The 'go to' organisation for Local Government improvement in Scotland

What is the Change Managers Network?

The Change Management Team at the Improvement Service leads and facilitates the Change Managers Network which is open to all local government and wider public sector colleagues with an interest in change and transformation. It provides a safe environment for local government and other public sector colleagues to keep up to date with practice, share knowledge, ideas, lessons and experience. We also facilitate and encourage the development of connections across the system to enable sharing of practice. Furthermore, we carry out research and analysis on topics that are of relevance to councils.

Change Managers Network online collaboration

The network uses the Knowledge Hub as an online space to collaborate. Within our Knowledge Hub group we have;

• Relevant change and transformation documentation such as Council change and transformation plans. We also summarise Best Value Audits and highlight key messages for change and transformation. This means these are in a central place for ease of access.
• There is the opportunity for members to ask others in the network for their own experiences and insights in relation to change and transformation. Questions are varied and can cover topics including hybrid working to programme management within organisations for example.
• We have various tools and resources in our online space to support change and transformation in your own organisation, these include topics such as managing stakeholders to project planning.
• We publish regular updates within the online space to highlight relevant recently published documents, links to events and promote any queries that have come through the network.

If you want to join the online collaboration space of the Change Managers Network, then simply visit the Knowledge Hub and sign up.

Change Managers Network events

As well as our online collaboration space, the Change Management Team at the Improvement Service hosts regular online Change Managers Network events. Our events are primarily for Scottish local authority colleagues to come together to discuss pertinent topics and then have the opportunity to share practice. Our topics are informed by those in the network and usually involve a presentation and then a focused discussion to share learning and practice. Over the last year we have had presentations from councils sharing their practice; a focus on climate change; focus on Audit Scotland’s Overview of Local Government Report; considered change and transformation resource in councils and how it’s used to meet deliverables. We regularly engage with the network to understand which topics are of most interest and ask that any colleagues with good practice share with the network. Outputs from our Change Managers Network events can all be found online in our Knowledge Hub group.

If you would like to be added to the invite list for these events, please email us at: changemanagement@improvementservice.org.uk