Public Sector Administrative Law and Decision Making Training Course

Course overview

Public-sector decisions on licensing, grants, benefits, enforcement, procurement exclusions, regulatory action and service eligibility are routinely tested for legality, procedural fairness and evidential support. A decision may be operationally sensible yet still fail because the authority misunderstood its powers, considered an irrelevant factor, gave inadequate reasons, fettered discretion or did not create an auditable record. This course helps officials make defensible decisions before complaints, ombudsman investigations, appeals or judicial review expose weaknesses in the process.

Participants examine the administrative-law controls that govern public bodies: statutory powers and duties, lawful purpose, relevant considerations, legitimate expectation, natural justice, proportionality, reasonableness, delegation and remedies. They learn to structure an issue file, identify the applicable legal test, manage consultation and representations, assess evidence, document conflicts of interest, write reasoned decision notices and respond to internal reviews. The emphasis is on translating legal principles into repeatable decision-making steps for front-line and policy-facing public-sector work.

Delivery combines instructor-led legal analysis with realistic public-authority scenarios, including a contested grant refusal, a regulatory enforcement decision and an eligibility review. Participants use decision records, evidence matrices, procedural checklists and reason-giving templates, then receive facilitated critique against administrative-law standards. Each participant leaves with a completed Decision Legality and Reasons Pack: a decision map, evidence and considerations matrix, procedural plan, draft decision notice and personal action plan for adapting the materials to their organisation.

The course is designed for experienced public-sector professionals who already contribute to decisions or advise decision-makers and need a disciplined method for reducing challenge risk without turning routine administration into unnecessary legal process.

Course objectives

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

• Interpret statutory powers, duties and limits to define the lawful scope of an administrative decision
• Apply a legality checklist to identify improper purpose, irrelevant considerations, fettered discretion and delegation risks
• Construct an evidence and considerations matrix that separates material facts, policy factors and excluded matters
• Plan procedurally fair consultations, hearings and representation processes using a natural-justice workflow
• Assess proportionality and reasonableness through structured balancing and alternative-options analysis
• Draft reasoned decision notices that explain findings, legal authority, discretion, evidence and review rights
• Create an auditable decision record using file notes, conflict declarations, version control and retention controls
• Respond to complaints, internal reviews and judicial-review pre-action correspondence with a defensible case file

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Public Sector Decision Makers — who approve or refuse applications, permissions, grants, benefits or regulatory actions
• Policy Officers — who design schemes and guidance that must operate within statutory powers and public-law duties
• Regulatory and Enforcement Officers — who issue notices, sanctions or compliance decisions that may be challenged
• Licensing and Permitting Officers — who assess applications and must provide lawful, intelligible reasons
• Legal and Governance Advisers — who review decision processes, delegated powers and challenge-risk controls
• Complaints and Review Managers — who investigate contested decisions and coordinate reconsideration or appeal responses

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience of public-sector administration, such as assessing applications, advising decision-makers, drafting policy or handling complaints and reviews. They should be able to read internal policies, statutory extracts and case summaries, and should understand their organisation’s basic approval and record-keeping process. Familiarity with concepts such as delegated authority, consultation and conflict of interest is helpful, but detailed prior study of administrative law is not required. No legal qualification, case-law database subscription or specialist legal software is needed. Participants should bring an anonymised decision type or process they want to improve.

Training methodology

An instructor with public-law decision-making experience leads short legal briefings followed by worked analysis of statutes, policies, evidence bundles and decision records. Participants test each principle against public-sector scenarios, working individually and in small groups to identify risks, plan fair procedures and draft reasons. Facilitated peer review compares alternative approaches to discretion and proportionality. On the final day, each participant applies the tools to an anonymised workplace decision type and develops an implementation plan for their team’s templates, approvals and review routes.

Course outline

Day 1: Public authority powers and lawful decision scope

• Sources of public authority: statutes, regulations, schemes and published policies
• Mandatory duties, discretionary powers and implied powers
• Jurisdiction, delegation and sub-delegation controls
• Lawful purpose and improper-purpose analysis
• Relevant and irrelevant considerations mapping
• Fettering discretion through policies, guidance and standard wording
• Decision chronology and file-opening requirements

Workshop: Participants analyse a grant-refusal scenario and produce a powers-and-considerations map identifying the lawful decision-maker, authority and constraints.

Day 2: Fair procedure, consultation and participation

• Natural justice and the duty to act fairly
• Notice content, disclosure obligations and meaningful opportunity to respond
• Oral hearings, written representations and procedural choice
• Bias, apparent bias and conflict-of-interest declarations
• Legitimate expectation from promises, past practice and published guidance
• Consultation design: timing, questions, evidence and response analysis
• Managing urgent decisions and proportionate procedural safeguards

Workshop: Participants design a fair-process plan for a contested licensing decision and produce a notice, representation timetable and conflict-control checklist.

Day 3: Evidence, judgement and proportionality

• Evidence relevance, reliability, weight and sufficiency
• Fact finding under administrative decision standards
• Separating findings of fact from evaluative judgement
• Reasonableness and irrationality risk assessment
• Proportionality: legitimate aim, rational connection, necessity and fair balance
• Alternative-options analysis and mitigating measures
• Evidence and considerations matrix construction

Workshop: Participants evaluate an enforcement case file and produce an evidence matrix, proportionality analysis and recommended regulatory response.

Day 4: Reasons, records and review-ready decisions

• Elements of an adequate statement of reasons
• Linking legal authority, evidence, policy and conclusion
• Addressing material representations and contrary evidence
• Writing conditions, sanctions and remedial requirements
• Decision notices, review rights and appeal-route wording
• Contemporaneous file notes, records retention and version control
• Quality assurance review using a decision legality checklist

Workshop: Participants redraft a flawed eligibility decision notice and produce a reasoned notice supported by an auditable decision record.

Day 5: Challenge response and workplace implementation

• Complaint, reconsideration, appeal and judicial-review pathways
• Grounds of challenge: illegality, procedural unfairness and irrationality
• Pre-action correspondence and preserving the decision record
• Remedies, quashing, reconsideration and practical consequences
• Internal escalation criteria and legal-advice referral points
• Decision assurance dashboards and recurring-error analysis
• Decision Legality and Reasons Pack implementation planning

Workshop: Participants complete a simulated review response and finalise a workplace Decision Legality and Reasons Pack with actions, owners and quality controls.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat Pro, ISO 15489-1

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