19 minute read
Huw Morris finds
LIFE AT THE TOP
THE END GOAL OF MANY A CAREER IN PLANNING IS TO HEAD A LOCAL AUTHORITY PLANNING TEAM. HUW MORRIS FINDS OUT WHAT BEING A CHIEF PLANNER INVOLVES
After a decade of stringent cuts, for planning and building control. “Dealing with fi nancial straitjackets, constantly the strategic to the minutiae – when a member changing legislation and hamstringing has an issue it doesn’t matter how small or of planning’s infl uence, one question big it may seem, it needs to be dealt with and stands out. Who would want to head a dealt with properly. It involves meeting, liaising, local authority planning department? discussing and negotiating with a whole range of
Th e answer is plenty of people, with job bodies, be they major investors through strategic satisfaction a huge draw. Bath and North East developments, to extensions and alterations of Somerset Council development residents or commercial business, and public protection director Lisa Bartlett speaks for many of her contemporaries of the sense of accomplishment from seeing her work come to life. “If you are really interested in the environment, people, and how they are managed within fi nite resources, “PLANNERS ARE MASTER JACKS OF ALL TRADES – THE ONE ROLE THAT HAS TO LOOK ACROSS THE PIECE or dealing with objectors. Th ey are all important,” she adds. “It also involves leading specialist groups of staff that are progressing development applications or shaping future policies refl ecting the political organisation, and how these polices are shaped to refl ect it’s one of those jobs where you can s on AND INVOLVE local circumstances.” have a real impact,” she says. have a EVERYBODY”
“You can see the results of your “You Taking the lead actions on the ground. People have actions o Th is raises two issues for chief a home to live in, they have jobs and a home to planners. Leadership is the fi rst. “It’s the infrastructure to get around. It’s the infrastr the opposite of heroic leadership,” one of those roles that develops over one of those says Nottingham City Council time and you can see over time the results of your time and you planning and regeneration director Paul Seddon. actions, whether it’s policymaking, plan-making or actions, wheth “By its nature planning is fundamentally the decision-making side.” the decision-m collaborative. It’s about stepping up to the mark,
However, before the satisfaction comes graft. However, befo being visible, being visionary, negotiating across What does the job of a local authority chief s the joWhat doe the authority and with external government, planner actually involve? ctually inplanner a building relationships and partnerships, asking
“Everything,” says Victoria Geoghegan, the hing,” say“Everyt questions, infl uencing – not just the plans but that London Borough of Greenwich’s assistant director orough of GLondon B people can use planning to fi nd answers.”
P A U L SEDDON
Director of planning and regeneration, Nottingham City Council
L I S A L I S A BARTLETT B A RTLE T T
Director of irector of development and velopment and public protection, lic protection, Bth and North East and North East Someret Council ret Council
R U S S E L L HUGHES-PICKERING K E R I N G
Corporate lead officer: Economy and nomy and regeneration, Ceredigion County Council unty Council
VICTORIA VICTORIA GEOGHEGAN G E OGHEGA N
Assistant director, Assistant director, planning and building planning and building control, London Borough control, London Borough of Greenwich of Greenwich
>> ARE YOU HAPPY WITH
Th e second issue is politics. “It’s a political role and a political environment we work in,” says Bartlett. “You need to be aware of that and what the YOUR CAREER PATH? implications are. You need to provide professional advice to the council and councillors and appreciate it’s their prerogative not to agree with you – and you have to be able to cope with that.”
An everyday example is a planning committee rejecting offi cers’ advice, she acknowledges. “Th e key is to have clear codes of conduct which everybody understands and it’s really important to develop a good working relationship with councillors so you can have those robust YES conversations so that everybody knows where they stand. We are on the same team but we have diff erent roles within the organisation.” Russell Hughes-Pickering, Ceredigion County 69% NO Council’s corporate lead offi cer for economy and regeneration, says planners need to “be politically 31% astute and look above plans and policies”. Th is means understanding the organisation, their role in delivering corporate objectives and thinking strategically “so they see how they fi t in across the Source: The Planner Careers Survey 2020 board and in turn help deliver better services and better places for people”.
“Th e more I’ve been involved in preparing corporate plans or the council’s development have a head of planning reporting directly to the chief executive. Nine per out more at bit.ly/planner0220-CPT programme, the easier it is to see, infl uence and Th is raises another question. Should the head of ensure planning is involved at the right time. planning be at the council’s top table as the RTPI Th is has helped avoid issues when major projects argues? Opinions diff er, depending on the size of go through their planning stage, whether that’s the council. a town centre development, a change to a care “If you are a district council, you need a planner home or a new school. Fortunately, I’m involved at your top table because planning is often the in an excellent leadership group where the culture most important thing a council is doing to impact focuses on improvement and helping each other to on that place,” says Seddon. However, that is not achieve better services.” necessarily the case at a big unitary body as long as “the leadership and chief executive can appreciate the role planning can play in helping to deliver the WHAT THE RTPI IS DOING priorities with a strong planning department”. Th e RTPI is campaigning for heads of planning to be incorporated into organisation has a full understanding of planning local authority senior leadership teams, amid fears of a declining profi le and placemaking, the head of planning has a voice, and diminishing corporate presence of spatial planning. Research by the is listened to and has the opportunities to infl uence institute has revealed that only 23 per cent of UK and Irish local authorities political leaders”. cent have no clearly defi ned head of planning at all. Dealing with constraints
A second study into the corporate and strategic infl uence of planning As with every job, there are downsides. An everin local authorities found that a chief planning offi cer at the top table “can present constraint is ‘doing more with less’, a provide a long-term vision, engagement with communities and certainty mantra chanted by several chiefs after the extensive for development”. cuts experienced by planning departments in the
Later this year, the RTPI will launch HOPE: Heads of Planning past decade. Bartlett admits it was “horrible to Everywhere, an annual summit of planning chiefs from across England, see what it was doing to our ability to plan for the Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to discuss best practice, future but also horrible for the people having to do making the case for resourcing planning and for putting planning at the the cuts and those losing their jobs”. heart of local government delivery. In the face of such problems a positive attitude
An RTPI initiative that will continue is Chief Planners of Tomorrow, is crucial, she adds, and to keep helping. “Th e key where young planners to shadow a chief planning offi cer for a day to is to keep communicating about outcomes and understand the everyday challenges and opportunities at senior level. Find explain the process that needs to be gone through Geoghegan says what is important is “the
38%
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT PROVIDED BY YOUR EMPLOYER?
62%
I am happy that my current employer provides me with good opportunities to develop as a planner and progress my career
I don’t feel that my current employer off ers me enough opportunities to develop as planner and progress my career
>> ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR PROGRESS TOWARDS YOUR DEVELOPMENT GOALS?
YES 74%
NO 26%
to get there rather than tell people what to do. In a nutshell, we are an arbiter in the public interest of confl icts over the use of land, which is a fi nite resource. We’re here to help, not stop.”
Another bugbear is constantly changing legislation and policy. Several chief planners note that they used a handful of books and guidance notes when they started their careers but now need to fi ll up several bookcases.
What advice would chief planners give their younger colleagues with an eye on the summit?
Russell Hughes-Pickering wants to see more authorities improve arrangements on major development projects by setting up corporate development and project management groups and involve planners in them. “Young planners should get involved in these as much as possible so they’re involved in a wide range of service improvements, embrace projects or new development, seek ways to help progress and improve them, and engage in a positive way.”
“Get as much varied experience as you can as early on in your career as possible,” says Geoghegan, while Bartlett urges tyro planners to “try everything – policy, development management, enforcement, get involved in development and how it evolves, help applicants and agents as much as you can and keep learning on the job”.
Which all leads back to that crucial sense of accomplishment. “It’s the best job in the world,
SKILLS OF A CHIEF PLANNER
A paper by the Planning Offi cers Society published in December outlines the key skills of a chief planner. Th ey are: n Negotiation n Interpersonal skills n Working collaboratively n Strategist skills n Commercial and fi nancial awareness n Relationship builder and infl uencer n Analysis n Knowing who to bring in n Share and escalate information n Taking opportunities
Source: bit.ly/ planner0220-POS
without being too dramatic about it,” says Seddon. “Planners are master jacks of all trades – the one role that has to look across the piece and involve everybody to make the best decisions. decisions
“If you spend a bit of time somewhere, you somewhere, you get to see the fruits of your and your team’s and your team’s labours, whether through decisions, policies ecisions, policies or supplementary planning documents on the g documents on the buildings getting built, the public realm being public realm being improved, schools getting extended or people g extended or people having homes. Why would you want to do ld you want to do anything else?”
THE F E E L G O O D FACTOR
EMPLOYERS ARE FACING GREATER EXPECTATIONS THAT THEY WILL PROVIDE FOR STAFF WELLBEING IN THE WORKPLACE. HOW DOES PLANNING FARE? SERENA RALSTON FINDS OUT
Wellbeing in the workplace is a hot topic – not least because employers are under scrutiny as never before through social media and employer review websites.
But what do we mean by wellbeing? In a workplace context it appears to cover an array of benefi ts, from free coff ee and fruit to ‘mental fi rst-aiders’ and access to counselling services. However, the impact of much of what we refer to as support for wellbeing is debatable – for example, research cited below suggests that, even as awareness is growing, work-related mental health problems are on the rise.
According to business charity Business in the Community, wellbeing is “the mutually supportive relationship between an individual’s mental, physical, social and fi nancial health and their personal wellbeing”. It argues that businesses should take “a whole organisation approach to embedding wellbeing into an organisational culture” to achieve “maximum impact” from any wellbeing initiatives. Th e ultimate goal should be “thriving people, thriving business and thriving communities”.
Generally, it seems, the components of wellbeing are split into physical (i.e. the physical working environment) and mental (i.e. the impacts of organisational culture, workload, team dynamics, career pathways, and so on).
Th e argument is that when employees are ‘happy’, they perform better and this has numerous knock-on eff ects for their employer, from increasing output to boosting recruitment drives.
How does planning fare as a profession? Th e Planner Careers Survey asked several questions that relate to aspects of wellbeing. Th e responses give some insights into the conditions in which planners work, and their impact on mental health and physical comfort.
Th e survey found that a substantial minority of planners were dissatisfi ed across a range of workplace conditions. For example, 38 per cent of respondents felt that their employer did not off er enough opportunities to develop as a planner and progress their career.
Diff erences between private and public sector planners appear stark in some areas, as explored in our report on pages 4-5. For example, 34 per cent in the public sector said they feel that their employer does not value their team or department, as opposed to just 13 per cent in the private sector.
Across the survey, 57 per cent of planners said they thought that their team or department did not have the resources it needed to deliver its goals.
Comments left by respondents were telling and – bearing in mind that people are more likely to comment if they have something to get off their chest – reveals a sector under considerable pressure.
“Th e team is great but due to staffi ng cuts we’re overworked, under pressure constantly and facing constant negativity
from the outside world. Th is has a huge bearing on staff morale,” said a public sector planner in the East Midlands.
“We have no team. Each second of our day has to be charged to a client. No time to chat or do any training or research. Nothing but profi t. Staff welfare is zero,” noted a private sector planner in the South West
Th ese comments refl ect concerns that were repeatedly expressed. When it comes to wellbeing, the survey suggests that for a substantial minority of planners, the picture is far from rosy.
A platform for wellbeing
But planners are not alone in this. A 2018 health and wellbeing at work survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that signifi cantly more respondents (55 per cent) had reported an increase in common mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, among employees in the previous 12 months, compared with
2016 (41 per cent). Fewer than six in 10 (58 per cent) said their organisation was currently meeting the basic legal requirements for reducing stress in the workplace.
A recent mental health at work YouGov survey, conducted for Business in the Community and Mercer Marsh Benefi ts, revealed that 39 per cent of respondents said they had experienced a work-related mental health issue in 2019.
Th ere is patently far more to wellbeing at work than ping-pong, smoothies and slides. Neil Usher, author of Th e Elemental Workplace, a framework for creating a “fantastic” workplace for all, says there are three actors in wellbeing: “You, other people (whether you know them or not) and place: Th e actors exist in an interrelated and constantly changing dynamic. We need to address each – but understand that place can’t solve everything. A fantastic amenity-rich workplace won’t fi x a toxic culture.”
Usher says that much depends on the organisation and its stage of development. “Some organisations are immensely successful and engage their people while their workplace is relatively poor – because their vision, purpose and sense of potential impact is extremely high. People want to be there despite the workplace.”
But are today’s employees’ demands for a workplace that supports their wellbeing unrealistic?
Dr Riëtte Oosthuizen, who leads HTA Design LLP’s planning team, says
not. “We need to break down common perceptions that a concern about wellbeing has no place in a business aimed at making profi t. Investing in wellbeing adds extra operational costs but the benefi ts in terms of what you get back from a more positive attitude and staff satisfaction are substantial.”
HTA received a commitment level award under the London Healthy Workplace Charter in November 2017 in recognition of its eff orts relating to staff wellbeing, and it plans to renew this accreditation in 2020. Th e fi rm also holds the Investors in People accreditation.
Despite the results from Th e Planner’s survey, many public sector employers do place a stress on employee wellbeing. Laura Webster has split her 15-year planning career almost equally between the private and public sectors, and recently joined Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC). “Wellbeing boils down to the fact that unless you feel valued, trusted and supported you are not going to be happy or healthy at work,” she says. “Good employers in either the private sector or public realise this, and many local authorities are leading the way.”
Her own employer is an RTPI Learning Partner, a status recognised for its commitment to staff development. Jennie
Business in the Community says wellbeing is “the mutually supportive relationship between an individual’s mental, physical, social and fi nancial health and their personal wellbeing”
Selley, the council’s head of planning delivery, says: “Th ere’s no great mystery to a happy, healthy working environment. Colleagues at all levels should be valued, trusted and supported with all the tools and technology available.”
Doing this requires a concerted eff ort by the employer across a range of physical and mental comforts. HTA, for example, has introduced a raft of measures that include daily hot meals for staff , weekly CPD sessions and skills
masterclasses, fl exible working, and even offi ce yoga.
A deliberate investment
Oosthuizen says her practice is also working hard to stamp out the stigma of mental health problems in the workplace.
“We discuss this as part of our induction, providing training and support through colleagues trained as ‘mental health fi rst-aiders’. All staff can also access an employers assistance programme for
>> HOW HAPPY ARE YOU WITH YOUR PHYSICAL WORKING PHYSICAL WORKING ENVIRONMENT?ENVIRONMENT?
My physical working environment is good 41%
My physical working environment is ok 46%
My physical working environment is poor 13%
Yes, always
36%
Yes, sometimes
44%
No, not always
17%
No, never
3%
>> HOW VALUED IS YOUR TEAM OR DEPARTMENT WITHIN YOUR WITHIN YOUR ORGANISATION? ORGANISATION?
My team or department is not valued by my organisation 58%
My team of department is not valued by my organisation 28%
Other 14%
>> DO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM/DEPARTMENT HAS THE RESOURCES IT NEEDS THE RESOURCES ITNEEDS TO DELIVER ITS GOALS? TO DELIVER ITS GOALS?
Yes 43% No 57%
Source: The Planner Careers Survey 2020
counselling services if “WE NEED TO as a result (although needed.” Multidisciplinary consultancy WYG, which employs more than 100 planners, is also focusing on good mental health. It has newly trained mental health fi rst-aiders and has also signed up to the Time to Change Pledge, a campaign that BREAK DOWN COMMON PERCEPTIONS THAT A CONCERN ABOUT WELLBEING HAS NO PLACE IN A BUSINESS AIMED AT MAKING PROFIT” it’s worth noting that a number of comments in Th e Planner’s survey were critical of agile working). Selley says: “We make huge use of shared documents, videoconferencing and applications like Microsoft Teams. We no longer have a ‘bums on seats’ approach.” aims to change how Th e agile approach people think about appeals to Laura Webster. mental health problems. “As long as the work is done, Th e company promotes genuinely it is irrelevant fl exible working, whether I am working a off ering extended leave initiatives and strict 9-5 in the main council offi ces, a encouraging staff to take volunteering satellite one, or at home, provided I am days. contactable and responsive.”
Central Bedfordshire Council, Th e council’s planning teams have meanwhile, has focused on tackling also benefi ted from its own Planning presenteeism, which, according to the Academy, originally set up in response CIPD, is a major cause of anxiety and to a national shortage of planners. Each depression in the workplace. Th e whole year the academy takes on a cohort of organisation has moved to an agile trainees, each of whom is assigned a ‘working smarter’ model that embraces more senior planner as a mentor. Th e remote working, including working from positive eff ects of a mentoring culture home. Staff , it says, are more productive have provided an unexpected benefi t.
Deliberate investment in strategies that support wellbeing at work clearly pays off . Neil Usher says: “Healthier, fi tter, happier people are likely to produce better work and feel a greater association with their organisation and its purpose. Th ey are likely to want to do their job well and to enjoy doing it. It’s a simple proposition.”
Gary Morris, a director at WYG, agrees that this is not just ethically desirable, but builds a stronger platform for business success. To be eff ective, however, requires a ‘whole organisation’ approach.
“Employee wellbeing stems from a culture where everything lines up to support it,” says Morris. “Initiatives like yoga, encouraging healthy eating, and employee assistance programmes are important, but they can’t transform a culture on their own. Managers need to step up as the keepers of openness and empathy within their business. It’s part of every company’s responsibility.”
n Serena Ralston is a freelance journalist specialising in planning and the built environment
