Memorandum by the Royal Town Planning
Institute[40]
SUMMARY OF
KEY POINTS
Skills development is a continuous
requirement. It is underpinned by education, which provides the
capacity to respond to changes (paragraphs 1 to 5).
One of the greatest problems lies
not in the supply of appropriate training but in the lack of demand
from local authoritiespressures on time and financial resources
often mean that training opportunities are not used (paragraphs
9 to 13).
Individuals are more committed to
ongoing professional development if they are part of a membership
body with mandatory CPD requirements. Encouraging or requiring
planning staff to take up professional membership is in the employer's
interest. Training needs should be determined between employers
and individuals (paragraphs 14 to 15).
Both changes in the planning system
and developments in knowledge and techniques are driving rapid
changes in skills requirements. Managerial competences are equally
significant (paragraphs 16 to 22).
Key areas for developing skills include
urban design, sustainable development, climate change, economic
development, enforcement and community engagement (paragraphs
23 to 31).
Elected member training should be
a requirement, including ongoing training. Formal training should
be backed up by opportunities for mutual learning. The focus should
not just be on development control but on what effective spatial
planning can achieve (paragraphs 32 to 35).
Elected Member Review Bodies are
a bad ideabut if they do go ahead then such bodies will
need access to independent professional advice (paragraph 36).
Central government needs to lead
the way in culture change, shifting to a focus on outcomes rather
than inputs. A key requirement for the sustainable communities
agenda is leadership skills. There needs to be research into the
skills we shall need for the future, not just for now (paragraphs
37 to 46).
The government must take a long-term
view on capacity-building so that we can respond to continuous
change (paragraphs 47 to 50).
Local authorities are in many cases
not able to meet existing skills needs, let alone longer term
developmental needs. The replacement of Planning Delivery Grant
by Housing and Planning Delivery Grant may make this worse (paragraphs
51 to 55).
INTRODUCTION AND
GENERAL POINTS
1. Changes in skills requirements are continuous.
This is a function of changes in policy, legislation, techniques
and our social, economic and environmental requirements. Professional
planners will need to learn new sets of skills several times over
in the course of their careers.
2. So thinking about skills needs is essentially
a long-term requirement. But there are some basic necessary constants
for ensuring that changing skills and knowledge needs can be met.
An education which covers the "why"
as well as the "what" and the "how"because
if we understand the why then we can develop the what and the
how as conditions change. All skills are underpinned by education
3. Initial professional education is and
should be primarily a matter between the university and the professional
body. RTPI and planning schools have made significant progress
in recent years in making accredited courses[41]
more accessible, affordable and relevant; and in making it easier
to introduce new courses. [see Annex A: Accredited courses and
Student Numbers]. In the last three years four "new"
universities (Glasgow, Kingston, Strathclyde and Cork) have found
it possible to enter the planning education market.
4. The role of the postgraduate student
bursaries offered by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and
subsequently the Department for communities and local Government
has been highly effective in supporting this effort, attracting
a very high calibre of students into planning: to date 92% of
recipients hold a first or upper-second undergraduate degree.
The RTPI obviously recommends that this should continue for as
long as possible[42].
5. We are aware that there is some concern
that around half of the bursary recipients proceed straight into
the private sector. In so far as (a) the bursary scheme increases
the overall pool, and (b) most new entrants understand that career
paths now frequently mean service in both public and private sectors,
we do not see grounds for panic. There is also strong anecdotal
evidence from planning schools, backed up now by the Academy for
Sustainable Communities' report Mind the Skills Gap[43],
that the private sector secures first choice by smarter, earlier
recruiting.
The availability of suitable training or developmental
courses which allow planners to acquire new skills
6. We think that this is probably the least
significant of the factors in the training problem.
7. There is a well-developed and competitive
market place for training, with courses provided by universities,
companies and professional bodies, not least the RTPI itself.
The RTPI seeks to provide a full range of training opportunities
throughout England and the devolved nations, including low-cost
events [see Annex B], making full use of its matrix of regions
and sectoral networks.
8. The market has shown that it can respond
to changing conditions. Web-based material is increasing. Planning
Matters, the on-line learning and support system sponsored by
the RTPI, is a good example of this, and has even achieved a (so
far modest) global market. Initiatives such as the RTPI's pilot
Collaborative Working Groups based on action learning models illustrate
a further broadening of the offer.
The resources of time and money to support in
service training, and the commitment of the employer to see that
staff do develop their professional and other skills
9. We believe this to be the single most
critical factor in the overall training problem, and particularly
serious in relation to local government. The best training in
the world has little chance of success if the intended beneficiaries
cannot access it.
10. We think the most obvious manifestation
of this is the lack of money made available by or to local authorities
to support an adequate programme of training as part of Continuing
Professional Development (CPD). Hard evidence for this is difficult
to acquireand worthy of proper investigation. What there
is suggests quite wide variations [see Annex C], but those at
a low level are apparently frequently at a desperately low level.
In these circumstances professional will be hard-pressed to maintain
current skill levels, let alone improve them.
11. Another very significant factor in the
problem, although even harder to substantiate evidentially, is
the lack of time available to professional staff in local authorities
to undertake training[44].
In many authorities particularly in the southern part of the country,
this is exacerbated by recruitment difficulties, or retention
difficulties in areas facing local government re-organisation[45].
A partial solution to this would be to ensure that local authorities
do not use scarce resources of professional staff to do administrative
work.
12. We believe that achieving an adequate
long-term solution to this problem requires that professional
development and training should be an integral part of performance
management regimes required by either the National Audit Office
or CLG itself.
13. RTPI seeks to encourage employers to
support training and professional development through its "Learning
Partners" programme, which kite-marks good employers who
make and maintain this commitment, which includes active discussion
between the employer and the individual about their development
needs. This new initiative (since 2007) has already been taken
up by several local authorities [see Annex D].
The commitment of the individual to developing
skills and knowledge
14. Individual commitment to developing
professional knowledge, and maintaining professional standards,
is evidenced only when the person is a member of a professional
body which, like the RTPI, has a mandatory CPD requirement. A
mandatory requirement does not necessarily mean being specific
about what the individual should study[46];
it does mean in the case of the RTPI that the individual is subject
to sanction for failing to provide proof of CPD work.
15. In times of shortages of qualified planners
(but not in all parts of the country) local authorities are understandably
diffident about insisting on full professional qualifications.
Nevertheless they could help themselves if they required any employee
who represented themselves as "eligible for RTPI [or other
professional] membership" to actually acquire it. A claimed
"eligibility" simply does not equate with the fact of
membership. This is even more the case now that the RTPI has introduced
its Assessment of Professional Competence, which requires individuals
to undertake structured Continuing Professional Development with
the assistance of a mentor before they can be admitted to Corporate
Membership.
RECENT CHANGES
TO THE
RANGE AND
DETAIL OF
KNOWLEDGE AND
SKILLS NEEDED
BY STAFF
WITHIN PLANNING
DEPARTMENTS
16. These are best grouped into three broad
categories:
a) The changing requirements of the planning
system.
b) The changing requirements around technical
skills.
c) Managerial and generic skills and competences.
Changing requirements of the planning system
17. The planning system has been in a state
of flux since 2004, and this continues, with legislative change
(the Planning Reform Bill, the Housing and Regeneration Bill and
ultimately the Sub National Review), policy changes (new planning
Policy Statements), and the legal case-work that emerges from
this. This is why "legal updates" are always amongst
the most popular training eventsin our most recent survey
60% of members identified this as an important area for their
CPD programmes. Staying "current" and not exposing the
local authority to legal challenge is a major concern for local
government planners.
18. We do think that both the Planning Inspectorate
(PINS) and Government Offices could potentially do more to support
the development of planners. For example, there is real nervousness
in many local authorities around the requirements of the "test
of soundness" which is a key element in the examination of
Local Development Frameworks. CLG intends to issue revised guidance
on this very shortly, which is welcome, but if PINS were simply
to produce an annual report specifically on the test of soundness,
using examples of cases upheld or rejected, then that would be
a very powerful and cost-effective learning tool.
Changing requirements for technical skills
19. A key point is that the field of spatial
planning is so wide that no individual could ever have all the
skills necessary to cover all facetsso being able to bring
in specialist knowledge from outside [eg for environmental work]
is an integral part of "capacity".
20. In general the areas of most rapid change
are around:
Environmental and climate change
issues.
Effective spatial planning practices,
which focus on integrated local strategies, including infrastructure
provisionas identified in a recent joint CLG, RTPI, Mayor
of London and Joseph Rowntree Fund project[47].
The effective practice in spatial planning initiative
covers a wide range of skills, reflecting its holistic and outcomes-focused
nature [see Annex E]. We believe that this goes to the heart of
what the sustainable communities agenda seeks to achieve. We intend
to promote it very actively to chief executives, elected members
and planners in local government, and hope to have some government
support to do so.
21. There is obviously some cross-over between
the areas of system change and technical change: for example,
if the Planning Bill introduces the proposed Community Infrastructure
Levy, that will undoubtedly create a new training requirement.
So would the Competition Commission's proposed `competition test'
for supermarkets, although it is not clear whether this would
be part of the planning system or a separate regulatory regime.
Managerial and generic skills and competences
22. Planning departments have complex functions,
and operate in an increasingly complex environment. Generic management
skills which enable them to handle work-flow and knowledge-flow
efficiently are thus a key part of the overall equation. As useful
initiatives like Multi Area Agreements become a more significant
part of their work, the demand for such skills will increase.
The RTPI's Collaborative Working Groups, which form part of the
Planners in the Workplace Programme, are designed to assist with
this through shared action learning.
THE MAIN
AREAS WHERE
A LACK
OF SKILLS
IS MOST
PRONOUNCED
23. Our most recent survey of members dates
to 2005.
24. Areas in which members express the greatest
need for training are not necessarily those where a lack of skills
is most pronounced. Evidence suggests that by virtue of entering
a specialist area, planners become more aware of the wide range
of knowledge and skill that could be acquired, and then wish to
develop their specialism. Nevertheless, the anecdotal evidence
suggests that the issues identified in paragraphs 27 and 29 below
are still the areas of greatest concern.
25. There is a distinction to be drawn also
between basic levels of "awareness" and specialist knowledge
and skill. This is particularly true of urban design: many planners
are anxious to develop skills of appreciation of urban design
issues; many fewer want or believe they have the aptitude to develop
actual urban design skills.
26. Urban design is of quite critical importance
in relation to the government's aspirations for housing delivery.
Encouraging or requiring volume house-builders to achieve high
standards of urban design remains one of the most intractable
problems in planning. Unless and until we can make real progress
here, together with the issue of delivering infrastructure, the
common public view that new development is more likely to be bad
than good will continue to frustrate housing programmes.
Planning-related knowledge and skills
27. Figures for areas of planning/technical
skill identified as areas for development[48]:
Urban design training (63%).
Sustainable development (68%).
Economic development (44%).
Transport planning (36%).
Climate change and environmental
planning (48%).
Regional/strategic spatial strategies
(42%).
Enforcement training (24%).
Minerals and waste planning (15%
and 18%).
28. Enforcement training now has a sponsor
in the RTPI's National Association for Planning Enforcement (NAPE).
This has been an unfashionable, but vital, area for skills development.
There is huge value in having a body such as NAPE to focus the
expertise of "users" on how to develop and deliver training
programmes. The RTPI's other networks (eg transport planning,
urban design, development management) increasingly fulfil this
role in their own areas[49].
Managerial and generic skills and competences
29. Leading topics here are:
Project management (65%).
Public speaking and presentation
(60%).
Leadership and motivation (59%).
Financial appraisal (55%).
Community engagement (54%).
Strategic thinking (52%).
Change management (51%).
30. These are relatively high-level management
and leadership skills: as such they are unlikely to be present
to any great extent in more junior professionals, but do point
up the need for management and leadership skills to be developed
in local authorities. With its focus on Management and Leadership
skills, the RTPI Planners in the Workplace Programme should also
be able to assist in this area.
31. Community engagement skills are increasingly
important as the true value of participatory democracy is recognised.
Not all planners can develop in-depth community engagement skills,
but all should have a proper level of awareness of what constitutes
effective community engagement. The RTPI's Planning Aid programme
is a very cost-effective means of making such skills and awareness
training available. The RTPI allows its members to count Planning
Aid work towards their CPD requirements in recognition of this.
THE SKILLS
NEEDED BY,
AND LEVEL
OF TRAINING
PROVIDED TO,
COUNCILLORS WHO
MAKE PLANNING
DECISIONS, INCLUDING
ON THE
PROPOSED LOCAL
MEMBER REVIEW
BODIES
32. The RTPI believes that all councillors
who are members of bodies which have powers of decision in planning
should be required to undertake some basic training in planning.
33. Training should cover the basic concepts
(eg land-use not land user), the policy and statutory framework,
key procedures which involve councillors, the probity dimension,
and enforcement. About three days is required initially plus at
least a day annually to maintain and develop skills and knowledge.
34. Beyond the basic, formal and refresher
training we believe that elected members develop their knowledge
best through a process of briefings and updates, and the opportunity
to share experiences. Many local councillors become very knowledgeable
about planning through long years of experience, and many seek
enthusiastically to develop their knowledge through membership
of the RTPI's Planners in Politics Network (PIPA) (now with approximately
225 members and growing rapidly) and the Elected Members School
of the annual Planning Summer School (which attracts about 400
delegates annually).
35. But the focus should not just be on
development control. There is an imperative need to help elected
members understand and embrace what can be done through effective
practices of spatial planning to help their communities achieve
the infrastructure, the quality of environment, the quality of
development and the services which they need (see paragraph 20).
36. As regards Local Member Review Bodies,
the RTPI advises against this idea strongly: appellate functions
should not be carried out by the body responsible for the first
decision. But if they are to be set up, then (a) the elected members
must have access to appropriate professional advicethey
cannot be subject to the jeopardy of dealing with appeals without
such advice; (b) that advice cannot come from the department which
made the original decision; so (c) it must either be provided
by the Inspectorate or by being bought in from outside. This will
inevitably be a less efficient, more costly and less well-regarded
arrangement than currently obtains.
THE ROLE
AND EFFECTIVENESS
OF AGENCIES
INVOLVED IN
MONITORING, DEVELOPING
AND PROVIDING
SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE
AND SKILLS
FOR PLANNING
OFFICIALS AND
COUNCILLORS, AND
THEIR RESPONSE
TO CHANGES
TO THE
DEMANDS PLACED
ON PLANNING
DEPARTMENTS
37. There is a plethora of such bodies nowthe
CLG itself, the Academy for Sustainable Communities, the Asset
Skills Council, the Commission for Architecture and the Built
Environment, the Local Government Association, the Planning Advisory
Service, Planning Summer School, Regional Centres of Excellence,
Regional Development Authorities, the Urban Design Alliance, various
planning schools and private sector bodiesand not least
the RTPI.
38. In these circumstances there is inevitably
some duplication of effort; and some reinventing of wheels. Co-ordination
of effort is difficult, not least because some of these bodies
perceive themselves to be in competition rather than in alliance.
Some conventions on sharing dataan "open method of
co-ordination"would be helpful.
39. Perhaps the single biggest problem,
although by its nature it is almost impossible to quantify, however,
has been the "target culture", which until now has equated
local authority performance in planning with a crude and incomplete
set of essentially input (not outcome) indicators.
40. When the 2004 Act was introduced Government
said correctly that "changing the culture" was as important
as revising the legislation. That change, to a culture focused
on how integrated and inclusive practices of spatial planning
can help make better places, has been achieved to only a very
limited extent: and a large part of the problem is within central
government itself, where planning is still seen primarily as a
"blueprint-regulatory" function rather than a collaborative
and creative activity focused on outcomes and delivery[50].
41. This is not helped at all by the confusion
around the role of the Government Offices in planningwhether
they are counsellors or constableswhich makes some of them
ineffective in either role.
42. This is a difficult area. There is and
should be scope for a plurality of approaches to developing skills.
Indeed the very last thing that we need is another new central
agency seeking to define its own unique authority and territory.
If more of the money which has been spent on institutions had
passed direct to training and education programmes, we should
probably have seen more results on the ground.
43. There is also a particular danger in
seeking to turn what may be quite acceptable as political shorthand
or rhetoricthe term "sustainable communities"
itself, for exampleinto functional training programmes.
In reality there are no special sustainable communities skills:
there is instead a vast range of knowledge and expertise, both
formal and informal, which can and does contribute to making better
places.
44. The real purchase in the term sustainable
communities lies not in the identification of a specific range
of skill-sets, although it is helpful to the extent that it encourages
thinking across disciplinary boundaries. It lies instead in a
focus on how communities can develop as much of a shared vision
as is possible (because there will always be some dissent) about
what that abstract notion means in practice in relation to their
circumstances, their needs, their resources and their responsibilities
to other or broader communities. The missing skills which this
calls for are to a very large extent leadership skills.
45. Because our present development standards
are ultimately unsustainable, we need to focus forwards: there
should be an integrated research programme involving all stakeholders
which analyses performance (real performance, ie outcomes) with
a view specifically to identifying areas of priority for innovation
in policy or practicein other words, to develop new skills
and expertise beyond those we currently have. This could be led
jointly by CLG and DEFRA; alternatively it could be led by the
Planning Education and Research Network which the RTPI is launching
this year.
46. From this analysis five recommendations
flow:
a) No new agencies, but a co-ordinated effort
to establish needs and deficiencies in local government though
shared survey and data analysis.
b) Open discussion about the implications
of such data, and likely future requirements, so that providers
can respond to the signals effectively and in good time.
c) As government develops new Planning Policy
Statements or other policy documents with implications for planning,
it should give explicit consideration to the likely training and
skills implications of the change, advised by its stakeholdersa
form of skills or training impact assessment.
d) A "top leaders" programme for
elected members and senior officials from both central and local
government to share experience and ideas about what it really
means to seek to deliver sustainable communities.
e) A joint research effort focused on identifying
new skills and expertise that we shall need in the future.
THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF GOVERNMENT
IN SUPPORTING
LOCAL AUTHORITIES
AS THEY
RESPOND TO
CHANGES IN
THE DEMANDS
PLACED ON
THEM
47. The change process is and will be continuous.
It is possible to anticipate some changes, as priorities shift:
an increasing urgency about reducing carbon and other emissions,
requiring better understanding of the requirements of carbon-neutral
development, the further development of techniques such as the
Merton Rule, the need to explore the potential of Live-Work quarters
or clusters to raise sustainability targets, the need to re-use
wherever possible rather than build new.
48. But the point is that central government
needs to have a long-term view on thisnot one which rises
and falls with three-year spending programmes. Defining the programmes
needed now is actually less important than defining how the capacity
to respond to continuous change will be developed and sustained
over the long-run.
49. There are three necessary elements to
this:
a) Central government needs to make it very
clear to local authorities that they have a duty to seek to ensure
that both elected members and professional officers are given
the resources of time and money necessary to develop their knowledge
and expertise.
b) If it wills the end, it must will the
means: central government must be clear about how this should
be financed.
c) The role of the Government Offices in
the regions needs to be clarified: if they have a support role,
then it needs to be articulated more clearly, and the planning
staff there need to be strengthened and up-skilled to fulfil that
role properly.
50. There are also some short-term initiatives
which the government or its agencies could take. PINS should have
a more overt role in education and skills. For example, and in
line with the proposal in paragraph 18 in relation to the test
of soundness, an annual report by PINS focusing specifically on
cases involving urban design and volume house-builders, setting
out where appeals were upheld and why, or not, would be another
very powerful learning tool for local authorities.
The long-term effectiveness of measures being
taken by local authorities and others to mitigate gaps in the
skills and knowledge within planning departments
51. A significant number of local authorities
have made very effective use of their allocations of Planning
Delivery Grant to recruit internally and place these staff on
part-time or other blended delivery planning education programmes.
By this means they bring on staff who are known to them, already
committed to local government and who can work while they learn.
52. It is not clear yet exactly how the
new Housing and Planning Delivery Grant will work. CLG has said
that " ... HPDG will be unringfenced and so can be used according
to local priorities," but nevertheless its clearly stated
purpose is " ... to incentivise increased housing delivery
and improved plan-making to address local needs. On that basis
our proposed allocation mechanism for consists of two elements,
one for housing delivery and one for planning."[51]
This seems likely to discourage the focus on long-term investment
in education and training, and that is regrettable.
53. There is overall no shortage of courses
offering skills-development to planners, or elected members. There
is a significant amount of capacity in some (not all) planning
schools to develop new courses to meet new demand. There is the
capacity to carry out the research to establish shifts in, and
likely new, demand, although it needs better co-ordination (see
paragraph 45).
54. Again, the single greatest problem is
on the demand side rather than the supply side. Local government
is either not a sufficiently willing or a sufficiently able customer
for continuing professional or other skills development. For this
there is a variety of reasons, ranging from shortage of resources
to recruit staff, inability to retain permanent staff, lack of
funds to support skills development or simply a set of priorities
which does not recognise the need to allocate resources to this.
55. So far from a programme of effective
long-term measures, the general picture is of a failure to meet
any more than the most immediate needs. There is no reason for
any general optimism unless and until we can change that.
Annex A
ACCREDITED QUALIFICATIONS AND STUDENT NUMBERS
ACCREDITED PLANNING
SCHOOLS
25 Planning Schools currently offer qualifications
accredited by the RTPI, and two Schools have provisional accreditation.
Accredited and provisionally accredited planning
schools are distributed in England (20 schools), Scotland (5),
Wales (1), Northern Ireland (1), the Irish Republic (2) and Hong
Kong (1).
2. ACCREDITED
QUALIFICATIONS
The following qualifications are accredited
by the RTPI:
38 undergraduate route qualifications.
This includes routes which are accredited as four year integrated
routes (or five years, including a placement year), and three
year qualifications which must be taken with a specialist Masters
degree (see below) in order to be fully accredited.
29 180 credit intensive Masters degrees
("combined" qualifications, so completion of this qualification
in one year full time or two years part-time allows the holder
to continue to Chartered Membership through the APC).
3 (including one provisional) 240 credit
Masters degrees (completed over two years full time).
5 postgraduate "spatial" qualifications
(must be completed with a "specialist" qualification
in order to hold a fully accredited route).
34 (including one provisional) postgraduate
"specialist" qualifications (must be completed with
a "specialist" qualification at either undergraduate
or postgraduate level in order to hold a fully accredited route).
3. NUMBER OF
STUDENTS (2006-07 ACADEMIC
YEAR)
Extracted from "Annual statistical returns
from planning schools: results for the 2006-07 academic year",
RTPI August 2007.[52]
Table 1
STUDENT ENTRY TO FIRST YEAR OF RTPI-ACCREDITED
COURSES IN THE 2006-07 ACADEMIC YEAR
| | |
| | | |
| | | |
Type of course | Number of
courses
| Full-time | Part-time
| Distance
| Other modes | Total
number
|
| | No
| % | No | %
| No | % | No
| % | |
| | |
| | | |
| | | |
Intensive one-year Masters | 17
| 405 | 50 | 405
| 50 | - | - |
2 | <1 | 812 |
Other combined Masters | 6 |
9 | 10 | 10 | 11
| 72 | 79 | - |
- | 91 |
Spatial/specialistMasters | 11
| 72 | 71 | 29 |
29 | - | - | -
| - | 101 |
All postgraduate courses | 34
| 486 | 48 | 444
| 44 | 72 | 7 |
2 | <1 | 1,004 |
Undergraduate courses | 21 |
500 | 97 | 18 |
3 | - | - | -
| - | 518 |
All courses | 55
| 986 | 65
| 462 | 30
| 72 | 5 |
2 | <1 |
1,522 |
| | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | |
| | | |
| | | |
Table 2
TOTAL ENROLMENT FOR ALL YEARS, INCLUDING YEAR 1, ON RTPI-ACCREDITED
COURSES IN THE 2006-07 ACADEMIC YEAR
| | |
| | | |
| | | |
Type of course | Number of
courses
| Full-time | Part-time
| Distance
| Other modes | Total
number
|
| | No
| % | No | %
| No | % | No
| % | |
| | |
| | | |
| | | |
Intensive one-year Masters | 17
| 422 | 33 | 843
| 66 | - | - |
18 | 1 | 1,283 |
Other combined Masters | 10 |
97 | 27 | 45 | 12
| 221 | 60 | 3 |
1 | 366 |
Spatial/specialistMasters | 11
| 72 | 53 | 56 |
42 | - | - | 7
| 5 | 135 |
All postgraduate courses | 38
| 591 | 33 | 944
| 53 | 221 | 12
| 28 | 2 | 1,784
|
Undergraduate courses | 28 |
1,633 | 94 | 105 |
6 | - | - | 2
| <1 | 1,741 |
All courses | 66
| 2,224 | 63
| 1,049 | 30
| 221 | 6
| 31 | 1 |
3,525 |
| | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | |
| | | |
| | | |
Annex B
RTPI CONFERENCE TOPICS OFFERED IN 2007
RTPI CONFERENCES MOST
POPULAR CONFERENCES
AND CLASSES
2007
Planning
|
Conference | Delegates
| Outings per year |
|
Planning Convention[53]
| 722 | 1 |
Planning law update | 248 |
2 |
Current issues in planning | 151
| 1 |
Design in the planning process | 128
| 1 |
Renewable energy | 127 |
1 |
Local Development Frameworks | 125
| 1 |
|
| |
|
Personal Management Skills
|
Course | Delegates
| Outings per year |
|
Negotiation skills | 99 |
4 |
Results focused time management | 55
| 4 |
Project management for everyone | 53
| 3 |
Introduction to management | 45
| 2 |
Effective report writing | 32
| 2 |
|
| |
|
Masterclass
|
Course | Delegates
| Outings per year |
|
Giving evidence at inquiries | 65
| 2 |
Making development happen | 59
| 2 |
Urban design | 48 | 3
|
Strategicc environmental assessments | 42
| 2 |
Local development frameworks | 38
| 2 |
Introduction to design appraisal | 34
| 2 |
|
(occurrence, where more than once, in brackets)
| |
| |
|
SELECTED TOPICSPLANNING
Affordable housing
Appeals and LDFs
Built environment conservation
Current approaches to open space
Design in the planning process
Development management
Economic development: The new PPS4
Engaging communities
Enforcement update
E-planning
From planning gain to infrastructure funding
Getting the best development on the site
Housing design
Housing pressures
Inner city renewal
Key planning issues 2008
Leisure and tourism
Local development frameworks
Mixed use developments
Planning and health in the community
Planning for climate change: implications of PPS26
Planning for the natural environment
Planning law update
Regional spatial strategies
Renewable energy
Retail and town centres (2)
Rural regeneration
Successful deliverysuccessful regeneration
Sustainable communitiesa tool kit
Transport
Underpinning sustainable communities
Understanding development finance
Understanding the design appraisal process
Urban design
Waste management
PERSONAL SKILLS
Effective report writing
Effective talent management
Introduction to management
Negotiation skills
Perfect presentations
Project management for everyone
Results focused time management
MASTERCLASSES
An introduction to design appraisal
Delivering good developments
Giving evidence at inquiries
Local development frameworks
Making development happen
Renewable energy
Strategic environmental assessments
Urban design: the art of making successful places
FREE AND
LOW COST
EVENTS FROM
RTPI REGIONS, NATIONS,
NETWORKS AND
EVENTS 2008
This a representative selection of events scheduled for 2008
which are provided either free or at low cost to respond to local
requirements.
Design and access statements
Life after decent homes
Planning law update
Planning performance agreements
Planning the South East's future
Working together to deliver housing targets
LDFswhere are we, and where are we heading?
Renewable energy and energy efficiencymaking it happen
Planning lawnew directions
Developments with development plans
Housing: modern.living or changing fashion?
The Scottish housing challenge: can planners deliver?
The historic environment
Regional spatial strategy
Planning and climate change
RTPI Networks Conference
Planning for housingthree million extra homes by 20207!
Planning and transport
Miscellany of planning law
Development Control
Development Management
AAP's in practice: study tour of Birmingham
Rural land use: debating the future
Economic development
Rural planning update
Planning administrators' workshop
Planning and climate change
Wales planning conference
1948 to 2008How far have we come and where are we
going?
Masterplanning in an. historic environment
Planning and economic development
Planning and sustainable design
Street planning design
Preparing to win planning inquiries
Tourismcan a tourist attraction really achieve `economic
renaissance'?
Development plans update 2008
Employment planning policy for the 21st century
LDFs and emerging best practice
Promoting sustainable transport
Planning law update 2008
Conservationdesign
Development management
Development control update
Making development happen
Retail planning
Brushing up on planning skills: preparing and giVing evidence
Spatial strategic planning
Annex C
TRAINING BUDGETS IN LOCAL AUTHORITIES
Information on budget expenditure per head of planning staff
is difficult to procure, not least because budgets are held in
very different ways across authorities.
A survey of twenty local authorities by RTPI and its agents
showed that:
Training budgets vary significantly, with a small
sample showing a range from £100-£500 per head per year.
Smaller district councils are unlikely to have
annual training budgets in excess of £5k for between 10 and
15 staff. Larger authorities, including unitaries and counties,
understandably generally have larger and more flexible budgets.
Practice varies whether training budgets also
cover sponsorship of initial professional education, or the payment
of subscriptions. Where these are included in training budgets
larger figures can mask a low spend on ongoing professional development
for mid-career planners.
In some authorities, the above costs and any "loyalty
payments" are allocated out of salary budgets, which therefore
supports the training budget.
Many LAs have drawn down on PDG into the training
budget, and now express concerns at how they will be able to continue
to deliver training following the demise of PDG.
Many LA planners have seen or are anticipating
significant cuts in their training budgets.
Undeniably, LAs are finding it difficult to recruit
at the level of experienced planners. It is therefore not at all
unusual to find two or three Chartered planners working alongside
and supporting five or six unqualified planners working towards
Chartered status and at various stages of their planning education.
This also puts pressure on the Chartered planners' time in terms
of undertaking their own CPD.
Annex E
SKILL REQUIREMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE PRACTICE IN SPATIAL PLANNING
Updating on the role and direction of public service reform
Collection and use of evidence
Visioning
Scenario building
Scoping
Modelling alternative outcomes
Evaluative methods
Decision and resolution techniques
Benefits realisation from IT systems for business processes,
monitoring and performance
Networking
Partnership working
Facilitation
Modern consultation techniques
Management of people and resources
Cultural change
Organisational sensitivity
Business process reengineering
Positive public sector strategy development skills
Programme management skills
Project management
Financial appraisal
Achieving successful community leadership
(Para 6.3.8 Developing new skillssome specific tools
and approaches)
40
The Royal Town Planning Committee is a charity which exists to
advance the science and art of spatial planning for the benefit
of the public. It has a professional membership of 20,000. It
operates the Planning Aid service in England. Back
41
ie, courses from which successful graduates can proceed via the
Assessment of Professional Competence direct to full corporate
membership [MRTPI] Back
42
For the academic year 2006-07, CLG paid a standard rate of student
fees (£3,168) and a stipend of £6,000 (£500 per
month living costs) for 136 post graduate students. Totalling
£9,168 per student. Since its inception CLG has funded 513
students at a cost of £4.8 million. Back
43
Page 5, point 7 Back
44
This is particularly problematic in relation to in-service training
to develop urban design skills, which is usually associated with
studio work. Using funding from the former DfES, RTPI has led
a programme to develop a programme which make maximum use of distance-learning
techniques. Back
45
Anecdotal evidence suggests that these pressures are also a significant
factor in the low morale attributed to many local authority planning
offices. Back
46
RTPI CPD policy is under review to consider whether there should
be some mandatory elements such as, for example, professional
ethics Back
47
Shaping and Delivering Tomorrow's Places: Effective Practices
in Spatial Planning UCL and Deloitte, 2007-see-http://www.rtpi.org.uk/item/281 Back
48
% figure equals % of planners surveyed who indicated each topic
as an area for development Back
49
see http://www.rtpi.org.uk/events<mv3>-<mv-3>awards<mv3>-<mv-3>and<mv3>-<mv-3>networking/networks<mv3>-<mv-3>and<mv3>-<mv-3>associations
for full list Back
50
CLG and RTPI have commissioned jointly a study into "Measuring
the Outcomes of Spatial Planning in England", which is due
to complete shortly. We hope that this will help to make that
shift. Back
51
Housing & Planning Delivery Grant (HPDG) Consultation on
allocation mechanism (CLG 2007)-para 10 and introduction to
Part B Back
52
This data is incomplete through failure of some schools to make
returns. It therefore represents an under-assessment of the full
picture. Back
53
Major event, with international and Ministerial speakers covering
wide range of topics Back
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