councils. 93

95 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Figue 11: Compaison of assessments given fo the pefomance of Local Councils Satisfaction with the pefomance of the LC's by types of espondents 70,0 60,0 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 Vey satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Vey dissatisfied Neithe satisfied no dissatisfied / had to say National Suvey LC suvey - Elected LC suvey - Employed Do not know Somewhat in opposition to declaations made in suveys, the espondents in qualitative inteviews wee often moe negative when talking about the public peception of local govenment: it was indicated that thee is a visible lack of bottom-up suppot fo decentalisation and the espondents also believed that the activities undetaken by local govenment ae not ecognised o espected by citizens. It was claimed that this state of affais esulted, at least patly, fom citizens negative expeience with the oppessive actions of the local law enfocement system. The poblem is how people peceive Local Councils out thee. I believe that paties in govenment don t want the electoate to see them funding a lot the local govenment secto. Because people peceive Local Councils as inefficient. ( ) I believe basically because we used to be esponsible fo the local enfocement system, and the way that ou Maltese cultue is, and because the way the wadens took cae of that system, councils wee labelled heavily negatively, and then people used to see eveything wong. Executive Secetay (IDI) The pinciple of subsidiaity in the Maltese system The subsidiaity pinciple is among the most impotant Euopean canons setting the standads of opeation fo teitoial govenment. Accoding to that pinciple, each level of govenment should execute only those tasks which cannot be effectively executed by a lowe level. Moeove, accoding to that pinciple, institutions should be established and should act only when necessay, i.e. when they help to take actions and solve poblems that an individual cannot handle. This pinciple deives fom the Old Testament and is commonly adopted, fo instance, acoss the EU membe states. In keeping with the spiit of subsidiaity, Local Councils in the Maltese system should handle all mattes which go beyond the capability of an individual, egions should undetake actions which go beyond the capability of a single local council, wheeas cental authoities should solve poblems which cannot be solved at the egional level. Meanwhile, eseach esults clealy indicate that one cannot eally talk about the pinciple of subsidiaity being opeational in Malta. This situation is caused, fistly, by the limited scope of tasks 94

96 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT pefomed by Local Councils, and, secondly, by the low degee of autonomy in decision-making among the lowest-level administation bodies, even within thei actual competences. You can come up with any idea you want but usually it is not within you competence to decide, to take a final decision. You have to go though all the depatments ( ) And even if Tanspot Malta wants to implement something in you locality they won t tell you a thing. Executive Secetay (FGI) Most of the things we do, we have to depend on othe entities. Mayo (IDI) People blame us on the issue of paking but we have no influence ( ) But the most fustating thing is that we have solutions that we have given to govenment but nothing happens. Mayo (IDI) Even though Local Councils have existed fo twenty yeas, no actual decentalisation of govenment happened and local govenment bodies have not been vested with boad esponsibilities fo public sevices o local development. Comments made by paticipants of qualitative inteviews indicate that public govenance emains lagely in the hands of national politicians and officials woking in cental govenment agencies. On the one hand, the espondents tied to povide aguments to justify this state of affais (efeing to limited expeience in building the local govenment system) but, on the othe, they demonstated impatience about this situation, based on thei own expeience and on citizens opinions on the wok of Local Councils. I think Local Councils in Malta, in geneal, ae quite young. So I think that all govenments sot of kept back fom devolving esponsibilities to local govenments, they kept back a lot of thei powes, and they didn t devolve enough to local govenments. Mayo (IDI) The Local Councils gets the blame [by citizens]. And actually the blame now is: listen the Local Councils have been thee fo 20 yeas. We do not expect you to just take cae fo sweeping. Those ae basics. Ae you just good fo basics? They ae demanding that the issues ae tackled, whee we do not have competence. Executive Secetay (IDI) Duing the inteviews, the espondents unanimously stessed that many tasks elated to eveyday poblems and stategic development of local communities do not fall within the sphee of Local Councils esponsibilities. This elates to a numbe of issues, fom technical ones, such as oad signs, to mattes which significantly impact the quality of local life, such as plans to develop public sevices (e.g. in connection with new pivate investments) o geneal stategic planning of local development. The fact is that it is not within ou competences as a local council. We have MEPA, we have Tanspot Malta You know what? We ae not even allowed to paint a oad sign unless we have a specific pemit fom Tanspot Malta. Not even basic things. It is vey centalized. Obviously you send you comments, you objectives, but it is beyond you contol. Executive Secetay (FGI) As a esult of those constaints, Local Councils do not have systemic motivation to suppot local economic gowth. In fact, any investments caied out in thei aea of esponsibility may potentially become a souce of poblems athe than benefits. Imagine that somebody gets the pemit fom MEPA and builds in a valley, in a wate catchment aea. Afte they build they insist that you fix the oad, do the alteations, because that is a poblematic aea. Executive Secetay (FGI) 95

97 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT A telling example of the appaent autonomy of the Maltese local govenment is the way some public sevices ae financed, fo instance waste management issues. Local Councils incu cyclical monthly fees fo sevices endeed by the state-owned company WasteSev, which is esponsible fo oganising, managing and opeating integated systems fo waste management in Malta and has a monopoly in this sphee. The fees ae paid in a pe-defined, flat amount. The idea of this cicula money tansfe system (fom the cental budget via local budgets to the pockets of a stateowned entepise) may aouse doubts as to whethe this bueaucatic system is eally efficient. It is difficult to undestand the logic behind this money tansfe system and it was pesumably intoduced in the name of some obscue idea to empowe the local administation. I just wite a check of the same amount evey month fo them to accept ou waste ( ) we have to pay, that s it. ( ) And evey local council does that ( ).Thee was a system which, as usually happens hee, was stopped, whee if you collect moe ecycled waste, the bill will stat to be educed, as an incentive fo the Local Councils to take on an initiative to collect moe ecycled waste athe than to collect mixed waste which is positive fom an envionmental point of view. Afte five months they stopped that, and they just send the same bill evey month ( ) It would make sense us [the Local Council] paying if the system is still in place. Executive Secetay (IDI) As a esult, it seems undestandable that many espondents voiced doubts and often stuggled when asked to define the ole of Local Councils in the Maltese system of public administation. When asked about the oveall pupose of having Local Councils, the espondents usually talked about basic maintenance o taking cae of basic needs. Opinions about the futue of the local govenment in Malta In the light of numeous comments made by the eseach paticipants, the futue of local administation in Malta is by no means obvious. Many espondents questioned the sense of Local Councils within the cuent legal famewok. To be honest, I am questioning it ecently [the pupose of existence of Local Councils in Malta]. I do not want to be misintepeted but it s not woth it eally, when you think that you would like to do so much but it s always that eithe you e hitting a bick wall o you hands ae tied. And the thing is that when you go to cental govenment o othe depatments, they just don t want to change. That s fustating. ( ) I want to be esponsible but I don t have the powes to be. Mayo (IDI) The futue of Local Councils it s not looking nice at the moment. Because when you conside - 60% is off fo the cleaning, 50 to 60 pecent of what emains is the administation, and what s left? Nothing! I cannot even do a esufacing of the oad hee because I don t have the money. Mayo (IDI) The easons behind this state of affais should be sought, as indicated by the espondents statements, in at least a few souces. The most impotant ones of them ae as follows: Oveall politicisation of public life: Unfotunately, eveything evolves aound paties and politics, that is a poblem. Executive Secetay (FGI) 96

98 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT No tust in local institutions among cental-level politicians and lack of political will to cay out changes: I think that the biggest poblem is tust, to be honest. Mayo (IDI) This is highly supising given that the vast majoity of Membes of Paliament have pevious expeience of woking in local govenment. The espondents wee unable to povide a consistent explanation why thei way of looking at the needs and constaints of the local govenment changed so much afte the tansition fom local to national politics. Attitudes displayed by officials in cental agencies: non-coopeative attitude, willingness to act as a supevisoy body towads the local govenment. In the light of beliefs expessed by the paticipants we should make a clea distinction between the political pespective and the ministeial/depatmental pespective epesented by staff of cental govenments. Many espondents emphasised that the willingness to etain ministeial govenance is the main eason behind the limited degee of decentalisation in Malta. I think that we can do much moe and most of the time my biggest fustation is that I would like to do much moe but I can t. ( ) We would like moe empoweing but we ae held back by cental govenment. Mayo (IDI) No sense of common inteests at the local level among vaious public stakeholdes. In the light of infomation collected duing the inteviews, this list should pobably be expanded: we should add administative fagmentation leading to economic fagility of vaious administative units and a paticula kind of dualism of powe at the local level (the distibution of competences between the administation and epesentative bodies is not entiely clea fo eveyone), an issue which will be addessed late on in this epot. Consideing the afoementioned comments, a question may aise about the sense of activities undetaken by Local Councils: in fact, thei tasks do not equie extensive administation o numeous epesentative bodies. Thee is no eally enough funds to do something exta, which the community expects. Because, let s face it, in the end they don t vote fo someone to take cae of basic things. I could do that without councillos. Executive Secetay (IDI) Befoe, the citizens used to go to the ministies and depatments of the govenment. Nowadays, they [the cental authoities] ae having thei elaxing time and all the poblems go to the Local Councils. ( ) And one fine day when the Ministy wants to do new lighting, whethe the council appoves it o not, the lights will still be done. Executive Secetay (FGI) It is a cultual thing befoe Local Councils the main point of efeence was the ministe, they go to the ministe fo the telephone, fo the television, fo a pothole And then when the Local Councils wee ceated people wee told to go to Local Councils. Mayo (IDI) Such statements indicate a deeply anchoed belief which can be efomulated as follows: the main eason why local govenment exists in Malta is that cental agencies stive to limit thei bothesome encountes with citizens and to devolve the intemediay duties in such contacts upon teitoial administation. 97

99 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Most of the time we have to eceive people to solve poblems that ae not unde ou contol. ( ) The man in the steet would hold us esponsible because they epot to us. So we ae esponsible fo these things while in eality it is othe entities that hold these esponsibilities, but sot of we ae a font desk of the govenment in most cases. So I think that causes a lot of poblems fo us, because people expect a lot of things fom Local Councils, than they think that we didn t delive, when in fact we ae actually waiting fo othes. Mayo (IDI) 6. Leades of local public administation and thei mutual elations What is immensely impotant fo the efficient functioning of local councils ae the elations between councillos and membes of the local administation and, in paticula, the elations between councillos and executive secetaies. As may be expected, the natue of those elations is influenced by vaious factos, fom pesonality taits to political plans of specific councillos. Howeve, an impotant pecondition fo constuctive collaboation is the mutual awaeness of powes and competences and the pope undestanding of oles played by each individual in local govenment bodies. They ae not eally in touch with the demands of the locality and the budgetay famewok, o how ae we going financially, etc. So yes I do expect that they consult me. But then the decision is theis and I will abide by that decision, as long as it is lawful. And when you gaining that sot of espect things get moving on! Executive Secetay (IDI) Consideing the limited expeience of newly elected councillos, a need often aises in pactice to build thei competences with the help of secetaies. In the vast majoity of cases this takes the fom of advisoy suppot o ongoing infomation povision and, less commonly, fomalised teaching/leaning o imposition of eady-made solutions. Most of us [executive secetaies] have moe expeience that ecently elected councillos. So yes we should do that. Not teach them, but guide them, I would say. But leave the decision to them. Executive Secetay (IDI) The inteviews geneally indicate that secetaies and mayos take a faily diffeent pespective on thei oles in stuctues of local govenment administation. The espondents statements leave no doubt that in pactice thee is no clea and univesally acceptable division of competences between the executive and legislative powe at the local level. The elationships between secetaies and mayos ae an impotant hotbed of potential poblems in this espect. It is woth noting, howeve, that while the cuent systemic solutions and the subdivision of oles build cetain secuity mechanism on the one hand (in the fom of secetay s peogatives) yet they also give ise to a seious theat of dualism of powe. A paticula poblem aises in the situation when stong pesonalities clash: If thee is a clash of pesonalities, o the situation is such that he cannot accept that he has an executive secetay whose job is to administe, and his job is a political one, then it is a vey difficult situation. Executive Secetay (FGI) It seems that the main issue is the pope and consensual definition of oles and tasks elated to the two functions. The conflicts which emege evey now and then usually stem fom diffeences in opinions about on the scope of tasks and esponsibilities we can ventue to say that cases of 98

100 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT fighting fo powe at the local level ae not uncommon. The eason lies in the lack of undestanding between the key stakeholdes with egad to actual supeioity, decision-making powes and accountability. Such lack of undestanding emeges as a esult of ecuing misundestandings and conflicts aound specific issues. They ae patnes which have to be eally good in woking with each othe ( ). If thee is a good synegy, the Local Council woks. If thee is none, it doesn t eally wok well: decisions ae not taken, decisions ae postponed, and it s not efficient ( ). Thee has to be tust, fist of all. Executive Secetay (IDI) The belief about the supeio ole of mayos manifests itself in behavious of some mayos who tend to diectly manage the wok of othe officials. In the opinion of secetaies, such attitudes ae inappopiate and stem fom poo undestanding of oles and legally cicumscibed competences of mayos and executive secetaies. Some mayos tend to assume supeioity and full liability fo local affais (of couse, within competences vested in the Local Councils unde the system). This is eflected in the fequently expessed belief that mayos should have feedom in decision-making when hiing and dismissing executive secetaies. I think that when a mayo is elected I think he should choose his executive secetay ( ). I was lucky because ou elationships [with the executive secetay] ae good. But I know a lot of councils whee the elationships ae not good. That s why I think that the executive secetay should change if the mayo changes ( ). Mayo (IDI) In some specific situations, the mayo has no othe official duties and may spend all of his/he time to deal with local affais. Such a situation was descibed in a few localities as pope and desiable. It seems that time constaints aising fom mayos nomal employment outside the govenment administation (which means that they ae less fequently pesent in the office) often give ise to conflicts and undemine the efficiency of public administation. A Mayo has to devote time to the Local Council. I am happy hee because ou Mayo is a pensione, so till two o clock he is hee evey day, he is like an employee. If you have a mayo who is woking, like many othe councils have, you won t get that level of efficiency ( ) Hee we ae vey efficient because the Mayo is always hee, and if I have to take a decision, he is sitting thee, I go thee ( ) I do not have to wait to meet him at the end of the week. Executive Secetay (IDI) Famewok fo the activities of Councillos A poblem that was fequently stessed in inteviews was the politicisation of local councils. Executive secetaies and officials often see councillos as politicians who pusue thei own political goals and the goals of thei paties. Accoding to the majoity of inteviewed executive secetaies, the essential pespective of councillos is that of thei political oientation, sometimes manifesting itself in the popensity to epesent the inteests of specific vote goups, while neglecting developmental challenges of the entie community o geneal systemic constaints. They ae using it as a stepping stone fo Paliament. That is a thing that we ae doing wong hee in Malta. It shouldn t be a stepping stone. Executive Secetay (FGI) The councillos, they ae politicians, when the council oganizes such an event, they become popula. Afte all, they ae thee fo the votes ( ). But then you have to deal with 99

101 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT epecussions. We have eceived a gant of 1000 euos to oganize an event which cost the council 7000 euos. Executive Secetay (FGI) Political oientations sometimes influence the opeation of local councils: the intenal disputes that sometimes aise depend on the cuent distibution of votes in epesentative bodies and on the pesonalities and political plans of individual councillos. Thee ae some local councils whee collaboation is smooth and a compomise can geneally be eached wheeas in some othe councils heated debates ae commonplace. An impotant ole in the oganisation of local councils wok is played by mayos, who may exet influence on councillos in ode to mitigate disputes. In exteme cases, the political paty would act as an impotant body of appeal. It eally depends on the individuals that ae elected. I had cases in the past when some people had diffeent agenda, and they moe tied to damage you wok than to help you out. But we ve tied. ( ). Obviously fom you paty it is moe contollable, because you can always efe to the paty, and then sole the intenal issues. Fom the othe paty it s moe difficult. Mayo (IDI) Anothe poblem elated to the wok of local councils is that many councillos ae insufficiently pepaed to pefom thei functions within the legal peogatives of local epesentative bodies. Based on comments fom executive secetaies and municipal officials, many misundestandings and conflicts ae caused by the fact that elected councillos have vey diffeent ideas about thei ole in compaison with the actual scope of thei ights and esponsibilities laid out in the law. Duing the meetings they talk about anything but the agenda ( ) Sometimes they ae like a class of students. Executive Secetay (FGI) The only thing that is impotant to them is to have thei name on the minutes. This is impotant like wite it down that I have said it! - so the esidents would know that I ve said it. Executive Secetay (FGI) Accoding to estimates given by executive secetaies duing the inteviews, appox. 60% of councillos hold the office fo the fist time in thei life. Many espondents think that those people ae usually unpepaed to pefom thei mandate and, as a ule, peceive thei ole in political tems, i.e. taking cae of inteests of naowly defined constituencies. This ceates a seious obstacle fo the wok of secetaies, who ae esponsible, among othes, fo the legality of actions undetaken by local councils. Inexpeience of councillos in mattes egading local council s wok. Most councillos ae voted into a local council with no expeience in management. And I pesonally believe that they should have it because they do manage the budget though thei decisions. Executive Secetay Ideologically speaking, they ae the epesentatives of the people, so they should have knowledge on the demands of the people. ( ) Howeve, most of them ae not eally active. I saw that eveywhee. Most of them ae active the yea following the elections, and maybe sometimes befoe the next elections ( ). But most of them just pass on the complaints they eceive fom esidents via . Executive Secetay (IDI) Anothe souce of poblems associated with the ole of councillos in local stuctues is the fact that they ae vested with decision-making competences in mattes they have no knowledge of. This elates mostly to the opeation of local administative stuctues. Fo instance, it is the councillos 100

102 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT who decide about the annual bonuses fo municipal staff and they often neglect the ecommendations poposed by secetaies and have no sufficient infomation on the subjectmatte of thei decisions. Most of them don t have a clue about the actual wok that goes on in hee. Executive Secetay (IDI) Woth adding is that councillos quite aely show up in local council offices, and this has been established on multiple occasions. They have little knowledge of day-to-day opeations of municipal staff and, in a sense, ae unawae of the daily toil of public administation. Famewok fo the activities of Executive Secetaies Unde the cuent legal famewok, executive secetaies ae hied by the LG Depatment, which is pat of the cental govenment administation. In othe wods, the Depatment is the employe of executive secetaies. Executive secetaies ae employed upon a decision made by a diecto of the Depatment and it is the diecto who eceives citical comments, if any, egading the pefomance of executive secetaies. Comments made by the espondents indicate, howeve, that in this case one can hadly talk about any bonds between the employe and its employees. Wose still, executive secetaies feel they often do not eceive the much needed suppot fom the Depatment. Decisions made by the Depatment officials ae often intepeted in tems of political inteests and duties athe than in tems of thei essence. Most pobably, the decision of the Depatment always backs up the position of the Mayo and the councillos, not the executive secetay. Executive Secetay (FGI) Howeve, this does not change the fact that executive secetaies demonstate eluctance and consideable distance when talking about the times when they wee employed by local councils. Thee was a time when the executive secetay was employed diectly by the council. They hied and they fied ( ) Nowadays we ae employed diectly fom the Depatment, fom the govenment and we epot to the Depatment, not to the council as such. That is the best thing eve done when the law was amended. Executive Secetay (IDI) Pesumably, this fomal systemic change of employe is the foundation of executive secetaies belief that they ae independent of political epesentatives. Futhemoe, executive secetaies often emphasise the essential/technical athe than political pofile of thei position and daw attention to thei competencies as a deteminant of thei actions (which is in contast with politicians who, as mentioned ealie, ae seen by executive secetaies as ones who ae mainly guided by votes pefeences). Ou position is called executive secetay. Now, in Malta most people undestand that if you ae a secetay, you ae the secetay to someone else. Most people think that we ae the secetay to the Mayo. And it happens evey day can you ask you secetay to do this, can you ask you secetay to do that ( ) In my case also the mayo thinks that! ( ) All Mayos say: my secetay, my secetay. Executive Secetay (FGI) Woth noting is that the comments made by the inteviewed executive secetaies indicate the existence of discodant inteests between local administation staff (officials and executive 101

103 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT secetaies) and local political authoities (councillos, including mayos). While the fome stess the need to keep a legalist appoach in pefoming the tasks and the need to maintain budgetay discipline, and they also appeciate the impotance of investing in quality human esouces, politicians seem to pefe actions which may have a political impact, i.e. will win them positive attitudes among the electoate. In some localities, such publicly popula activities will boil down to investments in infastuctue wheeas in othes they will involve spending money on community activities. That is the mentality of ou politicians, unfotunately. They pefe to invest in capital pojects, doing esufacing woks instead of investing in human esouces. Executive Secetay (FGI) In my locality, in my case, activities ae moe impotant than doing capital jobs fo example helping clubs, Mothes Day, oganizing motocoss. Executive Secetay (FGI) Based on statements made by executive secetaies, the egulation intoduced some time ago which defines thei status as those who hold positions of tust is vey poblematic fo thei function. It means that if a new Mayo will be elected and would say look I have no tust in the executive secetay you would be no longe an executive secetay, o else the diecto of the Local Govenment Depatment can take you to the Local Govenment Depatment. Executive Secetay (FGI) The executive secetaies who paticipated in the inteviews epeatedly stessed the need fo diect, pesonal supevision of day-to-day administative wok in local councils while solving any poblems that may aise. Basically, the biggest poblem I see is that ou wok as an executive secetay is devoted to cisis management mostly. Executive Secetay It follows fom executive secetaies statements that they cay an excessive buden of esponsibilities. This does not seem to indicate that thei fomal esponsibilities ae paticulaly vast but that they ae concentated within one position. In the case of Local Councils one can talk about an insufficiency of human esouces and a distibution of esponsibilities which is not entiely clea. With vey limited cleical staff and the political fomatting of the position of the mayo one should talk about the concentation of esponsibilities and tasks within the position of the executive secetay. Ou job is eveything unde the sun. The wok in the local council hinges mainly on the executive secetay and the mayo. And you have to deal with eveything: stating fom efuse collection, legal mattes up to EU legislation, which is quite a difficult job. Executive Secetay (FGI) Executive secetaies unanimously admitted that thei job was highly absobing and demanding. Consideing the tasks they pefom, it is unealistic fo them to educe thei involvement in tems of time spent, fo instance by limiting thei wok to office hous only. Fo me, it is a 24-hou job. I go home, and with the laptop on my lap, just sitting by my wife in ode to show that I am at home, doing homewok doing all the s. I eceive on aveage let s say 70, 80 s evey day they ae about eveything: complaints fom citizens, but also s fom the depatment. Last week it happened twice you eceive 102

104 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT an at 4:30, which is afte office hous not fo me but it is and you have to give a eply by 10 am next moning. Executive Secetay (FGI) Relations in local offices The elations in local offices ae usually ated as good o vey good. In the vast majoity of cases, this efes to the elations between all actos who ae active in the offices on a daily basis. Geneally speaking, elations between secetaies and officials ae ated as good (when descibing his attitude towads municipal staff, one secetay even said: sometimes I teat them like my kids ), and the same applies to elations between executive secetaies and mayos, and between the latte and municipal officials. The usually good elations in local administation offices seem to esult fom the pagmatic appoach adopted by most stakeholdes in the pefomance of thei wok duties. With such an appoach, politics is pushed to the backgound wheeas effective completion of tasks and esponsibilities takes a pioity. Figue 12: LC SURVEY assessment of elations in the local office ELECTED How would you descibe social elations that pevail in the Local Council s office? Ae they: EMPLOYED full of tust and suppotive (2) 1 fai -1 full of distust and fustating (-2) no answe How the question was fomulated? 103

105 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 7. Management of the administation of local councils Repesentatives of local govenment believe that the following sphees ae paticulaly likely to give ise to poblems in day-to-day management of local affais: law enfocement, oads infastuctue, the cleanliness of steets and public places and waste management. Figue 13: LC SURVEY difficulties in local govenance The Local Council is deliveing diffeent sevices to citizens. Please name up to thee aeas that ae, in you pesonal opinion, paticulaly difficult to manage: law enfocement oads infastuctue the cleanliness of steets and public places waste management social assistance and social housing public safety geen eceational paks and aeas suppot to social oganisations cultual activities wate and sewage systems education and child cae ELECTED % of espondents EMPLOYED healthcae and peventative medicine pofessional font/back offices sevices spot and eceation othe In qualitative inteviews, the espondents also indicated othe poblem aeas fo the execution of local administation tasks. Some of them ae discussed late in this epot. At this point, it is woth noting that the espondents often talked about poblems with oad taffic and insufficiency of paking spaces as factos which have a significant negative impact on the quality of life in uban aeas. If you ask me what is the biggest poblem in my locality I have to say that the biggest poblem is taffic and paking. Mayo (IDI) The geatest poblem in effective and efficient delivey of public sevices lies in the afoementioned limited autonomy of local govenments as well as in othe issues (which will be discussed below), namely: undefunding (inadequate financing fo the tasks vested in local administation) and undestaffing. Apat fom those thee aeas, the espondents geneally did not 104

106 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT mention any othe common and paticulaly acute poblems elated to the diect execution of tasks by local councils. Anothe issue that was often mentioned in inteviews concened the limitations and difficulties aising fom inefficient pefomance of tasks by cental govenment agencies. Notably, those tasks could be potentially fulfilled by local institutions (in keeping with the afoementioned subsidiaity pinciple). Fo instance, attention was dawn to issues elated to public tanspot which, at some point, was taken away fom the set of local govenments esponsibilities. Poblem is public tanspot [which is not ou esponsibility]. They do coodinate with us but on petty mattes ( ) initially it was the esponsibility ( ) but then it was stopped by the cental govenment because it gave the monopoly to Aiva fo public tanspot sevices. Executive Secetay (IDI) Anothe aea of activity whee the ole of local councils is limited is the management of lighting in steets and othe public places. The distibution of esponsibilities in this field is quite had to compehend: lamp posts attached to walls of buildings ae managed by the local administation wheeas stand-alone lamp posts in the steets ae the esponsibility of EneMalta, a state-owned company. And that s whee anothe poblem is ceated. Because they do not espond immediately to faults, howeve we do that in fou days. Then people stat peceiving things wongly. We tell them listen, that is the esponsibility of EneMalta. No! You did the othe one because you wanted to make a favou to that peson who lives ove thee. Executive Secetay (IDI) Woth noting is that egadless of the poblems that wee mentioned, the vast majoity of the inteviewed municipal staff and elected epesentatives nevetheless gave a positive assessment of the pefomance of local councils. Slightly highe scoes fo self-assessment wee ecoded in the case of municipal officials and executive secetaies than among councillos. Figue 14: LC SURVEY assessment of the pefomance of local councils by thei epesentatives In geneal tems, how do you assess the oveall PERFORMANCE of you LOCAL COUNCIL? % of espondents MAYORS OTHERS ELECTED EXECUTIVE SECRETARY STAFF vey good good fai poo vey poo n.a. 6 Moeove, the espondents wee quite unanimous in giving positive atings to municipal staff fo thei activity in sphees specified in the study. Only a handful of mayos and executive secetaies talked about poblems in the following aeas of esponsibility of municipal staff: knowledge of job: pocedues, methods, esponsibilities, teamwok: quality and efficiency of wok with colleagues, 105

107 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT volume of wok done compaed with the job equiements, communication: ability to communicate both vebally and in witing, quality of wok: accuacy and pesentation of wok o dependability: the degee to which staff membes can be counted upon to do what is equied. Slightly moe negative atings wee given fo staff s motivation to engage in pofessional development and innovativeness in pefoming thei duties. Public sevices quality monitoing Based on the inteviews conducted fo the study we can conclude that the local administation system lacks compehensive, efficient, fomalised mechanisms to monito and impove the quality of sevices povided. In fact, one should assume that thee ae no mechanisms that would ensue compehensive assessment of the quality of activities undetaken by local administation, except the suveillance of legality of undetakings, the annual financial audit and the faily unsystematic and limited supevision by the Local Govenment Depatment. Legally speaking, thee is the annual audit and then thee is the pefomance audit. But the latte has been conducted only once in twenty yeas. Executive Secetay (IDI) Fo the sake of a balanced pictue we should also point out that at least some local councils employ (on the outsoucing basis) contact manages esponsible fo oveseeing cetain commissioned tasks. It s a peson who basically knows, I give him a numbe of envionmentally elated contacts like gabage, sweeping, efuse collection, the gadens and the maintenance of public conveniences, most of the poblems which esidents and touists alike ae of concen to them, that mattes mostly. I give him specific conditions that the contactos abide by, and he has to monito them basically has to monito that the contacto does the wok. Executive Secetay (IDI) Studies did not identify benchmaking pactices that would help to assess the effectiveness of specific local govenments in endeing thei sevices. Likewise, thee ae no pactices involving the exchange of expeience o best pactices among vaious local govenments. Anothe poblem is the absence of effective, fomalised auditing and motivating tools fo pesonnel management. Pefomance monitoing and appaisal pactices ae, in eal life, lagely limited to the subjective assessment of municipal staff s wok by the secetay. Pefomance monitoing is daily. If someone of them does something wong, I get him in the office and explain to them how it should be done. Executive Secetay (IDI) Theoetically, thee is a mechanism with a potentially motivating effect, i.e. the pefomance bonus. Howeve, as many espondents stessed in the study, its actual impact is questionable. In pinciple, the secetay pesents his/he conclusions annually, on the basis of pefomance appaisal of municipal staff. Alongside, the secetay pesents his/he ecommendations in this egad fo councillos to conside and act upon. Councillos ae fee in thei decision-making egading annual pefomance bonuses. Such bonuses may be ganted in the amount of up to 6% of the employee s annual salay (with 3% being an automatic and mandatoy bonus, and the othe 3% being a discetionay component). Howeve, councillos quite aely follow the ecommendations made by the executive secetay and often make thei own decisions, unelated to the actual esults of pefomance appaisal. 106

108 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT When it comes to pefomance and the bonus, they do not even let you, at the council level, when you ae at the meeting, they don t even ask you fo you epot, they don t want to hea about you epot, and they just give eveyone full bonus, no matte what you say. I have been insisting that at least we deduct, like they ty to do in the Paliament, one euo fom the bonus, just as a message no way. Executive Secetay (FGI) As fa as I know, almost eveyone gets full maks in Malta, because of ou closed cultue. Executive Secetay (IDI) I would like to stuctue the bonus mechanism, because so fa it is just the executive secetay who makes the poposal to the council, but I would like to tie it to the pefomance of the individual. Mayo (IDI) Despite such opinions, the declaations obtained in the study with egad to the efficiency of pefomance appaisal of municipal staff ae not negative. Moe than a half of those inteviewed believed that those pocedues wee elatively useful, with executive secetaies being moe citical than othes in this espect. Figue 15: LC SURVEY peceived usefulness of pefomance appaisal pocedues applied to municipal staff How do you evaluate the usefulness of the pefomance appaisal pocedue in you Local Council as a diagnostic tool aimed at oganisational impovement? MAYORS OTHERS ELECTED EXECUTIVE SECRETARY STAFF vey useful and suppotive (2) (1) aveage (0) (-1) not useful and countepoductive (-2) no answe How the question was fomulated? Regadless of the actual value of the pefomance bonus mechanism, the main facto which does influence the behaviou of staff is the authoity of the mayo and the executive secetay: thei pesonal chaisma and commitment. It should also be stessed that the pefomance appaisal at this level is often non-binding. Consequently, poblematic cases ae not always followed up with epaatoy actions o motivating measues. 107

109 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Financial inadequacy vesus the tasks vested in Local Councils The key poblem epoted in unison by paticipants of qualitative inteviews lies in the inadequate funding eceived by local councils vis-à-vis the tasks that have been vested in them. The espondents pointed out that the financing of local administation activities is set at an ovely low level and it enables local administation bodies only to cove the necessay day-to-day expenses. Recuent expenditues take almost 90%, as I ve calculated lately steets sweeping, gabage collection, gadens. Executive Secetay (IDI) The amount of govenment financing tansfeed to cove the costs of tasks pefomed by local councils is defined on the basis of two indices: the teitoy coveed and the population of the administative unit concened. As some espondents indicated, this solution is highly inefficient in Maltese cicumstances: some teitoies have a small aea and a limited, stable population size but they nevetheless attact heavy touist taffic and/o business taffic. This entails majo financial budens which ae not compensated in any way by the cental budget. Moeove, the value of allocations fom the cental budget eamaked fo some specific tasks (e.g. waste collection) is calculated on the basis of obsolete data wheeas the fees incued by local councils coespond with the status quo, i.e. the volumes of waste actually collected. The funding allocated fo us to collect waste ( ) let s just call it collection and tanspotation to the landfill, is calculated on the numbe of households egisteed in the locality. The allocation is still done on 1995 data twenty yeas ago. A new city has been ceated fom that day onwads. Executive Secetay (IDI) Figue 16: LC SURVEY peceived adequacy of financing fo the activities pefomed by local councils Do you think that you Local Council eceives enough funds to delive its sevices and othe obligations? Is you Local Council, in you opinion: MAYORS OTHERS ELECTED EXECUTIVE SECRETARY STAFF highly ovefunded somehow ovefunded medium somehow undefunded highly undefunded no answe Anothe impotant poblem in the financing of local councils is that potions of the budget ae fomally and stictly attached to specific categoies. This ceates a situation whee, fist of all, local authoities have no financial flexibility (specific sums must be spent on specific tasks) and, secondly, this constains the local councils decision-making powes and thei ability to solve local poblems. We manage [the financial esouces] pecisely, but the poblem is that needed woks ae not done. Executive Secetay (IDI) Based on infomation obtained in the couse of inteviews, the only technical oppotunity to eamak funds fo some specific local needs is to educe administative expenses. It should be 108

110 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT stessed, howeve, that flexibility in managing such funds is seiously esticted since local govenment must ensue efficient opeation of its offices. Local govenments ae equied to pepae thee-yea financial plans. Howeve, those plans consists meely in the calculation of financial inflows and outflows. In that sense, those plans ae not tools that would help local govenments to shape thei multiannual financial policies. Anothe eason why such multiannual policies ae hadly possible is that cental funding is faily unpedictable. The espondents stessed that inflows and outflows cannot always be effectively and fully pedicted despite the fact that budget planning is equied unde the existing system. I do not know whethe you ae awae of the fact that when you have a council, a locality that is gowing in population and they add two councillos, you know what happens? They deduct fom all the councils that amount to incease the budget of that council. Because the cental govenment allocation of funds emains the same. Executive Secetay (FGI) Theefoe, the budget of a local council may be educed only because the population in anothe egion of Malta has expanded, entailing an administative incease of the budget of that egion. It should be emphasised that such cases do happen, albeit not commonly, while the ange of local expenditues emain unchanged. The issue of co-financing of EU pojects is an impotant poblem that eflects the local councils financial dependence on cental administation. Even when it comes to EU pojects you have to co-finance sometimes. And if you have a big poject, you have to co-finance. What if you don t get the co-financing fom the govenment as well, which is anothe buden, which is not povided? ( ) They ae insisting that we apply fo Euopean pojects, that is fine, but how can you make good fo the cofinancing? Executive Secetay (FGI) Euopean pojects ae implemented in many localities. In such cases, co-financing is povided fom cental subsidies. Howeve, local councils have no autonomy in deciding about thei paticipation in selected undetakings. Some espondents defined the ole of local govenment in aising EU funds as that of an intemediay between esponsible institutions and local NGOs. In that case, the local govenment plays an advisoy ole without diectly using public funds at its disposal. We don t have the money. But it s once again to be an intemediay. So what I do I ty to get vaious NGOs to tap the EU funding. Because fo them sometimes it s had to do the papewok, and the administation, and whateve. So I ty to bing them togethe and to get them to get the EU funding. Mayo (IDI) The vast majoity of investment activities undetaken by local councils depend on cental administation, in the financial sense and also often in tems of decision-making powes. While such an appoach may be undestandable with egad to infastuctue, it may aise eyebows in the case of small-scale local activities focused on public benefit. Even though the espondents ae used to this state of affais, they nevetheless often expessed disappoval fo the idea that they need to apply fo a cental subsidy if they want to oganise a celebation of a local coveage and natue. Telling examples of how the cental govenment devolves tasks upon local administation without ensuing adequate funding can be seen, fo instance, in the implementation of infastuctual 109

111 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT pojects. Such pojects, initiated by ministies o othe tans-local institutions often geneate costs which local budgets cannot handle. A huge amount of money was spent on infastuctual pojects [in ou locality], in the last, let s say, 10 yeas. Once the pojects wee completed, afte a yea, the pojects wee dumped to the local council. Fo instance: a gaden which costs two hunded thousand euos to maintain, evey yea. And the local council didn t eceive one cent fom cental govenment to take cae of it. And we ae now about to take a decision that if cental govenment doesn t help in this we ae going to stop taking cae of it. Executive Secetay (IDI) The cuent legal famewok povides fo exta financing oppotunities fo cetain non-standad activities. Howeve, the espondents assue that vey often those oppotunities ae puely theoetical. The law basically states that a council can make a equest to the finance ministe fo exta allocation as long as this is justified. So I will give you an example of how it woks in Malta: I ve made this equest, the Ministe fowaded it to the Pemanent Secetay and they neve acted upon it. Executive Secetay (IDI) Human esouces policy Nealy all paticipants mentioned the poblem of undestaffing in local administation, yet it should be noted that the local govenments feedom in shaping thei own pesonnel policy is heavily limited, much like thei feedom in many othe sphees. The oganisational famewok of opeation fo Local Councils with egad to cleical sevices is defined faily pecisely: one peson pe 2,500 citizens may be employed in a cleical position at a local administation office. This means that the population size is the main deteminant of the budget allocation which coves labou costs. Since local govenment units in Malta ae elatively small, it often happens that the entie staffing of a local office is limited to two o thee people. Consideing the ange of the daily duties, this level of staffing often tuns out to be absolutely insufficient (paticulaly if we additionally conside vaious foce majeue events which cause absenteeism o the statutoy leave that each employee is entitled to). The constaints elated to employment levels quite fequently lead to excessive accumulation of tasks in the hands of individual people, thus peventing them fom poviding pope custome sevice and, as a esult, at least patially cause a deteioation of the quality of sevices offeed by local administation. The law is quite idiculous when it comes to staffing. ( ) Because it is one employee fo 2,500 citizens. So technically in such a big city we can have thee employees, which is idiculous obviously. Mayo (IDI) Staffing shotages may be eplenished in accodance with the existing egulations yet it is poblematic to find candidates who would be at least elatively well qualified. Accoding to the existing ules, staff must be ecuited via The Employment and Taining Copoation. In the opinion of many executive secetaies, people who ae egisteed by that institution ae not pepaed to take up a job in local administation. As a ule, they only have geneal education and demonstate complete lack of knowledge about the local govenment in Malta. 110

112 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT To employ someone I would have to stat fom scatch. Because we ae getting some people fom ETC, fom the lists, but they have no clue about the wok of Local Councils, I have to tain them ( ) Some of them don t even have expeience in wok. Executive Secetay (IDI) The constaints aising fom centally implemented ecuitment pocedues concen not only lowlevel staff but also candidates fo executive secetaies. Thee have been cases whee endeavous to employ a secetay, paticulaly in less attactive locations, emained fuitless fo many months. Thee ae pesumably many easons behind this state of affais but one should cetainly mention the faily unattactive salaies offeed in public administation, o low pestige of some locations as a place of employment (which additionally undemines the aleady low chances fo caee development). What fequently causes misundestandings is that candidates lack undestanding of the vaious constaints elated to the job of a secetay. Moeove, many ae not awae of the constaints imposed on thei wok in this position, e.g. with egad to options to ean moe (fo instance, by woking ovetime). One of the pesons was saying: how much ovetime do you have? And I said it depends on the volume of the wokload, but I cannot guaantee you that evey week you will be doing something like 20 hous exta ( ). So the individual was moe looking fo a job which is paid highe, but at the same time he can wok ovetime so he can get exta money. Mayo (IDI) Othe factos which undemine candidates motivation to take up jobs in local administation also include limited pomotion oppotunities. In the occupational pactice of municipal staff, pomotion oppotunities ae limited to the position of an executive secetay (and it is impotant to emembe that executive secetaies ae employed by the cental, not local govenment). As egads executive secetaies, they may be pomoted to a locality which is moe attactive in financial tems (being tansfeed to anothe locality, usually a bigge one). People employed in a cleical position at a local govenment office have vey limited oppotunities fo pofessional advancement, mostly because employment stuctues in local offices ae limited and flat. What ae the pospects, if you ae a clek? You can have the ambition of becoming what?. Mayo (IDI) Many inteviewees aised an impotant poblem elated to local govenment pesonnel i.e. thei geneally poo pepaedness to wok in public administation. It was noted that employment in the public secto was not appealing enough to attact people with high qualifications. Obviously thee is a poblem of the quality of the staff. It is vey difficult to find good people. ( ) Because of the salay but also shotage of good people. Mayo (IDI) Pay is established, just goes up accoding to the yealy govenmental incease by [accoding to the] cost of living incease, then afte thee yeas if I add some moe esponsibilities, they go up to fifteen, thiteen, eleven, but this is hadly an incentive. Executive Secetay (IDI) Inteestingly enough, the majoity of the espondents in the suvey conducted among Local Council offices expessed the view that wok fo local govenment administation was attactive and satisfactoy. 111

113 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Figue 17: LC SURVEY satisfaction with woking (being engaged) at the LC Geneally speaking, to what extent ae you happy o unhappy to be engaged with (to wok fo) the Local Council? MAYORS OTHERS ELECTED EXECUTIVE SECRETARY STAFF vey happy happy aveagely unhappy vey unhappy n.a. Ou eseach identified vaious ways of coping with shotages of skilled pesonnel. The most impotant ones ae as follows: outsoucing of cetain tasks, especially bookkeeping o supevision ove sevices deliveed by extenal povides, using tainees: thei skills might be low but they can nevetheless be asked to pefom simple tasks: We don t eally have people to do the maintenance. We have one peson who is a fulltime and then thee is a scheme by the Employment and Taining Copoation which gives us two o thee people to help him out, but they ae vey limited, they ae not skilled, so it is vey limited what they can do maybe they can paint a line on the floo but not moe than that. Mayo Stategic planning Stategic management at the local level is lagely non-existent. Stategic planning is not used, analyses concening long-tem effects of implemented solutions, investments, planning decisions etc. ae not developed. In fact, one can claim that management at local govenment units is lagely based on day-to-day poblem solving. One secetay admitted: sometimes it is management by cisis. Thee is no in-depth knowledge, no in-depth study, no in-depth foecasting by the councillos. That is the poblem. They come fo the meeting, they take what you put on the table, o you put on the agenda, and that s it. Raely thee is an initiative on thei side. Executive Secetay (FGI) The concept of stategic planning is fom Mas. Unfotunately it s not the way things ae done. Executive Secetay (IDI) Absence of well-established stategic planning pactices does not necessaily mean that local administation has no action plans at all. Candidates to the position of mayos pesent thei plans duing the election campaign and ae bound by those pomises, at least to some extent. Nevetheless, it is commonly known that electoal pomises ae not always easy to follow though. 112

114 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT One obvious constaint is the afoementioned govenance execised by cental institutions, which means that mayos have limited oppotunities to act. Howeve, at this point one must ask about the ationale behind designing electoal pogammes in a situation whee most decisions depend on ministeial officials, who do not un in the elections anyway. Roughly you would know what you would like to achieve in you thee-to-fou yeas. Afte all, keep in mind that thee is an electoal pogamme as well. But it is had to achieve it. ( ) As I said we have solutions but then we ae tied by the govenment and we cannot implement all solutions. So we ae doing ou best to implement ou pogamme but most of the time it is difficult. Mayo (IDI) Nevetheless, with enough detemination one can ty and achieve at least some of the adopted goals. Regetfully, when tying to achieve those goals one does not necessaily gapple with local poblems and implement local initiatives (e.g. oganisational, investment-elated o communitybased activities) but, athe, one endeavous to change attitudes o actions undetaken by ministeial officials. You can pesent these pomises, let s call them pomises, but then not do anything about them as well. But if you e pessuing govenment to go a cetain diection, even though it doesn t fall unde ou esponsibility, but at least we ae tying to do something about it ( ) We ty to exploe the diffeent avenues. Sometimes unfotunately we can t pass though the doo, but we ty to get thee though the window. Mayo (FGI) Relations with citizens As indicated by eseach findings, poblems which citizens epot to local administation elate to a boad ange of mattes. Above all, they efe to cleanliness in public places, pope maintenance of municipal infastuctue and the condition of public oads. That is ou main poblem the contact with the esidents. We ae tying to set up a database, with all the addesses but we ae still vey shot of the goal. Even to each it costs you money because we still have the doo-to-doo distibution. Executive Secetay (IDI) Public consultations with esidents on a vaiety of issues elated to decisions made by the Local Councils ae held only occasionally. Sometimes such consultations take place as pat of oganised public meetings wheeas they take othe foms on othe occasions (e.g. coespondence, diect mailings to households). The espondents also pointed out that citizens usually show modeate inteest in taking pat in such consultations. Yes, on cetain mattes fo instance we just did one on taffic management. We do a yealy one a yealy locality meeting. Executive Secetay (IDI) It was established duing the inteviews that pactices egading the oganisation of public consultations and meetings vay consideably and, in fact, depend on locally developed ideas and pactices (as one secetay emaked: common pactice depends on the mindset of the councillos ). Some local govenments undetake active steps to involve esidents moe actively and moe boadly in discussions on local affais, wheeas othes take a passive and distanced stance on public paticipation. 113

115 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT The locality meeting was split into five meetings. So it was done to incease paticipation. We did a meeting in evey aea of ou locality. And we had inceased paticipation befoe, we used to have thee citizens fo locality meeting, and when we ve made it fo evey aea, we had a hunded pesons fo evey meeting. Executive Secetay (IDI) Regadless of the scale and effectiveness of such pactices, epesentatives of local govenment believe that the infomation policy pusued by Local Councils should be viewed positively. The best communication channels include community newslettes and official websites. Figue 18: LS SURVEY assessment of Local Councils infomation policy Do you believe that the LOCAL COUNCIL keeps its esidents INFORMED of its DUTIES o does it NOT INFORM them? ELECTED EMPLOYED keeps esidents well infomed 1 aveagely -1 does not infom at all no answe How the question was fomulated? The degee of esidents influence on decisions made by local govenment was assessed in the same spiit: as many as 70% of mayos paticipating in the study (and 59% of executive secetaies) claimed that esidents influence was eithe high o vey high. Figue 19: LC SURVEY assessment of esidents influence on decisions made by Local Councils Do you believe that the esidents of the LOCAL COUNCIL have any REAL INFLUENCE on the impotant decisions taken by the LOCAL COUNCIL o that they have no influence? MAYORS OTHERS ELECTED EXECUTIVE SECRETARY STAFF have huge influence 1 modeate -1 have no influence at all no answe How the question was fomulated? 114

116 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Regetfully, the beliefs held by epesentatives of local govenment in this egad do not ovelap with votes opinions. The latte think than esidents influence on decisions made by Local Councils is modeate at most. Figue 20: NATIONAL SURVEY peceived influence of esidents on decisions made by Local Councils Do you believe that the esidents of ou community have any REAL INFLUENCE on the impotant decisions taken by the LOCAL COUNCIL o that they have no influence? % of espondents 26,4 28,7 11,7 14,8 6,3 12,0 Yes, always Yes, often Yes, occasionally Yes, but aely Neve Do not know Extenal collaboation The inteviews have shown that dissatisfaction with the collaboation with othe public entities is quite common (all goups of stakeholdes do so, executive secetaies and municipal staff alike). Many executive secetaies believe that they ae seen as clients of vaious institutions athe than patnes within public administation. This stems mostly fom the afoementioned constains in the autonomy of Local Councils and thei esticted decision-making powes in many fields. If thee is a housing issue that obviously thee is the Housing Depatment and I ty to intevene with the Housing Depatment. Mayo (IDI) We ae epesented obviously on a numbe of committees ( ) But some of them haven t met fo months. Mayo (FGI) We ve just eceived a list of applications [fo building pemits]. But what if I would like to see the details? I have to pay. Why should I pay to see the applications?. Mayo (IDI) Many contacts between Local Councils and extenal entities involve an intemediay ole between citizens epoting vaious poblems at thei place of esidence and cental institutions which take binding decisions that may help to addess those poblems. Citizens sometimes ae vey demanding in the sense that what they expect fom us is something which we should give them. Not necessaily as a council but as the govenment all ties of govenment. It could be something small, as a pothole, which is something we solve quite easily. But then, fo example, this weekend, thee was an issue with a steet, whee thee was a blackout. So they called us about the blackout which we epoted. But we ae dependent on EneMalta. So we have to follow it up with them ( ) But if someone calls, he calls us, not EneMalta, and he expects us to give them a solution. Mayo (IDI) Moeove, it should be noted that the elations between local and cental institutions ae quite often fa fom the idea of patneship o collaboation on equal footing. Wose still, consultations between cental agencies and Local Councils ae not systematic and happen only when cental decision makes expess such will. 115

117 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Right now it has become a tend to consult ( ) But it all depends on the Ministe if he wants to consult on a subject o not. Executive Secetay (IDI) Likewise, the collaboation between Local Councils and the pivate secto is lagely dependent on decisions adopted at the cental level. We have to ask the ministy. That is what we ae doing ( ) It is in the law that if we would like to have a commecial ventue then we have to seek pemission fom the ministy ( ) It takes time and depends on a lot of things. Mayo (IDI) Relations with the Depatment fo Local Govenment Comments made by executive secetaies indicate that Local Councils ae highly dependent on decisions made by officials of the Depatment. The situation whee one secetay decided to send complaints about his employee to the Depatment may be seen as symptomatic hee. This indicates that eithe secetaies independence in making staffing decisions is highly constained (which seems to be a cucial facto that detemines thei actual influence on poductivity and efficiency of the subodinate staff) o, if the fist option is invalid, this paticula secetay s might be lacking manageial skills. I have one employee who doesn t know how to do things, o else, he does not want to do things. ( ) The fact is I teach him, I epeat things constantly, and he still does most of what I tell him wong, he does the opposite of what I equest, and so it is vey had. And the poblem is that wheneve I ask the council to lowe his pefomance bonus, they always link his bonus with mine ( ). They ae counting votes I have spoken to the LG Depatment, I have sent lettes, but they didn t bothe. Executive Secetay (FGI) A belief was expessed vey fequently in the study that the Depatment should be esponsible fo technical and substantive assistance fo Local Councils in pefoming thei duties. It was even postulated that a cetain kind of an advisoy goup should be set up at the Depatment to povide substantive suppot fo executive secetaies in case they have poblems o doubts elated to thei wok. Thee should be a focus goup in the Depatment a team of expets in diffeent fields, whee the executive secetay can efe to in cetain mattes in which he is not an expet. Executive Secetay (FGI) Many executive secetaies ae of the opinion that the Depatment does not povide such substantive suppot fo them. Some secetaies even seemed somewhat iitated that the Depatment showed little inteest in the substantive aspects of thei wok. Among othes, the secetaies emphasised that thee was no systematic inteest in impoving pofessional qualifications of this occupational goup. I do believe that the Depatment should teat Executive Secetaies as thei employees. I mean, not only tain them when they get into the job but constant taining, even fo thei own satisfaction, even if it s just not just job-elated, should happen. Executive Secetay (IDI) 116

118 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 8. The ole of egions The espondents stuggled to define the ole of egions in the Maltese system of public administation. They admitted nealy unanimously that the ole of egions was unclea and the need fo thei existence was highly debatable. Zeo, up to now ( ). Fo me the egions ae a waste of money ( ) They wee supposed to take ove the lighting system, which they didn t They ae just collecting the contaventions. Executive Secetay (FGI) In the light of espondents statements, the ole played by the egions is indeed had to justify in the system: it does not seem that egions do play an impotant ole fo the decentalisation of the Maltese public administation system. Rathe, egadless of any systemically fomulated intentions, egions ae supefluous, additional levels of administation which deal with maginal o, at best, auxiliay activities. The only contact we have with the egions is when they send an agenda [of the meetings] to the Mayo and the minutes. Executive Secetay (FGI) In ou case they ae doing some incentives fo example, they ae giving one thousand euo fo evey council to buy books fo the libaies, and so on. Executive Secetay (FGI) An issue which aouses numeous contovesies is the efom which intoduced changes in the opeation of taffic wadens supevising paking in public places (the so-called local wadens efom). Befoe the efom, financial poceeds fom paking fines went to the budgets of Local Councils. Afte the amendments, which wee intoduced a few yeas ago, the supevision ove the system was given to the egions, which also took ove the financial poceeds. This depived the lowest levels of public administation of an impotant souce of income. The local wadens efom which happened two o thee yeas ago in my opinion it was a big mistake. They took the local wadens fom the Local Councils and they gave them to the egions. It goes against the pinciple of subsidiaity because you ae taking away the local powe and you ae giving it to someone else. What is the effect? Today, we have lost all contol ove local wadens. So, once again people blame us fo the wongdoings of these local wadens but in actual effect that s the egions who is contolling them, not us. Mayo (IDI) The last efom was plain and simple: listen let s centalise powe, and take it out of the hands of Local Councils by taking the funding that comes fom contaventions. Executive Secetay (IDI) 117

119 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 9. Taining needs Executive secetaies admitted that while thee ae geneally some occasional taining offes that Local Councils staff could use, thee is no compehensive system to impove pofessional competences among local administation pesonnel. The taining offes which exist nowadays patly come fom the maket (on commecial tems) and ae patly initiated, on an iegula basis, by the Association of Local Councils o the Association of Executive Secetaies. While the maket offeing could pesumably satisfy the existing taining needs, as long as paticipation of municipal staff in commecial taining pogammes is ensued (especially if systemic legal equiements ae intoduced in paallel, equiing mandatoy impovement of pofessional qualifications). Howeve, the main poblem in the cuent situation is the insufficiency of financial esouces to cay out such initiatives: an impotant obstacle to systematic taining lies in the limited pool of esouces that could be used to pay fo taining. If I have funding to do some taining, I could pefectly be in a position to get people and lead my staff into taining. But it should also come fom the Depatment. Executive Secetay (IDI) At the same time, the espondents wee nealy unanimous in saying that thee was a need to tain cleical staff. The needs in this egad ae vey high: duing the goup discussion executive secetaies admitted in unison that, basically, any taining is welcome. [Taining] could dastically impove the efficiency of Local Councils ( ). I am looking at the staff basically, because we do wok hee. Executive Secetay (IDI) Moeove, the espondents in the inteviews highlighted the oganisational poblems elated to municipal staff s paticipation in taining pogammes: when employees ae sent to taining, this often disupts the day-to-day wok of local offices given thei limited staffing levels. I can t affod to send somebody fo a long couse, fo example - because of the wokload and the shotage of staff. Executive Secetay (FGI) They [the staff] wouldn t attend the couses that ae out of the office hous, fist of all ( ). But if they do one couse, and you have like two membes of staff, you can t send them both, you only send one, and the othe one emains untained. Executive Secetay (FGI) Theefoe, the cuent taining pactices in the Maltese local administation secto do not eveal a systematic appoach to the impovement of staff s pofessional qualifications. Even newly appointed executive secetaies do not undego induction couses, which is quite symptomatic and illustates the afoementioned claim. The induction couse wasn t done within last thee yeas ( ). Thee is no fomal taining. ( ) It is not consistent. ( ) You have to lean by pactice, by you own expeience, by you mistakes. Executive Secetay (FGI) Woth ecalling hee ae the pactices of executive secetaies who engage in day-to-day supevision ove the wok of municipal staff employed in local administation offices (those pactices wee mentioned ealie in the epot). In ode fo such supevision to be effective, and fo on-the-job taining to bing fuit, executive secetaies must have sufficient wok expeience. 118

120 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Howeve, if such expeience is missing o insufficient, and if it is not at least patially supplemented with elevant fomal pepaation, supevision and taining may be highly unpoductive. Unde the cuent cicumstances, we cannot eally talk about an efficient appoach to taining that would help the local administation staff to fulfil thei esponsibilities. Rathe, we ae dealing with a situation whee knowledge is shaed in hands-on situations, leaning happens by tial and eo, and a lot depends on the local expeience accumulated by municipal staff. In consequence, we should talk about a lack of consistency in execution of public esponsibilities and, consequently, about significant dispopotions in the quality of pefomance. Some Local Councils oganise intenal taining on a limited scale, sometimes fo individuals and, at othe times, fo goups of staff. Those pactices, howeve, ae not systematic and ae undetaken on as-needed basis. We oganize custome cae taining because I think that ou biggest weakness is always how we elate to customes. It s quite a big issue because we have a lot of people coming ove ( ). Sometimes you get hot-tempeed people, so it s not always an easy task to deal with people. Above that then we have obviously the telephone which is constantly inging ove hee, so we have to deal with that, and obviously social media, which ae constantly bombading us with issues. Mayo (IDI) The lack of systematic appoach in building the competencies of local govenment staff may also be illustated by the existing pactices of disseminating infomation on changes in the legal and oganisational envionment. Accoding to espondents declaations, thee ae no fomalised pactices of shaing impotant infomation o knowledge. - What happens when thee is a change in the law? How do you lean about it? - We send an ( ) They send the manual and that s it. You have to ead the manual. - But it is infomation shaing, it is not taining. Executive Secetay (FGI) What happens occasionally is that employees appoach thei supevisos with initiatives egading thei paticipation in taining o postulates concening educational activities. I think some of them appeciate it but, to be honest, I have to say that pobably they ae the few ( ) Vey few have motivation to develop themselves. Mayo (IDI) Expectations egading the scope of taining activities Executive secetaies believe that the lack of competences among local politicians who establish Local Councils afte successful elections is an impotant souce of poblems fo local administation. This geneal belief (with ecognition that thee ae also some exceptions) extends onto councillos as well as some mayos. When they ae elected, they ae pesented with the code of ethics. But they don t ead it! The Mayos they have no idea what the code of ethics says, and not even what the law says! They would not ead it, they have no idea. Executive Secetay (FGI) Those opinions ae confimed by statements made by some mayos, who admit that thee ae no fomalised, stuctued actions that would help mayos to acquie substantive knowledge needed to pefom thei duties. 119

121 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Unfotunately, at least it has happened to me, when I got elected you know, I was a councillo nobody eve gave me this sot of taining, so I had to ead though local council law, financial egulations ( ). So I would like councillos to be moe knowledgeable about what we can and what we cannot do, what ae the estictions ( ). I think it would also help the quality of the discussions, because sometimes councillos popose something which you can t do. Executive Secetay (FGI) Not supisingly, many executive secetaies believe that taining and boadly undestood education about Local Councils should be pimaily tageted at councillos and mayos. In many cases, successful pefomance of tasks and esponsibilities depends on how well councillos and mayos undestand the challenges associated with the wok of Local Councils. Fist and foemost, we should educate not the executive secetaies, but the mayos and the councillos let them know what thei ole is. Executive Secetay (FGI) Executive secetaies postulated that pe-election couses fo councillos should be intoduced. In the suvey among local govenment staff and councillos the following aeas of taining wee identified as most impotant and most useful fo local administation staff: accounting administative law / pocedues financial pocedues pocuement egulations Additionally, executive secetaies mentioned the need to oganise taining in geneal legal famewok. 120

122 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Figue 21: LC SURVEY taining needs epoted in the suvey Please select up to 5 taining subjects most impotant fo you pofessional development Accounting Administative law / pocedues Financial pocedues Pocuement egulations Stategic planning Geneal legal famewok Social policies and sevices Team wok Pofessional communication Public sevices delivey MAYORS OTHERS ELECTED EXECUTIVE SECRETARY STAFF 121

123 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Figue 22: LC SURVEY taining needs epoted in the suvey, contd. Please select up to 5 taining subjects most impotant fo you pofessional development Envionmental potection Compute skills Pefomance management Regional development Tanspaency and public ethics Human ights Foeign languages Custome / public elations Conflict esolution and negotiations Coopeation with NGOs MAYORS OTHERS ELECTED EXECUTIVE SECRETARY STAFF 122

124 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Duing qualitative inteviews, the inteviewees mentioned the following taining needs: custome cae taining custome sevice is the key esponsibility of local administation offices, pefomed on a daily basis. At the same time, it is one of the most difficult aeas of eveyday wok since the issues epoted and poblems aised by esidents ae highly divesified, esidents pesent vaious attitudes towads municipal staff and, last but not least, those elations ae potentially sensitive in the political context. The biggest issue is that they have to face people, and sometimes it can be a little bit ough. Mayo (IDI) taining in accounting and financial management it was postulated that such taining should be oganised fo office staff, even if at the vey basic level: I want them to have a mindset that we do wok in a budgetay famewok. Executive Secetay (IDI) taining in the competences of Local Councils and pocedues applied in public administation: Unfotunately, it s something they get on the job. When we get someone new they don t know the system. So it s something we have to teach them. Mayo (IDI) tendeing pocedues elated to EU funding. 10. Recommendations fo taining Ou eseach seems to justify the following ecommendations as to aeas of taining fo the staff of Local Councils: Geneal needs: Awaeness aising activities any activities aimed at explaining the systemic and legal famewok defining the competences of vaious stakeholdes in the local govenment system and familiaising paticipants with geneal ules of decentalisation and the functioning of local govenment in the Euopean context. Such activities should not be limited to the taining-oiented effots (couses, lectues, wokshops etc.) but, athe, take the fom of expeience shaing and pesentation of best pactices and intenational expeience. Taining fo elected epesentatives as mentioned ealie, activities in this sphee should aim at aising councillos awaeness and boadening thei knowledge about the competences of local epesentative bodies, the tasks to be executed by Local Councils and the oveall famewok in which local govenments opeate. Taining fo staff of cental institutions such taining pogammes should cove the functioning of Local Councils in Malta, build awaeness with egad to desiable pattens of opeation in public administation and shape attitudes that would be conducive to efficient collaboation between local and cental agencies. Induction couses they should be intoduced as a necessay and mandatoy element fo all newly-hied employees at all positions in local administation. 123

125 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Additionally, a few aeas of taining elated to naowly defined issues should be mentioned hee. If conducted on a systematic basis, they should help to impove the efficiency of Local Councils. The most impotant topics of such taining pogammes would include: legal famewok of the LC system in Malta (administative law, tendeing pocedues), custome cae, stategic management, accounting / finances, pefomance management, social elations (team wok, pofessional communication), Euopean funds (stuctual pogams, financial egulations, tendeing pocedues, pojects management). Finally, it is woth noting that executive secetaies positively esponded to the idea pesented duing the study, namely that of a mandatoy taining pogamme fo local govenment staff. Howeve, such a pogamme may only be successful if couses ae oganised on a cyclical and systematic basis so that individual staff membes can be sent to taining at vaious dates in ode to avoid disuptions in the wok of local offices. The institutional back-up in the oganisation of taining emains an open question. Reseach findings indicate that some institutions enjoy paticula ecognition among local govenment staff. Pefeences vay depending on the position/function held but univesities should be cetainly indicated as oganisations that enjoy tust. Also, an impotant ole could be played by the Depatment fo Local Govenment and the two local govenment associations. The scope of taining needs evealed in the study indicates, howeve, that thee is a stong need to undetake systematic actions and make sue that effots ae not dispesed, as this could geneate poblems with the co-odination of taining suppot. 124

126 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT TNA questionnaie used in Malta (2014) LOCAL COUNCILS SURVEY -- Questionnaie fo Executive Secetaies (Public Offices) and Local Council Employees The aim of this taining needs analysis is to povide a solid and cedible basis fo elaboating the National Taining Stategy fo Local Councils in Malta. This questionnaie is anonymous. We guaantee you to keep confidential the infomation that you will povide. In the final epot we will efe only to genealized esults. We will neve quote data povided by paticula espondent. The final epot on the taining need assessment will be publicly available. The tem Local Council in this suvey efes to the Local Council you ae employed with. We thank you in advance fo you suppot! REGION: - Nothen (Malta) - Cental (Malta) - Gozo - South Easten (Malta) - Southen (Malta) Name of the A. Geneal infomation about the espondent Please give us some infomation about youself. This infomation is needed fo statistical puposes only: 1) Gende: - Female - Male 2) yeas 3) Position in the Local Council: - Executive Secetay - Membe of the Local Council s staff 4) How many yeas have you held the pesent yeas 5) How many yeas have you been woking fo local yeas 6) What is you level of education? - Pimay school - Seconday school - post-seconday school - highe: Univesity - othe 7) What is you pesent designation and salay scale 8) Place of esidence: do you live on a pemanent basis in the city/town/village of the local council you ae woking fo? B. Opeations and pefomance of the Local Council - yes - no 9. The Local Council is deliveing diffeent sevices to citizens. Please name up to thee aeas that ae, in you pesonal opinion, paticulaly difficult to manage. Please select NOT MORE THAN THREE aeas fom the list below: - public safety - pofessional font/back offices sevices - the cleanliness of steets and public places - education and child cae - suppot to social oganisations - oads infastuctue - cultual activities - healthcae and peventative medicine - wate and sewage systems - spot and eceation - social assistance and social housing - waste management - law enfocement - geen eceational paks and aeas - othe (please tell what kind of sevices?) 10. Geneally speaking, to what extent ae you happy o unhappy that you wok fo the Local vey unhappy -2-1 aveagely 1 2 vey happy 125

127 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 11. If you had the oppotunity would you like to MOVE to some othe place of employment? definitely no -2-1 aveagely 1 2 definitely yes 12. If you had a choice would you pefe to wok in public o in pivate secto? - public - pivate - had to say 13. How would you assess the efficiency of communication between staff in the office of the local council? vey inefficient and poblematic -2-1 fai 1 2 vey efficient and suppotive - had to say 14. Please mak pocedues / documents that ae pepaed and fomally intoduced (in witten fom) in you Local Council: - fomal job desciptions fo staff positions - pefomance appaisal pocedue fo staff - declaations of the conflict of inteest - ecuitment pocedue fo new staff - taining plan fo the staff - code of ethical conduct (specific egulations in you office) 15. Thee ae pefomance appaisals conducted in all Local Councils on annual basis. How do you evaluate the usefulness of this pocedue in you Local Council as a diagnostic tool aimed at oganizational impovement? Do you think that it is: not useful and countepoductive -2-1 fai 1 2 vey useful and suppotive 16. Please assess to what extend the factos listed below influence staff membes pomotion: (1 = not impotant at all 5 = vey impotant) esults of peiodically undetaken, fomal assessment of wok pofessional expeience (length of sevice) good pefomance in eveyday duties (infomal appaisal) paticipation in taining and othe fom of pofessional development good compute skills knowledge of foeign languages affiliation to political paty fomal education level good team wok good elations with co-wokes Othe (please 17. Can you evaluate the employment pactices in the local council in tems of thei tanspaency? Would you say that these pactices ae: Had to say completely unclea and not tanspaent -2-1 fai 1 2 completely clea and tanspaent 18. How does the Local Council issue calls fo pocuement? - announcement published in the public media - announcement published on the council s web site - announcement posted in the council office - announcement published in the Govenment Gazette Othe way (please 19. Can you evaluate the pactices elated to tendes in you local council? Would you say that these pactices ae: completely unclea and not tanspaent -2-1 fai 1 2 completely clea and tanspaent 126

128 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 20. To what extent, in you opinion, the cuent oganizational stuctue of the office suppots an efficient pefomance of THE LOCAL COUNCIL? does not suppot at all -2-1 aveagely 1 2 suppots vey stongly 21. How would you descibe social elations that pevail in the Local Council s office? Ae they: full of distust and fustating -2-1 fai 1 2 full of tust and suppotive 22. Consideing that Local Councils ae funded mainly by the cental govenment s allocation, do you think that you Local Council eceives enough funds to delive its sevices and othe obligations? Is you Local Council, in you opinion: highly undefunded -2-1 fai 1 2 much ovefunded 23. In you opinion, in the last thee yeas, the oveall quality of public sevices in the teitoy of the Local Council has: - inceased - emained the same - wosened - had to say 24. In the last thee yeas, the oveall quality of life of the people living in the teitoy of the Local Council has: (conside job availability, safety and secuity, envionment, housing, etc.) - inceased - emained the same - wosened - had to say 25. To what extent, in you opinion, cuent oganizational stuctue of the office suppots efficient pefomance of THE LOCAL COUNCIL? does not suppot at all -2-1 aveagely 1 2 suppots vey stongly 26. The level of coopeation between diffeent stakeholdes can influence the actual pefomance of Local Councils. How would you descibe the elationships between the following paties / actos in you Local Council? (please make an assessment in each line pesented below) coopeation between the mayo and the executive secetay - vey poo - athe poo - fai - athe good - vey good - had to say coopeation between the mayo and the councillos - vey poo - athe poo - fai - athe good - vey good - had to say coopeation between the executive secetay and the councillos - vey poo - athe poo - fai - athe good - vey good - had to say coopeation between membes of the staff and the councillos - vey poo - athe poo - fai - athe good - vey good - had to say coopeation between membes of the staff and the mayo - vey poo - athe poo - fai - athe good - vey good - had to say coopeation between membes of the staff and the executive secetay - vey poo - athe poo - fai - athe good - vey good - had to say coopeation between the mayo and the pesident of the council - vey poo - athe poo - fai - athe good - vey good - had to say coopeation between the executive secetay and the pesident of the council - vey poo - athe poo - fai - athe good - vey good - had to say 27. How often conflicts between the staff happen in you Local Council? vey often, almost eveyday - quite often, at least once a week sometimes, seveal times a month - aely, once o twice a month - vey aely, on exceptional basis - had to say 28. Do you believe that the LOCAL COUNCIL keeps its esidents INFORMED of its DUTIES o does it NOT INFORM them? does not infom at all -2-1 aveagely 1 2 keeps esidents well infomed 127

129 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 29. Which of the methods descibed below do you believe to be the best fo keeping the esidents infomed? (please tick most impotant methods) - meetings with the local council s staff - announcement boads - community newslette - local media - some independent web site - meetings with the mayo - local council s web site - othe 30. Do you believe that the esidents of the LOCAL COUNCIL have any REAL INFLUENCE on the impotant decisions taken by the LOCAL COUNCIL o that they have no influence? have no influence at all -2-1 aveagely 1 2 have huge influence 31. In geneal tems, how would you assess the way in which THE LOCAL COUNCIL woks with local social goups and NGOs? Is this coopeation: - excellent - good - mean - poo - vey poo - had to say 32. How do you assess the satisfaction of citizens with the pefomance of you Local Council office? Do you think that citizens in you Local Council ae: - vey satisfied - athe satisfied - athe unsatisfied - vey unsatisfied - had to say 32. Please assess, to what extent, in you opinion, the membes of the staff in you LOCAL COUNCIL should impove thei competencies in the following aeas: (1 = impovement is vey much needed 5 = no impovement is needed ): Had to say Administative law / pocedues Pocuement egulations Financial pocedues Accounting Geneal legal famewok Custome / public elations Team wok Conflict esolution and negotiations Pefomance management Public sevices delivey Regional development Envionmental potection Tanspaency and public ethics Stategic planning Human ights Pofessional communication Compute skills Foeign languages Coopeation with NGOs Social policies and sevices othe aea 128

130 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 33. How would you pesonally asses the oveall pefomance of the staff of the Local Council accoding to the following citeia? (Please use a scale fom 1 to 5 whee 1 means NOT ACCEPTABLE and 5 means VERY HIGH) not acceptable vey high volume of wok done compaed with the job equiements quality of wok: Accuacy and pesentation of wok knowledge of job: pocedues, methods, esponsibilities Had to say dependability: the degee to which staff membes can be counted upon to do what is equied innovation: making impovements in methods of wok and policies pofessional development: consideation fo impovement of qualifications communication: ability to communicate both vebally and in witing teamwok: quality and efficiency of wok with colleagues 34. How would you assess the need fo taining in you Local Council? at pesent taining is essential fo the impovement of ou pefomance some taining might be useful, but it is not a pioity at pesent taining is not eally needed - Had to say / no opinion 35. How often, on aveage, does it happen that the employees in the Local Council have to wok ovetime? vey often, almost eveyday - quite often, at least once a week sometimes, seveal times a month - aely, once o twice a month - vey aely, on exceptional basis - had to say 36. In geneal tems, how do you assess the oveall PERFORMANCE OF you LOCAL COUNCIL? vey poo -2-1 fai 1 2 vey good 37. Did you eceive pefomance bonus within last thee yeas? (please mak all appopiate answes) - yes, last yea - yes, two yeas ago - yes, thee yeas ago - no C. Appoach to taining 38. Did you paticipate in ANY FORMAL EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY (like taining couses, study visits, post-gaduate studies and alike) duing last yea? Yes, intensely, egulaly - Yes, seveal times Yes, once o twice - Not at all 39. IF YOU PARTICIPATED: Please assess, geneally speaking, how useful wee these activities FOR IMPROVEMENT OF YOUR EVERYDAY WORK in the Local Council? Use the scale fom 1 (not useful at all) to 5 (vey useful) not useful at all -2-1 Aveagely 1 2 vey useful 40. Please assess how much ae you satisfied with the availability of taining fo Local Councils in Malta? not satisfied at all -2-1 Aveagely 1 2 vey satisfied 41. Can you please evaluate how impotant can be pofessional taining fo the impovement of you eveyday wok in this local council? - at pesent taining is essential fo the impovement of my pefomance - some taining might be useful, but it is not a pioity - at pesent taining is not eally needed - had to say 42. Having in mind you pofessional duties, what is the possible length of the extenal taining couse that you could paticipate in (out of eveyday wok)? - less than 1 day - 1 day days - up to one week - moe than one week - had to say 129

131 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 43. Geneally speaking, how effective, in you opinion, can the following activities / methods be as a means of suppoting pofessional development of the staff of Local Councils in Malta? Please evaluate thei effectiveness on scale fom 1 to 5, whee 1 indicate that the activity / method is not effective at all and 5 means that activity is vey effective not effective vey effective had Paticipation in seminas and confeences Paticipation in wokshops Long-tem qualification couses Receiving manuals and othe pinted infomation / mateials Shaing expeience with colleagues fom othe localities Shaing expeience with colleagues fom othe counties Diect consultations with an expet on specific issues Leaning fom best pactices Paticipation in open meetings / discussions with othe pofessionals Othe please specify? Please think about YOUR pofessional COMPETENCIES and honestly ty to evaluate them in elation to the following aeas using the scale of 1 to 5 whee 1 = lack of competence in a given field and 5 = pofound competence (expet knowledge). (1 = lack of competence 5 = pofound competence ): to say Had to say 1. Administative law / pocedues 2. Pocuement egulations 3. Financial pocedues 4. Accounting 5. Geneal legal famewok 6. Custome / public elations 7. Team wok 8. Conflict esolution and negotiations 9. Pefomance management 10. Public sevices delivey 11. Regional development 12. Envionmental potection 13. Tanspaency and public ethics 14. Stategic planning 15. Human ights 16. Pofessional communication 17. Compute skills 18. Foeign languages 19. Coopeation with NGOs 20. Social policies and sevices 130

132 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 45. Consideing the list of competence aeas pesented above, please select up to 5 taining subjects most impotant fo you pofessional development. Please ente the elevant numbe code accoding to subject, ex: 4 fo accounting : If thee is any othe impotant taining aea, that in you opinion should be consideed in the national taining stategy fo Local Councils in Malta please descibe it 47. If the taining would be offeed to you, how much would you tust the following institutions? Please indicate you level of tust using scale of 1 to 5 whee 1 = no tust at all and 5 = complete tust in that taining povide: no tust at all complete tust had to say Univesity Local Councils Association Association of Executive Secetaies Intenational oganizations / companies Maltese pivate companies (taining povides) Depatment fo Local Govenment NGOs Individual consultants Othe institution - please THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING THE QUESTIONNAIRE! 131

133 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT TNA inteviews guidelines used in Malta (2014) 1. Desciption of poblems associated with management in a local councils and of the ways in which they may be ovecome (35-45 minutes) What ae the majo poblems the local councils ae facing? (IDI: this paticula council) Which of these poblems ae the most impotant fom the pespective of esidents eveyday life and which of them ae mainly a poblem to local authoities? How do local councils ty to solve these poblems? What effots have aleady been made and what actions ae planned? Which of the above poblems may be esolved though actions taken by local councils and which poblems ae solved with little o no influence of local councils? What is the main facto of local councils effectiveness in esolving the poblems mentioned above? (Note! Ask also how possible effots ae peceived in the context of feeling esponsible fo the esidents (egadless of the legislation) and in the context of thinking in tems of effective management) (Analysis of local councils actions in the context of planning) How do local authoities appoach the esolution of the most citical poblems? Have they defined any clea and specific objectives fo thei actions? Do they have a plan of these activities? (ad-hoc vs. planned activities) Is thee a local councils development stategy (vision) available? If so, how was it developed? What goups paticipated in its development (executive boad, councilos, esidents)? What ae the main objectives of this stategy? If the espondent has not given spontaneous answes: What was the esidents ole in the pepaation of the development stategy? Have the objectives of the development stategy been tanslated into wok plans? What ae the aeas tageted in these plans and in what aeas ae they being implemented? Ae these plans, and to what extent, eflected in the gmina budget? Does the local govenment use multi-yea financial and capital investment planning? If so, what does it consist in? What management mechanisms (pocedues) ae used by the local govenment with espect to the popety, human esouces, social sevices and municipal sevices? Do the local authoities have any and what kind of infomation on the state of business activity in thei juisdiction? Do the local authoities suppot business activity? How do they do it? Have they taken any actions to suppot the establishment of new business entities? What wee the most seious poblems encounteed? Do local authoities make any effots to attact potential inwad and local investos? Who coodinates these activities? Who designs them? What do they consist in? Does the espondent think it is possible to enhance the effectiveness of the management and financing of public sevices? How can it be achieved? What ae the majo poblems in the wok of the local council office? What kind of poblems ae they and how ae they tackled? 132

134 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Does the local council have pocedues fo contacts with the esidents? What ae these pocedues? Do the local authoities, in what way and how often, use the opinions of local community epesentatives when making decisions (what decisions?) 2. The existing taining expeiences and attitudes to leaning (15-20 minutes) Have the staff of the local council office and councilos paticipated in any taining ove the past yea? What was the subject of this taining? How did they join that taining? Whose initiative was it, what was the souce of infomation on taining and the main eason fo paticipation? What kind of taining do the local govenment staff and council membes most often paticipate in? WHO takes pat in this taining? Is the taining of local council employees and council membes in any way planned in advance? If so, who pepaes such a plan? Who appoves the taining plan? Whee do the employees find infomation on taining? Ae these souces of infomation satisfactoy? Why do the employees and council membes paticipate in taining (if they do! ASK ALSO about thei eal motivation!!) Does the employees and council membes paticipation in taining eally contibute to impoved opeation of the local govenment office and consequently to bette living standads in (place name)? 3. Peception of taining needs What kind of taining is needed in tems to impove pefomance of local council? Who should be tained and what should be the scope of taining? What taining fo local govenment employees and council membes is the most valuable in tems of using the acquied knowledge to impove local govenment management? What ae the most impotant taining needs of the local council what kind of knowledge it lacks fo effective management? Have special funds been set aside in the local council budget fo taining the employees? What is the amount of these funds? Is it sufficient? 133

135 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT APPENDIX 2 Case study: Taining Needs Assessment of Local Administation in Poland (2016) 27 TNA FINAL REPORT (Poland, 2016) An Effective Local Govenment Office Developing pesonnel competence to build efficient local administation 27 This epot was pepaed by Cezay Tutkowski based on the eseach conducted by the Foundation in Suppot of Local Democacy unde the poject implemented in coopeation with the Council of Euope Cente of Expetise fo Local Govenment Refom 134

136 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT 1. Intoductoy comments The natue of factos which constain the effective pefomance of local administation obviously detemines the scope and type of effots which ae equied to popel institutional development. In ode fo this pocess to be effective and efficient, we need pio in-depth analysis of the context in which local administation opeates. This kind of analysis should focus on identifying systemic baies to development, and on assessing the competencies of local govenment pesonnel and the esultant taining needs. Among othes, this kind of analysis should include the following aspects: - Legal and institutional famewok of local govenance, in paticula the degee of decentalisation of public authoities as well as legal egulations detemining the scope of powes in the hands of local govenment; - Consistency of the legal system, possibility fo local govenment bodies to execise thei ights, consistency of legal supevision ove the opeations of local administation; - Economic context of the opeation of local govenment; - Oganisational pactices applied in local govenment offices, collaboation between local govenment units, systems to monito local govenance, to assess efficacy and quality of sevices povided; - Status and quality of local govenment pesonnel as well as human esouces management pactices applied. Any diagnosis of the opeation of local govenment should also incopoate the social pespective: local govenments pefom a specific ange of public tasks, with citizens (membes of specific local communities) being thei diect addessees. When analysing the opeation of local administation, one should not neglect the eflection on the local living conditions, the quality of sevices povided o the natue of local social needs. This document attempts to diagnose some of the afoementioned elements. It pesents selected eseach findings concening the context of day-to-day opeations of local govenment offices at the municipal level (Polish: gmina). In the suvey and inteviews conducted with local govenment leades consideable attention was paid to the management of competence development among local govenment pesonnel, the existing quality assessment tools and factos which detemine taining needs of local govenment pesonnel. It should be stessed that the eseach was conducted with the belief that the needs elated to development of competencies among local govenment pesonnel ae not necessaily identical with the taining postulates expessed by the espondents. The needs of an oganisation (a local govenment office) as a whole may go beyond the expectations haboued by individual officials because officials do not always ealise the context of specific poblems o even the existence of cetain poblems. This phenomenon was aptly illustated by Jezy Regulski in his memois: [At the stat of the local govenment efom] we had a lot of assistance fom vaious souces ( ). A vey nice man came and helped us actively thoughout the yea. Howeve, afte one yea, anothe man was sent to us and he thought he knew eveything but we knew nothing. Instead of discussing things with us and ageeing on an assistance plan, he 135

137 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT decided to un a needs assessment. He stated tavelling aound Poland, asking voits and councillos what they didn t know and would like to lean. But, at that time, the people at ou local govenment had not yet eached a level whee they knew what they didn t know. That made no sense. If you want to answe that kind of question, you need to be able to detemine the scope of knowledge to be acquied, assess what you aleady know and only then detemine what should be leant. 28 Obviously, the situation looks diffeent at pesent, moe than 25 yeas late, whee the ebon local govenment has a tack ecod of its wok. Leades have expanded thei awaeness, officials competencies have impoved and challenges faced by local administation have changed. The development of taining sevices fo local govenment clealy shows that thee ae taining needs and that they ae often addessed and met. Nevetheless, taining expectations expessed by local govenment officials do not always coespond with the developmental challenges faced by local govenment units (LGUs). The efficiency and pefomance of local administation may deviate fom stakeholdes expectations due to many vaied extenal factos (such as the legal and institutional famewok, histoical backgound, economic factos etc.) o it may be connected with extenal consideations such as weaknesses in management of a local govenment unit 29 o motivating factos (fo instance, local govenment jobs may not be peceived as attactive, o the atmosphee at the office would discouage people fom being committed and efficient). Only some of those consideations may be obvious and noticed by the staff of LGUs (o, moe boadly, by epesentatives of local administation). Fo this eason, we cannot always speak of complete ovelap between taining expectations and taining needs. In the light of these comments we should point out that a diagnosis of taining needs among local govenment pesonnel should always be pat of an oveall analysis of the situation of a specific LGU o a paticula local secto of public administation. Oveall, it should be accompanied by a summay of legal and institutional consideations in which local administation opeates, and a desciption of the desiable model of this system. In the Euopean context, the key document which lays down the key pinciples in this egad is the Euopean Chate of Local Self-Govenment, adopted in Stasboug in 1985, and atified by Poland in full (among few membe states of the Council of Euope) on 26 Apil One of the key povisions of the Chate is the pinciple of subsidiaity (Aticle 4.3): Public esponsibilities shall geneally be execised, in pefeence, by those authoities which ae closest to the citizen. Allocation of esponsibility to anothe authoity should weigh up the extent and natue of the task and equiements of efficiency and economy. ). Moeove, in the context of eseach findings pesented in this document, the following povisions of the Chate ae paticulaly notewothy: - Local self-govenment denotes the ight and the ability of local authoities, within the limits of the law, to egulate and manage a substantial shae of public affais unde thei own esponsibility and in the inteests of the local population. (Aticle 3.1) 28 Jezy Regulski Życie splecione z histoią [Life intetwined with Histoy]; Wocław: Zakład Naodowy im. Ossolińskich, 2014; p Fo instance, wong wok oganisation, incompetence of some membes of local administation, faulty pocedues in local institutions, financial poblems elated to mismanagement of esouces, limited human esouces etc. 30 The Chate became effective on 1 Mach

138 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT - Whee powes ae delegated to them by a cental o egional authoity, local authoities shall, insofa as possible, be allowed discetion in adapting thei execise to local conditions. (Aticle 4.5) - The conditions of sevice of local govenment employees shall be such as to pemit the ecuitment of high-quality staff on the basis of meit and competence; to this end adequate taining oppotunities, emuneation and caee pospects shall be povided. (Aticle 6.2) - Local authoities shall be entitled, within national economic policy, to adequate financial esouces of thei own, of which they may dispose feely within the famewok of thei powes. (Aticle 9.1) - Local authoities' financial esouces shall be commensuate with the esponsibilities povided fo by the constitution and the law. (Aticle 9.2) 2. Infomation about the eseach pefomed The eseach compised two components: - A suvey among secetaies of local govenment units at the municipality (gmina) level; - Individual in-depth inteviews with local govenment leades. The suvey and the inteviews wee conducted in late 2015 and ealy 2016 by the Foundation in Suppot of Local Democacy (FRDL) in collaboation with the Cente of Expetise fo Local Govenment Refom at the Council of Euope. The eseach methodology and eseach instuments wee developed by Cezay Tutkowski. A suvey among LGU secetaies The suvey was pefomed using the CAWI technique (Compute Assisted Web Inteviews), with a questionnaie sent to secetaies of local govenment units. Invitations to take pat in the suvey wee sent to all municipalities in Poland (a total of 2,479). The questionnaies wee opened in 1,914 local offices but not all of them poceeded to complete the suvey. Following multiple emindes and an intensive pomotional campaign co-odinated by egional FRDL centes, the following wee etuned: - 1,557 fully completed questionnaies, and questionnaies at diffeent stages of pogess towads completion. Finally, 1,703 questionnaies wee classified fo analysis, which epesents 68.7% of the population of municipal LGUs in Poland. 137

139 Taining Needs Analysis & National Taining Stategies TOOLKIT Chat 1: Suvey completion at LGUs The suvey was mostly completed by secetaies of local offices but also a small numbe of othe membes of LGU staff wee among the espondents, e.g. heads of depatments and deputy heads of LGUs. In-depth inteviews with local govenment leades The qualitative component consisted of 15 individual in-depth inteviews with local govenment leades: voits and mayos (Polish: wójt, bumistz/pezydent miasta). The espondents wee selected on the basis of thei activities outside thei espective units. Theefoe, this goup included activists of local govenment oganisations, winnes of vaious contests and ankings, and wellknown figues of the local govenment community. The espondents manage small ual municipalities, medium-sized towns and majo uban agglomeations. While woking unde a simila legal famewok, they opeate on a vaious scale, which of couse, may influence thei peception and assessment of vaious phenomena. Significant diffeences in opinions aising fom the pofile of LGUs headed by the espondents wee highlighted in the analytical pat of the pesent document. Obviously, espondents comments quoted below ae not epesentative fo the entie population of local govenment leades in Poland. Nevetheless, this does not undemine the value of these eseach findings since in-depth inteviews do not aim at collecting epesentative opinions but, athe, at econstucting assessments, ways of thinking and views existing among a specific social goup. Some of the pesented statements may seem contovesial. Howeve, it is impotant to bea in mind that thei authos have consideable local govenment expeience and high manageial competencies. The espondents statements have been anonymised as a pecondition to hold open, sincee and tuly in-depth inteviews. 138