Executive Management for Public Sector Directors Training Course

Course overview

Public sector directors operate where political priorities, statutory duties, service-user expectations and constrained budgets meet. They must translate ministerial, board and corporate-plan commitments into deliverable programmes while maintaining propriety, transparency and public confidence. This course addresses the practical challenge of leading across departmental boundaries, making defensible decisions with incomplete information, and maintaining delivery momentum when scrutiny, risk and stakeholder interests intensify.

Participants learn how to set an executive management agenda, align directorate plans with organisational outcomes, and use performance evidence to intervene early. The course covers governance design, delegated authority, strategic risk oversight, benefits realisation, financial stewardship, workforce capability and stakeholder management. Directors practise using tools including RACI matrices, balanced scorecards, risk appetite statements, decision logs, options appraisals and escalation routes to lead complex public services with clearer accountability.

Teaching combines facilitated executive briefings with realistic public-sector cases, board-level simulations and structured peer challenge. Participants work on a directorate scenario throughout the week, testing decisions against governance, affordability, equality, operational delivery and reputational risk. They leave with an Executive Directorate Management Action Plan containing a performance dashboard outline, stakeholder map, risk escalation approach, decision-rights model and 90-day implementation priorities that can be adapted for their own organisation.

The course is designed for experienced public sector managers moving into, or already operating at, director and assistant director level. It is particularly valuable for leaders responsible for multi-disciplinary services, transformation portfolios, regulated delivery environments or politically visible programmes.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Design a directorate operating model using decision rights, RACI roles and governance forums
• Translate strategic public-service outcomes into measurable directorate objectives and balanced scorecard measures
• Construct a risk appetite statement and escalation thresholds for strategic service risks
• Evaluate policy and investment options using a structured options appraisal and public-value criteria
• Lead performance review meetings using trend analysis, exception reporting and corrective-action logs
• Develop a stakeholder engagement plan for elected members, regulators, partner agencies and service users
• Apply benefits-realisation methods to track whether transformation initiatives achieve intended outcomes
• Produce a 90-day Executive Directorate Management Action Plan with priorities, owners and milestones

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Public Sector Directors — who need to lead complex services while balancing outcomes, governance and affordability
• Assistant Directors — who are preparing to assume wider strategic and corporate leadership responsibilities
• Heads of Service — who manage multiple teams and must convert organisational strategy into accountable delivery
• Programme Directors — who lead transformation portfolios requiring cross-agency decisions and benefits control
• Chief Officers — who need consistent management disciplines across high-profile or regulated service areas
• Senior Policy and Strategy Managers — who must connect policy intent with operational feasibility and performance evidence

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have management experience in a public body, local authority, agency, regulator, healthcare organisation, university or comparable public-service setting. They should already understand basic budgeting, organisational structures, performance reporting and risk registers, and be comfortable discussing live management issues with peers. Familiarity with Microsoft Excel and reading dashboard reports is useful because participants examine performance and risk data. Prior director-level experience is not required, nor are formal qualifications in finance, project management or public administration. This is an intermediate course for managers ready to work at executive-management level.

Training methodology

The five-day programme uses instructor-led executive management sessions anchored in public-sector delivery cases. Participants analyse board papers, performance dashboards, risk registers and investment proposals; then test their judgements in facilitated directorate leadership simulations. Small-group workshops apply RACI analysis, stakeholder mapping, options appraisal and benefits mapping to a realistic service challenge. Peer review sessions strengthen the quality of decisions and communications. Each participant develops and refines a 90-day Executive Directorate Management Action Plan, receiving instructor feedback against governance, delivery, financial and public-value criteria.

Course outline

Day 1: The public sector directorate as an executive system

• Public value, statutory duties and executive accountability
• Directorate operating models and service-delivery boundaries
• Decision rights, delegated authority and reserved matters
• RACI matrices for cross-functional accountability
• Governance forums, terms of reference and reporting cycles
• Corporate-plan alignment and directorate outcome statements
• Executive leadership behaviours under political and public scrutiny

Workshop: Participants diagnose a fictional directorate's unclear accountabilities and produce a RACI matrix with a revised governance forum structure.

Day 2: Performance, finance and delivery control

• Balanced scorecards for public-service outcomes
• Leading and lagging indicators in service performance
• Exception reporting and root-cause analysis
• Performance review meeting design and intervention logs
• Budget monitoring, forecast variance and affordability pressures
• Service-demand analysis and capacity assumptions
• Data quality checks for executive dashboards

Workshop: Participants review a deteriorating service dashboard, identify the priority causes and produce an executive performance intervention plan.

Day 3: Risk, assurance and defensible decisions

• ISO 31000 risk management principles
• Risk appetite statements and tolerance thresholds
• Strategic risk registers and control assurance
• Escalation criteria for operational and corporate risks
• Options appraisal using cost, impact, feasibility and risk
• Decision logs, audit trails and rationale records
• Equality, ethics and reputational considerations in executive decisions

Workshop: Participants conduct an options appraisal for a pressured public service decision and produce a recommendation with risk controls and decision rationale.

Day 4: Leading across systems and stakeholders

• Stakeholder mapping by influence, interest and impact
• Engagement strategies for elected members and boards
• Working with regulators, inspectors and assurance bodies
• Cross-agency partnership governance and shared outcomes
• Communicating difficult trade-offs to staff and service users
• Negotiation methods for competing organisational priorities
• Handling challenge, scrutiny and escalation conversations

Workshop: Participants prepare and deliver a stakeholder briefing on a contentious service change, then receive peer challenge from simulated partners and scrutiny members.

Day 5: Transformation, benefits and executive action planning

• Transformation portfolio prioritisation criteria
• Benefits maps and measurable benefit statements
• Benefits ownership, baselines and realisation reviews
• Programme dependencies and delivery assurance checkpoints
• Microsoft Excel and Power BI dashboard requirements
• Ninety-day executive management priorities
• Personal leadership commitments and sponsor conversations

Workshop: Participants complete and present an Executive Directorate Management Action Plan with dashboard measures, risks, stakeholders, owners and 90-day milestones.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, ISO 31000:2018 Risk Management, HM Treasury Green Book

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions